With Edinburgh Fringe Festival nearing in the rail bosses have failed to add any new late-night special train service for the festival, between Edinburgh and Glasgow. With the festivals on, it was much talked about to add any new trains, but the service between, Edinburgh and Glasgow remains the same as it was four years before.
Despite the surge in the number of revellers it would have been a huge increase to the sale of tickets, still no new trains have been put on track for the festival. With no new trains joining in, the revellers have to leave Edinburgh Waverly at Midnight Sunday. The call for late night trains has been there for long, but still nothing has been done on it, which leaves people with no other option than sticking to the present rail service.
Though, it was known that, Scot rail will be providing a new late night service for the Fringe festival, to cater to the crowds by the Sea festival in North Berwick leaving the town at 11:55pm from August 10th to 15th. Hope the revellers will be satisfied with the present train services for the fringe festival.
Scotland is about to get a major tourist attraction soon with the transformation of the home of ‘Sir Walter Scott‘, in the Borders. The ‘Abbotsford House’ will get a makeover with the grant of £4.8m by the Heritage lottery fund. This project has seen lot of support and appreciation from all corners, Lord Sanderson, chairman of Abbotsford Trust said that, this project will create a legacy for one of the Scotland’s important son.
Sir Walter Scott was a Scottish historical novelist and poet, he was also the first English language author to get an international career in his life.
It was learnt that a new visitor centre, learning suite and exhibition area will also be constructed along with other repair works. This project will be one of the major tourist attractions with Sir Walter Scott being the person who lifted the Scottish identity at the global platform with his literary works.
This project will also draw lot of revenue for the Scotland tourism board being a world class tourist attraction.
Tayside is once again in the news, this time it’s for a good reason, the annual report of the force has shown that the crime rate in Tayside has dropped significantly. The drop is expected to be 12.5 per cent, which is the lowest level in a decade. This plunge in crime rate has come as a good sign for Tayside followed with a drop in the violence and robbery cases.
This was possible only because of the efforts put on by the dedicated and hardworking police force, who all were working really hard to achieve this goal. Along with local policing the police officials continued monitoring the cross-border drug enforcement, murder enquiries, missing person enquiries and many other cases. Keen study was conducted in each and every aspect, to curb the rise in crime rates.
It was noticed that, an overall decrease of 12.5 per cent crimes were reported, along with a drop of over 2000 victims of such crimes in Tayside. Other than that, violent crimes like, robbery and racist crimes also showed a substantial drop in this period. Vehicle crimes too showed a fall, which in all means came as a great achievement by the police.
Justine Curran, the force’s Chief Constable, expressed his happiness with this feat by his team and felt really pleased by the way things have turned around for Tayside. The fewer crimes and violence with high quality of local policing has made the place safe to live in.
Kelvingrove Park, witnessed a sparkling display of acts, dance, musical treats this Sunday for the Scotland’s biggest multi-cultural festival -“Annual Glasgow Mela”. Being in its 20th successful year, this festival attracted a huge number of people, with crowd attendance crossing over 40,000 this time.
The festival highlighted, the tradition and culture of India by a mix of performances put up by various artists, singer JK who grabbed the award for the best newcomer at the 2010 Brit Asia Awards was also part of this years festivity. Apart from JK, Bangara legends too enthralled the crowd by their dazzling performances.
The main attraction of this Mela were the street theatre performances, real sand urban beach sports zone, food stalls from the east and many such attractions. The Mela showcased the earthly touch of the Indian soil far from the Indian sub-continent.
A recent study has revealed that unhealthy living is almost universal in Scotland with more and more health hazards reported. This shocking report came after a Scottish health survey conducted by the University of Glasgow, which suggested that, health of everyone in Scotland seems to be at risk. Above all, the most common disease which was found in most of the people of richer community was smoking, drinking, poor diet, physical inactivity and obesity.
This eye opener results shows that about 97 per cent of Scottish people are having one or the other risk factors (smoking, drinking, poor diet, obesity amd physical inactivity), meanwhile 55 per cent have three or more such and 20 per cent with four or more risk factors. Many doctors and health experts and researchers expressed that heavy alcohol consumption, smoking and poor diet is making life of Scots unhealthy with vulnerability to many health hazards . The health woes doesn’t ends here, further reports by analyst shows that obesity is also another health issue which Scots are facing with two-third of the Scottish people affected with it.
With the health standards dropping among Scots, its the need of the hour to bring in some concrete plan to keep a check on the prevailing health issues among people along with a need to change the living style, and adapting a healthy life. It is evident that Scotland has got a top rate for deaths caused due to heart ailments and alcohol, and if the prevailing lifestyle among Scots remains the same, then the health issue will get more worse.
