Building Briefs – April 11th

• Stewart & Shields completes housing improvements in Luss

The village, located at the gateway to the Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park, is famous for the TV series Take The High Road and is one of the busiest visitor destinations in Argyll.

The works were carried out by Helensburgh-based company Stewart & Shields Ltd and were completed in 10 weeks.

• Edinburgh summit to maximise economic benefits of offshore wind farm sector

Trade unions, offshore wind developers, supply chain companies and government will come together to look at maximising the offshore wind farm sector.

The Scottish Government and UK Government will host the Edinburgh summit to look at how UK companies can benefit more from the build-out of offshore wind farms in UK waters.

Finance secretary Derek Mackay will co-host the summit with UK energy minister Claire Perry.

The meeting will take place on May 2.

Summit invitees include Boskalis, DEME GeoSea, EDF Renewables, E.ON, Equinor, GE Renewable Energy, GMB, Innogy, Jan De Nul, MHI Vestas Offshore Wind, Moray East Renewables, Orsted, RWE, Scottish Power, SDIC Red Rock Power Ltd, Seway Heavy Lifting, Siemens Gamesa, SSE, Unite the Union, Van Oord and Vattenfall.

• Scottish Land Fund grants more than £500,000 for community ownership projects

A Highlands residents association is one of four community groups to receive financial support from the Scottish Land Fund to transfer ownership of local projects to the hands of local people.

Strathpeffer Residents Association has received £38,025 to purchase a four-acre site in Strathpeffer from Highland Council.

The Association aims to develop the overgrown site into a community park and amenity space with one dedicated play areas for toddlers and a second for under 12-year olds, with full disability access. There are also plans for a community orchard and for food growing facilities.

Announcement of the grants was made as minister, cabinet secretary for land reform, Roseanna Cunningham, visited the last remaining area of deciduous woodland in Fort Augustus, which last year was bought by the local community following an award of £202,000 from the Scottish Land Fund.

The largest of the latest round of grants was made to John O’Groats Mill Trust, which has received £348,064 to acquire the B-listed, disused John O’Groats Mill along with 9.5 acres of land and two self-catering holiday cottages. The Trust intends to restore the Mill to its former working condition and develop it as a visitor attraction and a social and heritage centre, creating a number of employment, volunteering, training, and skills development opportunities.

Connect Community Trust in the Wellhouse area of Easterhouse, Glasgow has received £114,732 to purchase the HubSports building, which they have been leasing from Glasgow City Council for more than a decade.

And The Glendale Trust on Skye has received £15,000 to purchase an area of foreshore currently owned and managed by the Crown Estate, along with a former croft. Ownership of these sites, which amount to four acres, will allow the community to manage the marine assets; to develop plans for improved facilities and to make improvements to the local environment.

• Land ownership survey seeks to improve community engagement

The Scottish Land Commission has launched a survey into how community engagement in decisions relating to land is currently undertaken in Scotland and wants to hear from anyone with control over the way land is used or managed.

The Commission is supporting  land owners, land managers and communities to work together to make better – and fairer – decisions about land use with the publication of its first Protocol on Community Engagement in Decisions Relating to Land.

Clear and open community engagement in decisions relating to land can bring benefits to all parties involved creating better opportunities to engage, understand and influence potential change and opportunities.

The Commission’s Protocol supports the Guidance on engaging communities in decisions relating to land, which was published by the Scottish Government in April last year.  As part of this work the Commission wants to review the effectiveness of the guidance by taking a snapshot of how community engagement is currently undertaken in Scotland.  This will be used to find out more about the current level and measure the effectiveness of community engagement by those who own or manage land.

In the survey, the Commission will also be looking to find out how many respondents are aware of the Scottish Government’s guidance as well as the Commission’s own Protocol for Community Engagement, which sets out general and specific expectations for owners and managers of land.

The survey will be open for responses until the end of May 2019.

• Cambuslang road improvements to start

Improvements to a road junction in Cambuslang will get underway next week.

The work will start on Monday 15 April at the junction of Westburn Road/Westburn Drive.

A new roundabout connecting Westburn Road, Westburn Drive and Westburn Farm Road will be constructed with associated lighting, drainage and carriageway construction taking place. A pedestrian crossing on Westburn Road near Lockhart Avenue/Northbank Street will also be created.

Works for the diversion of the public utilities apparatus will start on Westburn Road/Westburn Drive and will be carried out under lane closures and temporary traffic signals. The construction works will last for 28 weeks. The works are being carried out by Wills Bros Civil Engineering Ltd.