Fitaloon at MicroShaft

Sad news that the Conservative PPC for Aberdeen South, Mark Jones has had to pull out of the race to be elected as one of the cities MP’s at the forthcoming election. The decision has been sadly forced on Mark because of family health issues.

Mark has been campaigning for a long time now in Aberdeen having been selected back in 2007, so this is bad news for the Conservatives who had an outstanding candidate.

I did hear this news last night but could get no confirmation of it from any sources.

The Press and Journal has this:

The Conservative candidate for Aberdeen South has pulled out of the race to win the seat at the general election.

A spokesman for the Tories confirmed last night that Mark Jones had stepped down because of family health reasons.

The news was greeted with “shock” by members of the 49-year-old’s campaign team, who have been fighting to seize the seat from Labour’s Anne Begg at the election, expected on May 6.

It is understood Mr Jones’s 78-year-old mother had been suffering from ill health for more than a year at the family’s home in Orkney.

A party spokesman said he expected that a replacement candidate would be selected this week.

“He has had to step down for family health reasons and he is in our thoughts,” he added.

“We will immediately move to select a successor. I would anticipate that would be done this week.

“The election is coming and the task is to get another candidate in place.”

It is understood Conservative members will meet in the city tomorrow to select a replacement.

Mr Jones had been preparing for the upcoming election for more than a year, bringing high-profile backers to the city to join his campaign, including Scottish Tory leader Annabel Goldie.

Labour Party members privately view the Tories as the main challenger to Ms Begg, who holds a 1,348 majority, although some analysts have predicted it could become a four-way fight between the main parties.

Aberdeen South is number 10 on the list of target seats for the Liberal Democrats, who were runners-up in 2005, and number 184 for the Conservatives.

Tory candidate pulls out of race for city seat at general election – Press & Journal.

BBC reports

Major travel problems are being experienced in Aberdeen as police deal with the discovery of a “suspicious package” near the city’s rail station.

The area was evacuated and trains to Aberdeen are terminating at Dyce and Stonehaven after the find by a member of public at Guild Street.

Bomb disposal experts have arrived at the scene.

Members of the public have been reporting serious travel problems to the BBC Scotland news website.

Update 12:30pm – Looks like this was a false alarm, you just can’t be too safe .

BBC News – Major disruption in Aberdeen over ‘package’.

Apparently Gordon Brown is also selling a large hole., unfortunately it is in our finances. It is believed that the IMF are looking into it.

Rubislaw Quarry is apparently for sale at the price of £30,000. You won’t get much apart from what is apparently Europe’s largest hole, some wildlife and it will require to be kept safe.  It is it’s history that is important. As the BBC says:

A famous quarry credited with giving Aberdeen its name of the Granite City is being sold on the open market for the first time in 150 years.

Rubislaw Quarry, believed to be the biggest man-made hole in Europe, closed in 1971.

The five-acre quarry is 466ft deep and 394ft wide and now full of water. Offers over £30,000 are being sought.

Possible uses suggested include using it for water sports, or draining it and using the quarry for climbing.

Rubislaw Quarry is in the heart of Aberdeen’s west end.

Interestingly Aberdeen Council sold it back in 1778 as they thought it wasn’t a good source of building material! Obviously their level of decision making hasn’t changed much in the last 200 odd years.

The quarry closed back in 1971, but I remember before this going to a rickety old viewing platform that hung out over the quarry, which seemed to consist of a couple of planks and some scaffolding, and being amazed at the size of the quarry and pinhead men who were working at the bottom.

Here is a link to some archive footage of the Quarry.

BBC News – Aberdeen’s ‘Granite City’ quarry goes on sale.

The BBC reports that up to 600 jobs could be shed at Aberdeen City Council.

The local authority needs to trim 5% off its budget in the next financial year, a total saving of £16.9m.A 90-day consultation is under way with the trade unions “on ways of minimising the impact of job cuts”. It was not immediately clear which posts would be lost. The council said it was a difficult economic climate. The council has a workforce of about 11,000.

This number of jobs lost in Aberdeen would obviously have a bad affect on the economy of the North-East. With the downturn in the Oil Business as well at the moment this could not come at worse moment.

Despite the huge impact this could have at the moment the main issue for Labour and SNP seems to be who is to blame. Sort it out and do the best you can given the state of the economy is my advice.

BBC NEWS | Scotland | North East/N Isles | Council could shed up to 600 jobs.

Aberdeen: Oil Capital of Europe and who knows perhaps of Renewable Energy

As a daily commuter from 30 miles away to the “Oil Capital of Europe” can I just say traffic was unaffected early this morning.

Great to see this event is still as popular as ever despite the recession but just a little worrying about the emphasis on renewable energy which whilst a good sideline at the moment may be still not the panacea it appears to many.

BBC NEWS | Scotland | North East/N Isles | Thousands set for Offshore Europe.