Aberdeen City Council
Aberdeen City Council represents the Aberdeen City council area of Scotland. The council area was created under the Local Government etc.. Act 1994. However, a sense of Aberdeen as a city, with its own city council, can be traced back to 1900, when the county of the city of Aberdeen was created. In 1975, under the Local Government Act 1973, counties of cities were abolished; the area of the former county of a city was combined with Bucksburn, Newhills, Old Machar and the Stoneywood areas of the county of Aberdeen, the Nigg area of the county of Kincardine, to form the Aberdeen district of the Grampian region. This district became the now existing unitary council area in 1996. On 9 May 1995, by resolution under section 23 of the Local Government Act 1973, the City of Aberdeen Council changed the name of the local government area of "City of Aberdeen" to "Aberdeen City". Between 2003 and 2007, the council was under the control of a Liberal Democrat and Conservative coalition, holding 23 of the 43 seats on the council.
Prior to the 2003 election, the council had been considered a Labour stronghold. Following the May 2007 election, contested for the first time using a system of proportional representation, the Liberal Democrats and Scottish National Party formed a coalition to run the council, holding 27 of the 43 seats. Two Liberal Democrat councillors became independents during this period due to personal controversies, while the Conservative group split in August 2010, with two councillors forming the Independent Alliance Group. After the May 2012 election, the control of the council shifted back to the Labour Party, supported in a coalition by three Conservative and three Independent councillors, giving the administration 23 seats; the Labour/Conservative/Independent coalition continued after the 2017 election, but with a change in the balance of power within the coalition. Labour were reduced to nine councillors, whilst the Conservatives had eleven councillors elected; these Conservative and suspended "Aberdeen Labour" councillors were joined in coalition by three Independent councillors, one of who had left the Liberal Democrats just days after the council election.
Aberdeen City Council comprises forty-five councillors, who represent the city's wards, is headed by the Lord Provost. The Council has Co-Leaders as a result of the coalition agreement. Douglas Lumsden and Jenny Laing are the current Co-Leaders. Political composition: Scottish National Party - 19 councillors Independent - 12 councillors Conservatives - 11 councillors Liberal Democrats - 3 councillorsChief Officials: Chief Executive - Angela Scott Director of Resources - Stephen Whyte Chief Officer - Governance - Fraser Bell Before May 2007, councillors represented 43 single-member wards election on a first-past-the-post basis. On 5 May 2007, the single transferable vote system was used for the first time and multi-member wards were introduced, each ward electing three or four councillors; the Local Government Boundary Commission for Scotland completed its final recommendations for new wards for all the council areas of Scotland. Aberdeen is divided into 13 multi-member wards; this system was introduced as a result of the Local Governance Act 2004, is designed to produce a form of proportional representation.
As of 4 May 2017, the current wards and representative numbers are: Note: The net gain/loss and percentage changes relate to the result of the previous Scottish local elections on 3 May 2007. This may differ from other published sources showing gain/loss relative to seats held at dissolution of Scotland's councils. Aberdeen City Council: official website
Scotland
Scotland is a country, part of the United Kingdom. Sharing a border with England to the southeast, Scotland is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, by the North Sea to the northeast and by the Irish Sea to the south. In addition to the mainland, situated on the northern third of the island of Great Britain, Scotland has over 790 islands, including the Northern Isles and the Hebrides; the Kingdom of Scotland emerged as an independent sovereign state in the Early Middle Ages and continued to exist until 1707. By inheritance in 1603, James VI, King of Scots, became King of England and King of Ireland, thus forming a personal union of the three kingdoms. Scotland subsequently entered into a political union with the Kingdom of England on 1 May 1707 to create the new Kingdom of Great Britain; the union created a new Parliament of Great Britain, which succeeded both the Parliament of Scotland and the Parliament of England. In 1801, the Kingdom of Great Britain and Kingdom of Ireland enacted a political union to create a United Kingdom.
