Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Call for Grampian’s coronavirus heroes to be given Freedom of Aberdeen

Councillor Ian Yuill wants the city to confer Freedom of Aberdeen to NHS Grampian staff and volunteers working through the pandemic.
Councillor Ian Yuill wants the city to confer Freedom of Aberdeen to NHS Grampian staff and volunteers working through the pandemic.

North-east doctors, nurses and health workers could be given Aberdeen’s highest honour for their tireless work in the pandemic.

Calls are being made to confer all those working and volunteering for NHS Grampian with the freedom of the city, in recognition of their “work and commitment and exceptional performance” during the coronavirus crisis.

Echoing the mood of post-war Aberdeen, which awarded Second World War prime minister Sir Winston Churchill and the ranks of the Gordon Highlanders the honorary title, Liberal Democrat group leader on the city council, Ian Yuill, wants to show appreciation for the thousands of health workers on the front-line.

The health board’s full staff would join the exclusive list of recipients including Ballon d’Or-winning footballer Denis Law, comedy trio Scotland the What?, Sir Alex Ferguson and anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela.

But before councillors can vote on Mr Yuill’s plans, his motion calling for the historic honour to be bestowed on the region’s health heroes needs the backing of a majority of councillors – and he has been one short since May.

He told The P&J: “I am delighted 21 others have supported it and I want to say thank you to them.

“But I am obviously disappointed and sad that 22 others chose not to for whatever reason, though it’s not too late for them to do so.

“I would encourage my 22 colleagues to do that as this is not something to divide us.

“This should unite the council and the city in recognising the exceptional commitment and dedication of NHS Grampian, its staff and volunteers during the pandemic.”

Mr Yuill hopes the calls could be discussed at the next full council meeting, scheduled for March.

In June, the administration leaders had a motion, outlining plans to bring forward a “suitable costed event” to show the city’s gratitude to all involved in the Covid response, backed unanimously by the urgent business committee.

The event, under consideration by the lord provost, depute provost and city organisations, would recognise all NHS and emergency service workers, as well council and school staff, cleaners, caterers and carers.

Council co-leader Douglas Lumsden said: “This was mentioned before and we’re going to hold an event to mark and celebrate the effort of all frontline workers.

He added: “We are looking at what we can do in the coming year.

“Freedom of the city can be looked at in the fullness of time but we are not out at the end of this situation.

“Surely it would be much better to wait until the pandemic is over to think about how to celebrate those who have done so much good work to see us through it.”

But SNP group leader Alex Nicoll’s 19 councillors backed the grander Freedom of Aberdeen as the recognition due to the north-east’s health workers, and urged cross-party support.

He said: “These folk have done an absolutely fantastic job going above and beyond and the least the city can do is recognise them for all their hard work.

“They have gone above and beyond, putting themselves in danger every single day working very, very hard for all our benefit.

“The city turned out – certainly my street did – to be out in the street clapping for the NHS and the least we could do as a city is to show our gratitude in a positive way.”