Building Briefs – June 6th

• Melrose 3G sports pitch plans get approval

Scottish Borders Council gave its support to the project this week, meaning an all year round playing surface, which will provide a variety of community benefits to local sports clubs and schools, will be installed at the Greenyards this year.

Work is expected to get under way in July and the facility is due to open in November 2019.

The project – which is led by Scottish Borders Council and Melrose Rugby with support from Scottish Rugby – will now hold a drop-in session at the Greenyards on Tuesday 11 June at 6pm to 8pm to allow local people, sports clubs and community groups to look at the plans in more detail before work begins.

The pitch plans, which will include new floodlighting and a spectator walkway, are fully expected to result in a considerable increase in sports participation at all levels.

The facility will also assist Melrose Rugby with its aims of becoming more community focussed and sustaining its long term future.

The club has already carried out consultation with the community and stakeholders such as the Scottish Football Association, charity Live Borders, local schools, sports clubs and traders, who have been supportive of the 3G project.

• Edinburgh train station to be restored

A former train station in Edinburgh could be restored as the centrepiece of a waterfront regeneration nearly 80 years after closure.

The City of Edinburgh Council is pressing ahead with plans to regenerate Granton - which could include 4,000 new homes, services, retail and cultural offerings to be built over the next 15 years.

More than £1.7 million of Scottish Government funding will be used to bring the listed former Granton train station back into public use.

The building is a B-listed former rail station, which was built in 1903 to serve the former Granton gas works.

The station closed in 1942 and has been largely disused since. It is currently in poor condition and it’s not yet known what the station building could be used for.

• Oban High officially opened

Yesterday marked the official opening of Oban’s new £36 million high school.

Although pupils and staff moved into their new school last year, the old school building still had to be demolished and ground works still had to be carried out to create an external social space, a new bus drop off area and additional car parking.

With all works now complete, invited guests went along to the new school for the official opening ceremony and to get a tour of the state of the art facility from pupils.

Andrew Jack, pre-construction director for Morrison Construction, said: “Thank you to Oban High School and Argyll and Bute Council for inviting us back for today’s official opening.  It’s great to see the pupils and staff settling in so well to their new surroundings and how the new facilities are already having a beneficial impact on the educational experience.

“Morrison Construction places great importance in giving back to local communities. We are pleased that we could do this in Argyll by using local suppliers and helping to create new jobs and apprenticeship opportunities across the region.”

Michael Padzinski, chief executive of hub North Scotland Ltd, added: “The positive collaboration by everyone involved in the Oban High School project has not only delivered an inspiring building for the pupils and staff, but has also provided a 21st century facility which the whole community can enjoy.”

• Two-day closure required as Dirtpot Corner nears completion

A two-day closure of the A72 at Dirtpot Corner is required this month as the £2.2 million improvement scheme nears completion.

The closure of the Corner – situated between Innerleithen and Peebles – is needed to allow the road to be fully resurfaced and is scheduled to take place on Monday 24 and Tuesday 25 June, between 9am and 5pm each day.

This section of the A72 has seen a number of accidents in recent years but the improvement scheme will provide significant extra road width, a better road surface and modern road safety fencing and parapet.

After the closure, traffic lights will return to Dirtpot Corner for a short period of time to allow finishing works to be completed before it is fully reopened.

• Kirkintilloch kids ‘dig’ gardening at expert event

Children from Gartconner Primary School in Kirkintilloch were gifted an expert gardening session with a horticultural expert as part of National Children’s Gardening Week.

The primary one class were invited to the local Barratt Homes development, Braes of Yetts, where Simon Aston from Landscape Design Contracts taught the class about perennial plants, planting flowers, weeding and how to maintain a garden.

During the session the class planted flowers in the flowerbeds throughout the development, helped the landscaping team to weed the showhome area and were gifted a small potted plant to take home and plant in their own garden or communal area of their choice.