Building Briefs – March 11th

Dunfermline’s new council houses ready to become homes

The first phase of 12 council houses at North Fod in Dunfermline is now complete and staff are looking forward to allocating them to tenants over the next few weeks.

The development of 49 new council houses at North Fod, off Pittsburgh Road, is being built in-house by Fife Council and with local contractors. It sits alongside private housing and is made up of 11 bungalows, 26 semi-detached houses and 12 cottage flats with communal parking areas.

The Fife Youth Job contract funding is a multi-million pound investment by Fife Council to help address youth unemployment locally. To date the council working with Opportunities Fife has help create over 600 jobs and apprenticeships.

This development at North Fod is part of the council’s wider affordable housing programme to increase the number of affordable homes for rent across Fife by delivering 2700 new homes by 2017.

The rest of the development will continue to be allocated in phases with completion expected in July.

New East Dunbartonshire primary school progresses

A new primary school for St Flannan’s and St Agatha’s primary schools is due to open on schedule next month East Dunbartonshire Council heard last week.

The new school is being built on the St Flannan’s site in Hillhead, Kirkintilloch.

The Stage 1 design phase is the next stage in the process and will translate the specific requirements of the new denominational Primary School brief into outline designs. These designs will include a site plan, building floor plans and a landscape framework.

Penwhirn Reservoir dam works complete

An £8m project to raise the height of a dam at a reservoir in Wigtownshire has been completed.

Back in 2010, concerns over stocks at the Penwhirn site prompted plans for a drought order, but the proposals were shelved after heavy rain.

Raising the height of the dam by 1.5m (about 5ft) has now increased the capacity by nearly 40 per cent.

Scottish Water hopes it will provide an “increasingly secure supply of drinking water” for communities in the area.

The Penwhirn reservoir serves much of Wigtownshire, including Stranraer, Leswalt, Portpatrick, Newton Stewart and Creetown.

MSP Alex Fergusson welcomed the investment which he said should ensure “a plentiful supply for many years to come”.

Thirty two new affordable properties for Aberdeen

Lord Provost George Adam has opened new landlord Stockethill Homes Limited’s first mid-market scheme at Castleton Lane, Aberdeen.

The scheme was built in partnership with Langstane Housing Association, the overall parent company for Next Step Homes and Stockethill.

Built on the site of a derelict church, the scheme provides an additional 32 spacious and well appointed 2-bed homes in the Stockethill area of Aberdeen. 14 of the homes are mid-market rent whilst the others are leased as social tenancies.

The Lord Provost George Adam, who is one of the local councillors representing Stockethill, welcomed the development and its provision of much needed affordable housing.

Those living at Castleton Lane are delighted with their new homes. Residents attending the official opening commented on how warm their homes are and how peaceful they are finding the area, especially given how close it is to a number of local amenities.

New investment takes charitable bond fund to £37m

A further £2 million is to be invested in charitable bonds to help boost the supply of affordable homes, housing minister Margaret Burgess confirmed yesterday.

The latest investment, which will be used by Castle Rock Edinvar Housing Association - part of the Places for People Group - to build over 30 affordable homes in Midlothian and East Lothian, comes on top of £10m invested in 2013-14, with a further £25m allocated for 2015-16.

The £37m charitable bond pot could allow housing associations to provide up to 600 affordable homes across Scotland.

Final stage of demolition of Strathclyde Regional Council HQ begins

The final phase of the demolition of the Strathclyde Regional Council HQ is now underway.

The remaining part of the building, on the corner of St Vincent Street and India Street, is being demolished brick by brick.

Demolition began on the site more than five years ago, after permission was given to replace the building with a new skyscraper in 2004.

Strathclyde Regional Council covered 19 districts, including the city of Glasgow, Dumbarton and Argyll and Bute, until it was abolished in 1996 to make way for unitary authorities, such as Glasgow City Council.

The regional council, which was in charge of education, social work, police, fire, sewage, strategic planning, roads and transport, employed almost 100,000 public servants.

The area was still used as a police force and fire area, which were covered by Strathclyde Police and Strathclyde Fire and Rescue Service, until both were replaced by national single services in 2013.

Plan to turn Fort William church into climbing centre

A former church in Fort William could be turned into a climbing centre if £40,000 can be raised by Wednesday.

Three Wise Monkeys Climbing, the business behind the project, plans to convert Macintosh Memorial Church near the town’s High Street.

It has already managed to raise £30,000 in 23 days through a crowdfunding appeal. However, the appeal reaches its deadline at 17:00 on Wednesday.

If the funding bid is successful, the centre will be opened in stages.

A bouldering wall would be created first, followed by a cafe, then a roped climbing wall and extra bouldering wall training room.

Glenkerie wind farm extension appeal lodged

Developers have lodged an appeal after councillors rejected plans for a six-turbine extension to a wind farm in the Scottish Borders.

Two community councils as well as walkers and hill-running groups had objected to proposals to expand the 11-turbine Glenkerie wind farm.

Planning officials had advised approval but councillors turned down the plans.

Developers have now taken the case to the Scottish government to seek to reverse that decision.

Renewable energy firm Infinis wants to add the turbines to the site near Tweedsmuir.

Officers on Scottish Borders Council said there were no planning reasons to refuse the project but councillors turned them down.

The final say will now lie with the Scottish Government.

£17m roads investment is paying off

Additional investment in roads resurfacing and pothole repairs is delivering improved performance.

That’s the conclusion of a report to Inverclyde Council’s Environment and Regeneration Committee this week.

It comes after the council agreed a three year budget which included £17m capital investment for carriageways, footways, street lighting and structures.

Now it’s been revealed that the percentage of outstanding potholes has improved by 68 per cent to December. Also, the council’s roads service has delivered across the board improvements in performance

Pot hole repairs fall into three categories and the council is reporting improvements across all three categories: Category 1 (24 hours) 8 per cent; Category 2 (5 days) 24 per cent and category 3 (28 days) 10 per cent improvement.