Grampian Fire and Rescue Service and Aberdeen College
Winners of the Herald Society Awards 2009
Collaboration of the Year

Grampian Fire and Rescue Service’s partnership with Aberdeen College won the Collaboration of the Year award at the Herald Society Awards in Glasgow on Wednesday night. ACFO Peter Murray attended with Joan Thorne of Aberdeen College and both were delighted when the announcement was made that they had triumphed out of the three short listed entries.

The Herald Society Awards are in their second year and over 230 entries were made to try and secure one of the awards in the 12 categories.

The collaboration allows local communities to use fire station facilities to teach a variety of College courses. Over 400 members of the communities have attended at one of the 5 locations (Ellon, Inverurie, Peterhead, Dyce and Banchory) who are currently part of the collaboration.

Such has been the success of the arrangement that two additional stations have been added to the group (Huntly and Insch) resulting in even more access to learning for the communities of the North East of Scotland in the future.

Special tribute is paid to the staff who have helped make this such a successful arrangement in particular the Watch Managers and staff who work from the stations involved in the initiative.

Peter Murray
Assistant Chief Fire Officer