SCOTLAND’S CHILDREN’S commissioner claims that touching children is “fundamental” to their development. Tam Baillie, has claimed that the “pendulum of safety has swung too far” as many professional carers and volunteers are scared to touch a child that is not related to them. The comments come ahead of a meeting of a panel of child [...]
SCOTTISH roads are set to become a lot clearer thanks to a new method of “keyhole” technology. Disruption caused to roads across the country is set to be minimised with the introduction of a new technique which enables workers to fix underground piping without digging up the entire road. Work that has previously taken days [...]
A cash-strapped Scottish council spent £17,500 to recruit a ‘Transformational Change Manager’ – who was then paid more than £70,000 a year. The “extraordinary” payment was part of almost £53,000 spent by Edinburgh Council on head-hunting fees in order to fill four management roles. Recent budget cuts at the council include reducing funding for dozens [...]
A LONDON opera boss has caused a storm after suggesting highlanders are seen as hairy, smelly savages. An opera based on Sir Walter Scott’s The Lady of the Lake opened at The Royal Opera House at the weekend to strong reviews. But comments from director John Fulljames about Scott’s views on highlanders have provoked outrage [...]
MORE than 5,000 elderly patients have been discharged from hospital in the middle of the night, shock new figures show. Records – obtained by the Scottish Liberal Democrats – revealed patients have left hospital care between the hours of 9pm and 9am. Around a third of these were over 80-years-old and it is understood that [...]
HEALTH chiefs have admitted several Scottish hospitals could face closure – because the buildings are too old to care for patients. Three NHS Lothian hospitals – Astley Ainslie, Corstorphine and Liberton – are under threat because they don’t provide the “optimal setting for patient care”. Officials said the closures don’t pose any threat as more [...]
A SCOTTISH paramedic faces charges he delayed the response to a 999 call by arguing with a dispatcher. Paramedic Edward Whiteside is also accused of using foul language while on the phone with the dispatcher about the same incident. Healthcare watchdogs the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) also allege he left a junior colleague [...]
EDINBURGH Zoo is offering visitors £70-a-time tickets to feed raw meat to the lions. The ‘Carnivore Magic Moment’ package gives Big Cat fans the chance to feed Asian lions Jayendra and Kamlesh by placing meat on a feeding pole and poking it through a double-mesh fence. It is hoped the 30-minute-long experience, will prove popular [...]
HEALTH chiefs have been accused of running a “luxury chauffeur” service after it emerged millions of pounds have been spent ferrying patients by private taxis. One Scottish health board – NHS Lanarkshire – spent nearly £1million in just five years on private taxi fares for patients. Many other cash-strapped boards lavished six-figure sums on taxis [...]
A woman’s car was sliced in half in a horrific fatal crash after it collided with a double-decker bus. The 24-year-old driver of a grey Volkswagon Passat died after the crash on Lasswade Road, Midlothian last night (thur). Witnesses said the front half of the woman’s car was thrown 15 metres away from the back [...]
“SELFISH” parents who cause traffic chaos when dropping off children outside a top private school should be fined, an angry councillor has demanded. Fife council has moved to deal with traffic chaos outside St Leonards School in St Andrews by introducing a one-way system and new double yellow lines. But councillor Maggie Taylor has argued [...]
A SCOTTISH council has outraged parents by planning to end the school week at Friday lunchtime in a bid to save cash. The radical shake-up by Fife Council would save around £6m a year by cutting 2.5 hours of teaching. But the proposal immediately drew fire from parents who face childcare chaos every Friday afternoon. [...]
A SCOTTISH historian has revealed that an incredible 150 names have been missed off the First World War memorial in his home town. Neil Anderson is now campaigning for the names of the forgotten soldiers from Bathgate, West Lothian, to be added in time for the next year’s centenary of the outbreak of the conflict. [...]
LONE female motorists are being warned to be on their guard amid fears a bogus traffic officer has struck again. Police in Fife are investigating a report that a man posing as a police officer pulled over a lone woman driver on Saturday. The disturbing incident, which saw the female being stopped on the A914 [...]
FOREIGN Secretary William Hague is presenting a petition to parliament calling for a Scottish doctor struck off in relation to Iraqi prisoner abuse to be reinstated. Dr Derek Keilloh, an Aberdeen University graduate who served as a medical officer in the Army, was barred from the profession in December last year. A Medical Practitioners Tribunal [...]
A TOURIST company has insured its cruise boat – against the Loch Ness Monster. Jacobite Cruises made the unusual insurance deal because they said they’d “look silly” if one of their three boats collided with Nessie and they weren’t covered. Freda Newton, owner of Jacobite Cruises said: “I don’t know what the odds of this [...]
A LANDSLIDE has shut a major road in southern Scotland – just three days after another A route collapsed nearby. A five-mile stretch of the A72 between Peebles and Innerleithen in the Scottish Borders was shut after the area was hit by the landslip on Thursday night. Motorists were forced to turn back after being [...]
ACCIDENT rates on one of Scotland’s most notorious roads are twice as high on two-lane sections as they are on dual carriageway. The revelation will pile pressure on the Scottish Government to complete the upgrading of the A1 between Edinburgh and the English border. Despite the horrifically high accident rate on the road, much of [...]
A SCOTTISH minister is complaining that his village cemetery has run out of space to bury the dead. Rev John Reid is upset that people who may have lived all their life in the Fife community of Kinghorn are having to be buried in neighbouring towns. And the determined churchman revealed he went undercover the [...]
A SNAKE tank fire in the borders left two men in hospital and killed two reptiles. The early morning blaze at Newcastleton yesterday (wed) is believed to have been caused by an electrical fault in the tank equipment. The tank was kept in the kitchen of a house in South Hermitage Street where flames damaged [...]