Building Briefs – March 23rd

• Barratt Homes donates £2,500 to local causes

NSPCC Scotland and Shining Stars ASN Theatre School have each received £1,000 from the Barratt Homes Community Fund and an additional £500 has been gifted to Ranfurly Care Home.

NSPCC Scotland will be using its £1,000 to help the organisation’s Childline base in Glasgow continue to operate and expand its call handling capabilities. Childline offers help and advice to children on a wide range of issues such as bullying and mental health.

Shining Stars ASN Theatre School is a theatre school for children, young people and adults with a wide range of additional support needs. The group will be using the £1,000 donation to help towards the lease of the hall the workshops are held in, as well as contribute to helping fund a new specially adapted minibus.

Silverline Care’s Ranfurly Care Home provides specialist medical, respite, dementia support and more to residents. It will be putting its £500 donation towards a fundraising pot for Dementia UK, which helps provide Admiral Nurses for families affected by the disease.

Now in its second year, the Barratt Homes Community Fund has pledged to donate £1,000 each month to a charity or organisation in the West of Scotland. Charities are nominated by and voted for by employees of Barratt Homes and the focus for the fund continues to be on organisations that improve the quality of life for those living in the area.

• CALA unveils virtual tour of show home at new Ayr development

CALA Homes (West) has unveiled a virtual tour of a stunning new show home situated at its prestigious Ayr development.

The video showcases the five-bedroom Garvie home type within its Florence Gardens development in Doonfoot.

The first CALA development in Ayr for a number of years will offer a collection of 62 four and five-bedroom homes.

• Major road improvement programme approved in Inverclyde

Inverclyde Council has approved plans for a £3.1 million road improvement programme to tackle potholes, improve pavements and make local streets safer.

The cash boost is part of Inverclyde Council’s five year, Roads Asset Management Programme (RAMP) and comes on top of last year’s £3.6m investment in local infrastructure.

The investment programme is targeted using: local knowledge of the road network, evidence of defects, the number of complaints received, accident statistics and liability claims.

• Improvement works underway at Milngavie reservoirs

Scottish Water is progressing with a £250,000 scheme to improve facilities at the Craigmaddie and Mugdock reservoirs in Milngavie.
As part of its commitment to improving the maintenance and heritage conservation of the reservoirs site, which is visited by 160,000 people per year, Scottish Water is carrying out work to deliver visual improvements to the site, such as the clearance of overgrown vegetation and removal of redundant signs and infrastructure.

The signage work completed so far includes the installation of a new sign in the car park next to Commissioners’ Cottage to be used by the Friends of the Milngavie Reservoir (FOMR) group beside the two reservoirs, which will feature information about the area.

The ‘Friends of Milngavie Reservoirs’ sign was provided by Scottish Water and Caledonia Water Alliance while it works for Scottish Water on the nearby £30 million Burncrooks water mains project to improve our service to 54,000 customers.
The reservoirs, which store water that comes from Loch Katrine via the Katrine Aqueduct to be treated at Milngavie Water Treatment Works (WTW) for about 700,000 people in Greater Glasgow, were built in the 19th century and are considered an outstanding example of Victorian engineering. The infrastructure around the reservoirs is Grade A-listed by Historic Environment Scotland.

• Udny Community Trust awarded £100k for community centre

The Udny Community Trust has been awarded £100,000 from the Scottish Land Fund to buy the disused Linsmohr Hotel with plans to convert it into a community centre.

The hotel will be turned into a community cafe, with space for toddler and youth clubs as well as health and wellbeing facilities.

The Udny Community Trust, which was established to help the communities of Udny and Pitmedden to grow, has long wanted to create the space to bring local families and visitors together.

The Linsmohr Hotel closed down last year after the economic climate made it very difficult or its previous owners to carry on trading.

The trust also plans to include space for community groups to hold activities and store equipment, together with office accommodation and self-catering facilities for visitors to the area.

A charging point for electric vehicles will also be installed.

• Information posters launched to improve fire safety in high-rise properties

Posters encouraging residents of high-rise properties to keep common areas clear of anything that could be a fire risk are being issued to building managers across the country.

The posters set out good practice and highlight the real impacts which fires in common areas can have. There is also a specific section for building owners and managers to include contact details for residents to report any fire risk issues.

A high-rise inventory has also been published for the first time, to establish a detailed picture of Scotland’s domestic high rise buildings, and help to ensure fire safety through identification of a building’s construction and fire safety characteristics.