Building Briefs – August 30th

Council’s house building programme continues with new Alyth homes

The latest new housing development built by Perth & Kinross Council was officially opened in Alyth yesterday.

Consisting of 11 new units, the development of three houses and eight flats in Springbank Road will provide much-needed affordable social housing for people in this area of Perth and Kinross.

The properties have been built by Perthshire-based Hadden Construction and were handed over to Perth & Kinross Council last week.

Housing and health convener Councillor Dave Doogan and council leader Councillor Ian Miller visited the development to view the newly-completed homes.

The development was funded in partnership by Perth & Kinross Council and the Scottish Government, as part of the council’s commitment to increase the supply of high-quality social housing in the area.

The council’s affordable house building programme has delivered around 200 new council homes in the last three years, with properties constructed in towns and settlements right across the region, including Methven, Scone, Alyth, Inchture, Blairgowrie, Auchterarder, Balbeggie, Rattray and Perth. Many more are in the pipeline.

The Alyth development consists of:

The three houses and eight flats all have gas central heating with a combi-boiler. The flats also have an eco-friendly and energy saving heating and ventilation recovery system installed.

All the windows and doors are double glazed and the houses and flats are insulated to current building standards. Solar panels have been installed on the roofs of the flats to help provide cheaper hot water for tenants.

Partick Interchange bus station revamp plans lodged

Austin-Smith:Lord has submitted a formal planning application to refurbish a bus station at Partick Interchange.

The proposal involves the addition of new stances, shelters and public realm on behalf of Glasgow City Council.

The work follows improvements made to Partick Station itself designed to improve interconnectivity between rail, subway and buses.

New £6m road opens gateway to Bishopton

Residents of Bishopton’s Dargavel Village development have improved transport links with the opening of a new £6 million link road.

Councillor Mike Holmes, depute leader of Renfrewshire Council, and Derek MacKay, MSP for Renfrewshire North and West, joined local residents at a ribbon cutting ceremony to mark the opening of Craigton Drive.

After almost 12 months of construction, the opening of the 1.45km road is a key milestone in the ongoing transformation of the former Royal Ordnance Factory site by BAE Systems into a thriving village centred around open, community spaces.

The road has been constructed by locally-based Raynesway Construction Limited. Over 320 workers were involved in the road’s construction with almost a third (29 per cent) living in Renfrewshire, supporting BAE Systems’ commitment to working with local suppliers and contractors.

Five hundred and ten homes are now occupied on Dargavel Village development and construction continues on the next phase of housing.

Upon completion, the Dargavel Village development will comprise of a range of housing, community and development facilities, improved road and motorway linkage and public open space around the existing village of Bishopton.

As part of the site’s remediation and construction process, BAE Systems aims to recycle and reuse materials where possible. Twenty thousand cubic metres of recycled crushed concrete and brick were used to construct the new road, and the finishing touches were added using 7,700 tonnes of tarmac and 175 litres of paint.

BAE Systems has also installed 26 ‘wildlife kerbs’ along the length of the road. These specially designed, animal-friendly kerbs allows wildlife, such as frogs, toads and small mammals, to navigate around the gullies without compromising on the road’s drainage.

Listed Perth hotel faces demolition

Perth & Kinross Council is considering a fresh application to demolish the C(S) listed Waverley Hotel on York Place and redevelopment of Trinity Church of the Nazarene to enable construction of a multi-use hall and gym.

Denholm Partnership Architects are seeking permission to demolish the hotel, which occupies a pair of villas and four storey tenement to the rear.

Revised Aberdeen student housing block plans submitted

McLaren Property has lodged revised plans to build a 121 bed student housing block at George Street in Aberdeen.

An initial bid for 133 studios was denied planning permission.

Yeoman McAllister Architects have reduced the block by a storey in height and introduced a green roof space whilst relocating plant internally.

As before the scheme will replace a current service yard and industrial building with a block plan that aims to tie-in with the existing grain of the street.

Continued improvement in Borders planning application decisions

Scottish Borders Council’s planning service has reported further improvements in respect of decision making on planning applications.

In its annual report to the Scottish Government, the local authority said it is performing better than the Scottish national average for major developments, householder developments, major housing applications, local business and industry applications and all other consents.

In addition to reduced decision making timescales, the Planning Performance Framework report also highlights the range of work undertaken by the service. This includes the preparation and adoption of the Local Development Plan and other planning guidance, running the Scottish Borders Design Awards, involvement with the ongoing flood protection schemes in Selkirk and Hawick and development of a Conservation Area Regeneration Scheme bid for Jedburgh.

The average time to decide planning applications fell in 2015/16, the council reported to the Scottish Government. This follows a reduction in 2014/15.

This includes a significant fall in the average time to decide major applications (eg windfarms and major housing developments), falling from 73.3 weeks in 13/14 to 30.9 weeks in 2014/15 and now to 27.6 weeks.

In addition, local non-householder developments and householder developments saw reductions in average decision-making timescales. The former reduced by over five weeks to 17.4 weeks and the latter fell from 7.7 weeks to 6.7 weeks in 2015/16.