Being a noted tourist destination, Scotland has always been a place to be visited anytime round the year. With Edinburgh, its capital city, Scotland remains a top pic among Filmmakers to shoot their films here. It has been seen that, Indian filmmakers have shown massive interest in filming their movies amidst the charming backdrop of Scotland. Home to a historic past and cultural mix, Scotland offers a perfect setting for all movie makers. Meanwhile, Edinburgh has been a top favourite place for many filmmakers. And this time the city was once again playing the backdrop of a Bollywood flick “Mausam”, staring Shahid Kapoor.
The shoot took place in the historic Grassmarket which offers the perfect backdrop of the historic market of Edinburgh. The production was delayed for few days due to the disruption of the volcanic ash disturbing the shoot. Scotland’s unspoilt charm and heritage has attracted many Indian directors to shoot for their movies here, with around 19 films have been shot in Scotland over the years.
Its really a positive sign for the Scottish tourism to witness such a drive among the filmmakers and tourists expressing their keen interest in the history and cultural heritage of Scotland. The castles, old town, historic monuments, townships and scenic outdoors continues to draw visitors from far stretch to this lovely place.
Have you ever fancied to go for that dream drive on the one of the most picturesque routes in Scotland? If yes, then get ready for a dream run on the ten-mile stretch of the A817 from Loch Lomond to Garelochhead which has been voted as the most scenic stretch in Scotland. This beautiful stretch which extends up through the Glen Fruin was recently voted the most scenic stretch in a poll of motorist conducted to find Britains best drives.
This pleasant stretch has been known for its splendid views, thanks to the Loch Lomond and The Trossach National Park which adds charm to the place. Meanwhile, last year A87 was voted the best stretch, but this new found stretch from Loch Lomond to Grelochhead is also among the top five UK’s best drives. Been built for transporting military supplies, today this spectacular stretch stands out to be one of the most idyllic and beautiful stretch of Scotland.
Driving on this stretch resembles as if you are riding on a rollercoaster, with the nature of the road rising 1000ft above Glen Fruin and dropping hundred of feet, driving on it remains special. Being the top favourite among riders and motorists, this beautiful stretch has always attracted many motorists to experience a memorable drive on this ten-mile road.
House price in Scotland has shown a drop with prices fell over 3.3% over the year, but it all came amidst a rose in the last quarter by 0.7%, said Lloyds TSB Scotland. It is felt that the sales was comparatively slow in the second month of the year with later a jump in the sale in March. If we look at the figures we can clearly find that, sale of houses were down by 19% which was far low than that of the previous quarter.
At large, it was Dundee and Aberdeen who showed a good recovery with decent rates, but Glasgow still remained down by 8%. All this showed that the price rate of the houses in Scotland has been volatile in the last quarter. Meanwhile, Prof. Donald MacRae, chief economist of Lloyds Banking Group Scotland said, “The level of mortgage availability including for first-time buyers has increased while the cost of borrowing remains low for many mortgage holders.
This trend in the fall of prices of the houses in Scotland has indicated a change in the mindset of the buyers and also raised a concern over the present trend. But it is seen that slowly the sale is picking up and it is felt that it will further improve with the months to come.
The second time Ash from the Iceland volcano is here and likely to force airport closures across Europe and parts of UK, which includes Scotland, Liverpool and Manchester. So this latest development follows more closure of airports and flight diversion on cards and it seems the summer vacation goers are likely to get hit.
Some Airports in the Northern Ireland and the Isle of Man have had to shut down. It is more likely to be decided on which way the wind blows, but it is expected that there will be more closure in Britain. This latest volcano ash comes in at a time when flights are grounded and striking employee. So economically this is going to hurt the flight companies and to those travelers who would like to have a break. The tourist industry too will face the wrath if the airport are closed.
Passengers are advised to confirm with their travel agents or airline company website before they plan to leave home for vacation or trip. Iceland airport was shut down on Friday which caught some passenger wondering. As said above tourist-centric business in Europe and in the UK will have to keep their fingers crossed as this could effect their business.
Scotland is about to lose over 1200 health staffs, including nursing and midwifery with the aforesaid cut in the number of medical staffs by NHS . This decision came as a shocker for all, and also raised a concern over the treatment and care of the patients. It was told that no compulsory redundancies will be done and the slash in jobs will be done through natural wastage. Though this job cut is seen as a risk factor for the patients but, NHS GGC says, this reduction in staffing reduction is part of the efforts to modernize and redesign our services.
Looking at the figures we can see that during 2009 and 2012 they have spent £350m on modernising the hospitals and providing new facilities,equipments and other services. This cut will even be bringing more fund to better the facilities and treatments but will also raise a question on the care of the patients.
Noman Provan, Associate director for the union for employment relation condemns this new policy and said, the decision which was announced triggers a fear and if implemented will put patients safety at risk. He further added that it is simply not possible to cut the number of nursing and other posts without the patients care and safety being affected.
Now it has to seen what will be the fate of the innocent patients by these cuts, and how will the hospitals will cope up with the rising needs of quality health and care of patients.