The majority of Ireland subsequently seceded from the UK in 1922. Within Scotland, the monarchy of the United Kingdom has continued to use a variety of styles and other royal symbols of statehood specific to the pre-union Kingdom of Scotland; the legal system within Scotland has remained separate from those of England and Wales and Northern Ireland. The continued existence of legal, educational and other institutions distinct from those in the remainder of the UK have all contributed to the continuation of Scottish culture and national identity since the 1707 union with England; the Scottish Parliament, a unicameral legislature comprising 129 members, was established in 1999 and has authority over those areas of domestic policy which have been devolved by the United Kingdom Parliament. The head of the Scottish Government, the executive of the devolved legislature, is the First Minister of Scotland. Scotland is represented in the UK House of Commons by 59 MPs and in the European Parliament by 6 MEPs.
Scotland is a member of the British–Irish Council, sends five members of the Scottish Parliament to the British–Irish Parliamentary Assembly. Scotland is divided into councils. Glasgow City is the largest subdivision in Scotland in terms of population, with Highland being the largest in terms of area. "Scotland" comes from the Latin name for the Gaels. From the ninth century, the meaning of Scotia shifted to designate Gaelic Scotland and by the eleventh century the name was being used to refer to the core territory of the Kingdom of Alba in what is now east-central Scotland; the use of the words Scots and Scotland to encompass most of what is now Scotland became common in the Late Middle Ages, as the Kingdom of Alba expanded and came to encompass various peoples of diverse origins. Repeated glaciations, which covered the entire land mass of modern Scotland, destroyed any traces of human habitation that may have existed before the Mesolithic period, it is believed the first post-glacial groups of hunter-gatherers arrived in Scotland around 12,800 years ago, as the ice sheet retreated after the last glaciation.
At the time, Scotland was covered in forests, had more bog-land, the main form of transport was by water. These settlers began building the first known permanent houses on Scottish soil around 9,500 years ago, the first villages around 6,000 years ago; the well-preserved village of Skara Brae on the mainland of Orkney dates from this period. Neolithic habitation and ritual sites are common and well preserved in the Northern Isles and Western Isles, where a lack of trees led to most structures being built of local stone. Evidence of sophisticated pre-Christian belief systems is demonstrated by sites such as the Callanish Stones on Lewis and the Maes Howe on Orkney, which were built in the third millennium BCE; the first written reference to Scotland was in 320 BC by Greek sailor Pytheas, who called the northern tip of Britain "Orcas", the source of the name of the Orkney islands. During the first millennium BCE, the society changed to a chiefdom model, as consolidation of settlement led to the concentration of wealth and underground stores of surplus food.
The first Roman incursion into Scotland occurred in 79 AD. After the Roman victory, Roman forts were set along the Gask Ridge close to the Highland line, but by three years after the battle, the Roman armies had withdrawn to the Southern Uplands; the Romans erected Hadrian's Wall in northern England and the Limes Britannicus became the northern border of the Roman Empire. The Roman influence on the southern part of the country was considerable, they introduced Christianity to Scotland. Beginning in the sixth century, the area, now Scotland was divided into three areas: Pictland, a patchwork of small lordships in central Scotland; these societies were based on the family unit and had sharp divisions in wealth, although the vast majority were poor and worked full-time in subsistence agriculture. The Picts kept slaves through the ninth century. Gaelic influence over Pictland and Northumbria was facilitated by the large number of Gaelic-speaking clerics working as missionaries. Operating in the sixth ce
Scottish Fire and Rescue Service
The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service is the national fire and rescue service of Scotland. It was formed by the merger of eight regional fire services in the country on 1 April 2013, it thus became the largest fire brigade in the United Kingdom, surpassing the London Fire Brigade After a consultation, the Scottish Government confirmed on 8 September 2011 that a single fire and rescue service would be created in Scotland to replace the eight existing services. Following further consultation on the detailed operation of the service, the Police and Fire Reform Bill was published on 17 January 2012. After scrutiny and debate by the Scottish Parliament, the legislation was approved on 27 June 2012; the Bill duly received royal assent as the Police and Fire Reform Act 2012. This Act created Police Scotland in place of the previous eight regional police forces; the mergers were effective from 1 April 2013. Eight months after the consolidation, an internal report said the reorganisation had not negatively affected operational response.
