Manifesto

Election 2011 Vote4Calum:-Manifesto

IntroductionVote 4 Calum is the campaign run by the candidate for West Aberdeenshire Calum Swanson. It is my intension to represent you at the Scottish Youth Parliament (SYP). It is my intension to lobby for the issues that affect you in the coming years

I am thrilled to representing you and I hope this document gives you an insight into my excitement in becoming your MSYP. This areas has its challenges and challenges I am happy to fight for the youth of West Aberdeenshire

Enjoy!

Calum Swanson West Aberdeenshire Candidate

Calum Swanson

Describe Your Candidate In Words

Vision Vote4Calum REPRESENTS West- Aberdeenshire's young people, and Calum’s VISION is of a stronger, more inclusive Scotland that empowers young people by truly involving them in the decision-making process.Calum encourage all of West- Aberdeenshire's young people to play their part in achieving our vision and allow you in be included in a democracy

Working towards Calum's aims, he promote the following values:

DEMOCRACY. INCLUSION. PASSION.

Constituency

The West Aberdeenshire constituency is one of the largest in the Aberdeenshire area and covers some of Aberdeenshire's biggest settlements. From the up and coming Westhill to the local small village of Blackburn. West Aberdeenshire represent all the different diversities in Scotland:-

Listed below are the main settlements in West- AberdeenshireAboyne Alford KintoreKemnay BanchoryHuntly Westhill Breamar Ballater Blackburn

Constituency-Representation Calum calculated how many people live in West- Aberdeenshire that are between secondary school age. This therefore shows how many people Calum Represents at school level. Calum took roughly 250 away form each to make it more accurate because S1&S2 are around 13.althought there may be some 14 year olds in S2

0500

100015002000250030003500

WesthillAcademy

BanchoryAcademy

K emnayAcademy

AboyneAcademy

AlfordAcademy

G ordensschool

Number O f P upils C alum Is R epresenting

Total Number O f P upils In West-Aberdeenshire Aged 14+

Total In S chool

Issue 1:-public Transport Transport is one of the biggest things the youth of west Aberdeenshire need and up-to-date transport links not only provide benefits for the environment but benefits for us the youth. I often hear complaints about public transport particularly form Kemnay to the city of Aberdeen. But it’s not just about bussing there are also other methods of transport that we can use such are:-

RailwayCycle routes

These method can be expensive for the youth and sometime means there just have to resort to the bus. Is there really enough being done to keep the rail network easy to afford. The use of cycle routes will enable the youth to keep active and not only stay green and cut their C02 emissions. It also stop Scotland growing culture of obese kids and youth. this then lead to a more active society and would cut the growing number of young people with diabetes

Issue 1-What's Currently being done ?

There are number of thing s being done in public transport. The first issue I want focus on is the bussing. Figure 1 shows the number of buses that run from each area. The diagram concludes Aboyne have the best network of buses. Huntly and Alford have a fairly bad network of bus services. The network runs fairly well with some places getting a service every 12 minutes some getting ever hour some even getting every 1 ½ . I believe that the council are trying there up most best to improve service Provided by there bus operators.

When I asked about around the constituency to see about what people thought of price. They thinkthat the prices are fairly ok . The north-east of scotland have some of the most expensive prices for bus tickets.

Figure 1:- number of buses that in each settlement


On the front of cycle routes there have been some small changes to the cycle routes idea. Westhill have recently had an upgrade of cycle routes with a multi million pound cycle route being made between Westhill and Aberdeen City . These are the main change to cycle routes in Aberdeenshire-West

The railway and rail network across Scotland is one of change and in West Aberdeenshire there are currently changes going on. At present there are no railway station in the constituency of West-Aberdeenshire. Although with the current news of Kintore Railway station possible opening again after a Scottish government review on the rail network across Scotland the diagram below show the timeline of the network in the Kintore and Kemnay area.

2009

The Scottish government produce report highlight the possible opening of Kintore

20101960 1970 1980 19901950 2000

1950

Kemnay railway station closes to passengers

1964

Kintore railway station closes

1966

Kemnay railway station closes to freight

2010/11

Government debate opening of station

What Am I Going To Do...If I 'am elected as your MSYP I will try my up most to campaign and support the any campaigns for the re opening of the Kintore railway station . I will Lobby the MSP for the local area to see if it is possible to reopen this.