The service is headquartered in Cambuslang, South Lanarkshire, which houses a national training centre opened in January 2013. There are a further three service delivery centres in the east and north of the country. On 16 August 2012 the Scottish Government confirmed the first chief fire officer of the new service would be Alasdair Hay acting chief fire officer of Tayside Fire and Rescue Service, following an open recruitment exercise. Pat Watters, former president of the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities, was announced as chair of the service, an appointment to run for three years from September 2012. Members of the SFRS Board appointed in October 2012 were Watters, Bob Benson, James Campbell, Kirsty Darwent, Marieke Dwarshuis, Michael Foxley, Robin Iffla, Bill McQueen, Sid Patten, Neil Pirie, Martin Togneri and Grant Thoms; the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service attended 25,002 fires in 2014/15. The service delivers a preventative programme, with 65,343 free home fire safety visits conducted in 2015/16.
As well as fighting fires, the service attends tens of thousands of specialist services such as road traffic collisions, water rescues and flooding incidents. In 2014/15 it attended 10,740 non-fire incidents; the service works alongside other emergency services during flooding events to ensure the safety of communities and rescue people in difficulty, with specialist swift water rescue teams positioned on major waterways and areas of activity. Firefighters are called out to water and boat rescues. For example, during Storm Frank in December 2015 the SFRS received 350 flood related calls in the space of six days. In 2015 the SFRS were called out to 78 wildfire incidents in total, with over half of those taking place in the north of Scotland. In 2015 a national trial was launched, in partnership with the Scottish Ambulance Service, which has seen firefighters at certain stations receive enhanced CPR training aimed at increasing survival rates for people who suffer out-of-hospital cardiac arrests.
As of March 2016, the SFRS operates 356 stations throughout Scotland. Stations are split into three categories: Wholetime: A station with full-time firefighters. Retained: Part-time, on a call-out basis and predominantly based in some of the more rural areas of Scotland. Volunteer: On a call-out basis and predominantly based in some of the more remote villages and islands; the most northerly station is Baltasound on the Shetland Islands. The most southerly is a volunteer station in the village of Drummore in Galloway; the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service National Training Centre opened in January 2013. The facility in Cambuslang features a mock town with realistic motorways, railway tracks and buildings, including a multi-storey tenement structure; the following services were merged to create the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service: Central Scotland Fire and Rescue Service and Galloway Fire and Rescue Service, Fife Fire and Rescue Service, Grampian Fire and Rescue Service and Islands Fire and Rescue Service and Borders Fire and Rescue Service, Strathclyde Fire and Rescue, Tayside Fire and Rescue Service.
The number of control rooms handling 999 calls was reduced from eight to three. The consolidation of regional call centres has resulted in a number of dispatching errors. For example, in December 2016 a crew from Raasay was mobilised to an incident on Skye – a journey that would have required taking their fire engine on a ferry – despite an alternative crew being able to reach Skye directly via a road bridge. On another occasion, a crew from Beauly was sent to a blaze 10 miles away in Dingwall as the dispatcher was unaware Dingwall had its own fire station, her Majesty's Fire Service Inspectorate for Scotland Mountain Rescue Committee of Scotland List of British firefighters killed in the line of duty Official website BBC news report, 29 March 2013: Why Grampian is losing its unusual white fire engines, other questions... Consultation document: Keeping Scotland Safe and Strong: A Consultation on Reforming Police and Fire and Rescue Services in Scotland Police and Fire Reform Bill
University of Aberdeen
The University of Aberdeen is a public research university in Aberdeen, Scotland. It is an ancient university founded in 1495 when William Elphinstone, Bishop of Aberdeen and Chancellor of Scotland, petitioned Pope Alexander VI on behalf of James IV, King of Scots to establish King's College, making it Scotland's third-oldest university and the fifth-oldest in the English-speaking world. Today, Aberdeen is ranked among the top 200 universities in the world and is ranked within the top 30 universities in the United Kingdom. In the 2019 Times Higher Education University Impact Rankings, Aberdeen was ranked 31st in the world for impact on society. Aberdeen was named the 2019 Scottish University of the Year by The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide; the university as it is comprised was formed in 1860 by a merger between King's College and Marischal College, a second university founded in 1593 as a Protestant alternative to the former. The university's iconic buildings act as symbols of wider Aberdeen Marischal College in the city centre and the crown steeple of King's College in Old Aberdeen.
There are two campuses. Although the original site of the university's foundation, most academic buildings apart from the King's College Chapel and Quadrangle were constructed in the 20th century during a period of significant expansion; the university's Foresterhill campus is next to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary and houses the School of Medicine and Dentistry as well as the School of Medical Sciences. Together these buildings comprise one of Europe's largest health campuses; the annual income of the institution for 2017–18 was £219.5 million of which £56.1 million was from research grants and contracts, with an expenditure of £226.8 million. Aberdeen has 13,500 students from undergraduate to doctoral level, including many international students. An abundant range of disciplines are taught at the university, with 650 undergraduate degree programmes offered in the 2012-13 academic year. Many important figures in the field of theology were educated at the university in its earlier history, giving rise to the Aberdeen doctors in the 17th century and prolific enlightenment philosopher Thomas Reid in the 18th.
Five Nobel laureates have since been associated with Aberdeen. The first university in Aberdeen, King's College, formally The University and King's College of Aberdeen, was founded in February 1495 by William Elphinstone, Bishop of Aberdeen, Chancellor of Scotland, a graduate of the University of Glasgow drafting a request on behalf of King James IV to Pope Alexander VI resulting in a Papal Bull being issued; the university, modelled on that of the University of Paris and intended principally as a law school, soon became the most famous and popular of the Scots seats of learning due to the prestige of Elphinstone and his friend, Hector Boece, the first principal. Despite this founding date, teaching did not start for another ten years, the University of Aberdeen celebrated 500 years of teaching and learning in 2005. Following the Scottish Reformation in 1560, King's College was purged of its Roman Catholic staff but in other respects was resistant to change. George Keith, the fifth Earl Marischal was a moderniser within the college and supportive of the reforming ideas of Peter Ramus.
In April 1593 he founded a second university in Marischal College. It is possible the founding of another college in nearby Fraserburgh by Sir Alexander Fraser, a business rival of Keith, was instrumental in its creation. Aberdeen was unusual at this time for having two universities in one city: as 20th-century University prospectuses observed, Aberdeen had the same number as existed in England at the time. Marischal College offered the Principal of King's College a role in selecting its academics, but this was refused - the first blow in a developing rivalry. Marischal College, in the commercial heart of the city, was quite different in outlook. For example, it was more integrated into the life of the city, such as allowing students to live outwith the College; the two rival colleges clashed, sometimes in court, but in brawls between students on the streets of Aberdeen. As the institutions put aside their differences, a process of attempted mergers began in the 17th century. During this time, both colleges made notable intellectual contributions to the Scottish Enlightenment.