The bussing in West-Aberdeenshire is of an ok quality and the frequency is better than it was in the past. The bit I still can’t understand is the bussing form Huntly they still have a rather poor service. Blackburn. Although I hear of problems ofbuses not turning up or buses just not being late that why I will continuemy contact with the Aberdeenshire transport unit and the communities to Address the issues of public transport.

These issue keep us all able to travel and fulfil our social and school life. This is wny wee need good quality public transport link

Issue 2:- better safety on school buses

In 2008 the north east of Scotland suffered 2 tragic accident involving school bus pupils from school in Aberdeenshire . As a bus pupil it is a passion of mine to see pupil that are safe on buses. As well as the bus driver themselves who are sometimes distracted by pupils behaviour .


There are around 2246 pupils in West Aberdeenshire that take transport to school. There have been moderate safety arrangements put in place witch have begun to take place. In September 2010 Aberdeenshire council introduced a seatbelt policy that involved all buses having to be fitted with seatbelts . This therefore involved the pupils having to be Responsible enough to wear the seatbelts. These seatbelts had to be lap straps and had to fitted on every school bus that was going to transport kid. Before this was introduced in 2009 stagecoach one of the biggest bus companies in Scotland sponsored torches and these were given to all bus pupils in Aberdeenshire so that pupils could be seen disembarking the bus. The later on in 2009 a hard hitting DVD was produced to show pupils the importance of bus safety.

Aberdeenshire council this year have produced afantastic bus safety booklet with rules for parents and pupils. This stated how pupils should behave when on a school bus.

584

414468

256

477

47

Aboyne Academy Alford Academy

Kemnay Academy Banchory Academy

Gordons School Westhill Academy

What Am I Going To Do...If I 'am elected as your MSYP I will try my up most best to campaign for the prevision of seatbelts made law across Scotland, this would therefore cut the possible chance of death if a bus was to crash with pupils on it. In October 2010 a stagecoach bus crashed on the way back from Mearns academy. It was stated at this time that the seatbelts saved the lives of the pupils as it stopped major injury.

One of the other things I would lobby for and campaign for the prevision of a law to stop cars overtaking school buses when dropping of kids. This would therefore require the prevision of the stop sign on the back of the buses. This is the same as what happens in America and in some stated in America it is illegal to pass a bus and can be fined. This would take a lot of campaign but and a issue I am happy to get throughthe Scottish youth parliament and see become law by using a public petition and campaigning.

The youth deserve to be safe and this pledge hoped to keep the youth in one piece when travelling to school. This pledge hopes to stop another tragedy and ruin the lives of families.

Issue 3:- leisure facilities Aberdeenshire west have very little Aberdeenshire council owned leisure facilities. Also I believe to keep us an active nation we should have cheap affordable leisure and sporting facilities. In West-Aberdeenshire there is no lack of swimming pools and gym type with faclities in:-

AboyneAlford BanchoryWesthillHuntly

There is possible a lack of good quality leisure facilities such as Youth cafes and community centres that provide other activities like the ones a sports centre does. These facilities are the heart of the community and stop the youth from committing minor disturbances in the community.


These leisure facilities are currently having to make cuts as are all business and services at this time of spending reviews. They are all trying to keep the needs of the community in mind especially the youth. These sporting facilities and community projects could not run with out dedicated volunteers.

In Kintore there is one project that i am very exited about this is the bothie project. This is to see a new community centre build. The youth have had a big say in this project and Was deigned around the youth need. This is an excellent way on allowing the youth to get involved in the life of the community.