Both colleges supported the Jacobite rebellion and following the defeat of the 1715 rising were purged by the authorities of their academics and officials. The nearest the two colleges had come to full union was as the "Caroline University of Aberdeen", a merger initiated by Charles I of Scotland in 1641. Following the civil conflicts of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, a more complete unification was attempted following the ratification of Parliament by Oliver Cromwell during the interregnum in 1654; this united university survived until the Restoration whereby all laws made during this period were rescinded by Charles II and the two colleges reverted to independent status. Charles I is still recognised as one of the university's founders, due to his part in creating the Caroline University and his benevolence towards King's College. Further unsuccessful suggestions for union were brought about throughout the 18th and early 19th centuries; the two universities in Aberdeen merged on 15 September 1860 in accord
Tillydrone
Tillydrone is an area of the city of Aberdeen, Scotland. Lying north of the city centre and north-west of Old Aberdeen, it is bounded by the River Don, St Machar Drive, the main Aberdeen-Inverness railway line; the name is a corruption of the Scottish Gaelic "Tulach Droighne", meaning a knoll with thorn trees growing on it. The name is somewhat older than the housing estate which comprises the area, it is colloquially referred to as Tilly. The housing estate was built as council housing and includes tower blocks and terraced tenement flats in addition to some low-rise terraced houses; as with most council housing stock in the UK, some of these properties have been purchased by their occupants. The proximity of the area to the University of Aberdeen results in some of the housing being rented to students. Tillydrone has a number of shops and businesses including a pharmacy, a post office and an award winning butcher shop. There are a school and care facilities for elderly people run by Aberdeen City Council.
There is a Church of Scotland parish church - Saint George's Tillydrone Church - and the church building is used for community meetings and by community groups such as the Girls' Brigade and Tillydrone Vision. The Scottish charity and Boys Eating and Exercise Disorders Service SC044378 is based in Aberdeen. Between the main part of Tillydrone and the River Don is an extensive area of open and wooded land, which leads into the city's Seaton Park. At the edge of this, alongside Tillydrone Road, is the Wallace Tower, a turreted townhouse typical of pre-Georgian Aberdeen architecture, moved stone by stone from its original city-centre location at the time of the construction of a Marks & Spencer shop next to the St. Nicholas Shopping Centre. An Aberdeen City Council "blueprint" has earmarked the area for extensive redevelopment along with five other areas within Aberdeen. A new bridge was constructed and opened in June 2016 over the River Don connecting the Tillydrone area with Bridge of Don. Map of Aberdeen showing Tillydrone centred at MultiMap
William Keith, 7th Earl Marischal
William Keith, 7th Earl Marischal was a Scottish nobleman and Covenanter. He was the eldest son of 6th Earl Marischal, he joined Montrose and twice seized Aberdeen in 1639, including a march with Montrose and 9000 men along the Causey Mounth past Muchalls Castle and through the Portlethen Moss to attack via the Bridge of Dee. He was appointed a Lord of the Articles after the pacification of Berwick-upon-Tweed, again seized Aberdeen and enforced signatures of the covenant in 1640; the 7th Earl Marischal was appointed a Privy Councillor in 1641. He attended covenanting committees in the north but remained inactive in 1643–44, he subsequently refused to give up fugitives to Montrose, was besieged at Dunnottar Castle in 1645. He joined Hamilton's expedition into England in 1648 and entertained Charles II at Dunnottar in 1650, he was arrested and imprisoned in the Tower of London until the Restoration, when he was appointed Keeper of the Privy Seal of Scotland. The Earl Marischal married, in 1637, Elizabeth Seton daughter of George Seton, 3rd Earl of Winton by his spouse Anne, daughter of Francis Hay, 9th Earl of Erroll.
They had the following issue: William, Lord Keith, died young. Mary, married firstly to Sir James Hope of Hopetoun in 1657, secondly to Sir Archibald Murray, 3rd Baronet of Blackbarony. Elizabeth, married in 1658, Robert Arbuthnot, 2nd Viscount Arbuthnot Jean, married in 1669, George Ogilvy, 3rd Lord Banff Cromwell's Act of Grace under which the earl's estates were confiscated by the Commonwealth
Emergency medical services in the United Kingdom
Emergency medical services in the United Kingdom provide emergency care to people with acute illness or injury and are predominantly provided free at the point of use by the four National Health Services of England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Emergency care including ambulance and emergency department treatment is free to everyone, regardless of immigration or visitor status; the NHS commissions most emergency medical services through the 14 NHS organisations with ambulance responsibility across the UK. As with other emergency services, the public access emergency medical services through one of the valid emergency telephone numbers. In addition to ambulance services provided by NHS organisations, there are some private and volunteer emergency medical services arrangements in place in the UK, the use of private or volunteer ambulances at public events or large private sites, as part of community provision of services such as community first responders. Air ambulance services in the UK are not part of the NHS and are funded through charitable donations.
Paramedics are seconded from a local NHS ambulance service, with the exception of Great North Air Ambulance Service who employ their own paramedics. Doctors are provided by their home hospital and spend no more than 40% of their time with an air ambulance service. Public ambulance services across the UK are required by law to respond to four types of requests for care, which are: Emergency calls Doctor's urgent admission requests High dependency and urgent inter-hospital transfers Major incidentsAmbulance trusts and services may undertake non-urgent patient transport services on a commercial arrangement with their local hospital trusts or health boards, or in some cases on directly funded government contracts, although these contracts are fulfilled by private and voluntary providers; the National Health Service Act 1946 gave county and borough councils a statutory responsibility to provide an emergency ambulance service, although they could contract a voluntary ambulance service to provide this, with many contracting the British Red Cross, St John Ambulance or another local provider.
The last St John Division, to be so contracted is reputed to have been at Whittlesey in Cambridgeshire, where the two-bay ambulance garage can still be seen at the branch headquarters. The Regional Ambulance Officers’ Committee reported in 1979 that “There was considerable local variation in the quality of the service provided in relation to vehicles and equipment. Most Services were administered by Local Authorities through their Medical Officer of Health and his Ambulance Officer, a few were under the aegis of the Fire Service, whilst others relied upon agency methods for the provision of part or all of their services.” The 142 existing ambulance services were transferred by the National Health Service Reorganisation Act 1973 from local authority to central government control in 1974, consolidated into 53 services under regional or area health authorities. This led to the formation of predominantly county based ambulance services, which merged up and changed responsibilities until 2006, when there were 31 NHS ambulance trusts in England.
The June 2005 report "Taking healthcare to the Patient", authored by Peter Bradley, Chief Executive of the London Ambulance Service, for the Department of Health led to the merging of the 31 trusts into 13 organisations in England, plus one organisation each in Wales and Northern Ireland. Following further changes as part of the NHS foundation trust pathway, this has further reduced to 10 ambulance service trusts in England, plus the Isle of Wight which has its own provision. Following the passage of the Health and Social Care Act 2012, commissioning of the ambulance services in each area passed from central government control into the hands of regional clinical commissioning groups; the commissioners in each region are responsible for contracting with a suitable organisation to provide ambulance services within their geographical territory. The primary provider for each area is held by a public NHS body, of which there are 11 in England, 1 each in the other three countries. In England there are now ten NHS ambulance trusts, as well as an ambulance service on the Isle of Wight, run directly by Isle of Wight NHS Trust, with boundaries following those of the former regional government offices.
The ten trusts are: East Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust London Ambulance Service NHS Trust North East Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust South Central Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust West Midlands Ambulance Service University NHS Foundation Trust Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS TrustThe English ambulance trusts are represented by the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives, with the Scottish and Northern Irish providers all associate members. On the 14 November 2018 West Midlands Ambulance Service became the UK's first university-ambulance trust; the service was operated before reorganisation in 1974 by the St Andrews’ Ambulance Association under contract to the Secretary of State for Scotland. The Scottish Ambulance Service is a Special Health Board that provides ambulance services throughout whole of Scotland, on behalf of the Health and Social Care Directorates of the Scottish Government.
Due to the remote nature of many areas of Scotland compared to the other Home Nations, the Scottish Ambulance Service has Britain's only publi