I am aware there are many different project like this and these all allow us the community and the youth to get involved and become part of your community and feel we are contributing something to the area we live in

What Am I Going To Do...If I 'am elected as your MSYP I will try my best to keep our vital sporting facilities away from the axe line. All of the leisure facilities are having to cut there budgets and trim back on opening times it is important that our facilities are keep open. I would also like to see a sporting hub build somewhere in Aberdeenshire up Huntly way that is a bit like Aberdeen sports village that allows the youth to practise there specialised sports. As I have no immediate power this may be impossibleto make a reality. More easier to possibly fix is the upgrade of sporting facilities like changing room andpavilions that we the youth play are sports. There are many areas that have are require updates. I also am looking really quite forward to one of the most eagerlya waited project of the past few years and one the youth have had a lot of say and i hope they will continue to haveA say in the bothie project.

There will also be projects throughout West Aberdeenshire as the area continues to cater for the up and coming youth.As we start to see the youth of west Aberdeenshire prepare for the commonwealth games in 2014, there will also have to investment in vital training facilities to make our nations games

Issue 4:-rural life West Aberdeenshire has one of the most varied life styles with different classes of life everywhere you look from the rural farming community to the industrial members of the oil industry. These all play an important parts of the West Aberdeenshire community. I believe that there is a lot of the rural life being taken out of our local areas because big multiple building firm are ruin local villages.

For example

Issue 4:-What's Currently being done ?

There is really not very much being done to try and cut down the urban sprawls. so I will move onto what could possible be done?

What Am I Going To Do...There could be a range of different things being done to keep these villages fairly small for example the council could put a cap on these builders. This would therefore allow small local villages the time to

Issue 5:- 3rd level education In 2010 the news was dominated with stories of horrific sense in London after numerous day of action on the issue of student protests:-

One BBC reporter, Heather Sharp, talked to members of the protest, and learned that there were those who both wanted a peaceful protest and those that felt that a violent clash with the police would be necessary, whilst others commented on how they disliked the way that the media was characterising them; one commented that "I hate the way [the government and press] try and blame it on a small minority, everyone here is angry - it's not a small group of hardcore anarchists, it's just students who are very, very angry.“

I believe that no matter how much mow you have and what your family income is you should have sure right to an affordable education. This is one if my most important pledges to you he votes


There has not been very much done about this issue but what there has been is protests. in the autumn and early winter there were a series of days if action these were to try and convince the government to change it's policy. Although fuses days of action were based on engorged in late 2010 there were funded if tuition fees having tone atoned in Scotland because there is not enough funding

What Am I Going To Do...I will do a series of thing first if all I will back any campaigns led by pills at the school. The best thug I could do is to support any of the policy the SYP adopt. This would lead to a number of people Campaign for one action peacefully and democratically .

Issue 6:- CFE In Curriculum for Excellence is the national curriculum for Scottish Schools for learners from age 3 to 18. It was developed out of a 2002 consultation exercise – the 'National Debate on Education' – undertaken by the Scottish Executive on the state of school education. In response to the National Debate, Ministers established a Curriculum Review Group in November 2003 to identify the purposes of education for the 3 to 18 age range and determine the key principles to be applied in redesigning the curriculum. Its work resulted in the publication in November 2004 of the document A Curriculum for Excellence. This document identifies four key purposes of education that enable young people to become:

successful learnersconfident individualsresponsible citizenseffective contributors

Watch see what happen on this issue

Communication Listening to & talking to young people is our passion and Calum could not have done with out the many people who helped him with producing this manifesto.

www.wix.com/calum5a/vote4calum is the official website for Calum and his campaign. This website allow you to interact using different types of media. The website uses a modern platform and to access this website you have to use flash uploaded on your computer. This enables the best viewing experience for you.

Calum also uses wordpress this enable people who are unable to access his website the experience of reading about his a campaign on a different platform. Although Calum uses modern technology there is also a printed copy available of all campaign material all you need to do is email Calum (see More Information section >)

Want To Contact Calum The diagram below shows the different d way you can contact Calum, click the arrow to visit the source

With Thanks To.... Calum would like to thank.....

For More Information Contact

Calum Swanson by the following means

Email:[email protected]

Website www.wix.com/calum5a/vote4calum

For information on wordpress see Calum’s website

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.wix.com/calum5a/vote4calum

All Information Was Correct At Time Of Printing

This document is printed on 100% recycled Paper

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Manifesto