Building Briefs – December 20th

• Scottish Water launches green vehicle pilot in drive to reduce carbon footprint

A fully electric-powered Renault Kangoo ZE. 33 will be used by water samplers in the Highlands in an effort to fuel green energy benefits by not requiring its tank to be topped up at the petrol pump.

Equipment on board, needed to store water samples taken by members of the Scientific Services team, is also powered by roof-mounted 150 watt solar panels.

It means that the Scottish Water staff working around the clock to ensure the country’s water meets the highest quality standards are doing so at the same time as protecting the environment.

The trial of this vehicle, plus one other fully electric cargo van, is underway as part of a broader drive to accelerate Scottish Water’s contribution in support of the Scottish Governments target to reduce carbon emissions by 90% by 2050.

• Riverford Gardens developer raises £1,000 for Southside charity

The Glasgow-based housing developer behind Riverford Gardens has raised £1,000 for a local charity after taking part in the annual Christmas Jumper Day charity appeal.

The funds were raised for the Pollokshaws Area Network which provides a range of events and activities for the community of Pollokshaws and was raised by members of CCG Homes’ site team and its supply chain partners.

In addition, the CCG site team of Shawbridge Street, a 42-flat development being constructed for Loretto Housing Association, also supported the fundraising activity.

CCG Homes is a member of the CCG Group, one of Scotland’s largest construction and manufacturing companies, and have been on-site at Riverford Gardens since March 2018.

The private housing development comprises a range of luxury homes and apartments with prices starting from £177,000. The first homeowners are expected to move in early-2019.

• Ayr Railway Station emergency works nearing completion

Emergency works at the building adjacent to Ayr Railway Station are nearing completion, South Ayrshire Council has said.

Scaffolding surrounding the dangerous building is in place and work to encapsulate the roof and exterior is days away from being finished.

Some exterior netting has still to be added but once this has been actioned, the protective measures put in place to meet the Council’s statutory duties with regards to public safety will be complete.

As a result of this announcement, Scotrail Alliance has made the decision that as of 20th December 2018, they will run a full train service from Ayr Railway Station.

An exclusion zone is still in place as it’s still a dangerous building — the former ticket office area and some sections of the platforms still remain off-limits for public safety reasons but this is not affecting the rail service itself. There are no plans to remove the exclusion zone at present.

Work on the full structural survey had to stop for the scaffolding work to take place. This survey work will restart in January 2019 with a report expected to be provided in February 2019 – although this will be subject to safe access to complete the survey works.

• Ultrafast broadband reaches Orkney and Shetland housing developments

Housing developments in Orkney, Shetland and the Western Isles will be among the best connected in Scotland, with access to reliable ultrafast broadband.

Openreach is working with local developers to build full fibre networks direct to dozens of new homes in Gott on Shetland, Kirkwall on Orkney, Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis and Bowmore on Islay, as well as Lochgilphead and Oban on the Argyll and Bute mainland.

Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) offers greater capacity, more reliability and is capable of broadband speeds of up to 1Gbps – around 22 times faster than the current UK average of 46.2Mbps.

Engineers have installed around 5,900 metres of new core fibre cabling to reach the sites - enough to stretch across the Skye Bridge a dozen times. The new full fibre networks – installed by Openreach at no cost to the developers – build on the core fibre infrastructure put in place by the Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband project, led in the area by Highlands and Islands Enterprise.

The first premises to benefit are at Orkney Builders’ Grainbank development in Kirkwall on Orkney, where all 32 houses are now able to connect to ultrafast broadband, and 30 new houses and 16 flats at Gaet-a-Gott by Tingwall on Shetland, where the full-fibre network started to go live at the end of September.

The Shetland project alone involved the installation of more than 1,300 metres of cable along the main A970 between Lerwick and Sullom Voe to the site’s entrance. The new infrastructure will provide the same connectivity to the rest of the site which, when complete, will comprise around 80 new homes.

Twenty new houses in the new Sealladh development at Bowmore on Islay and four houses and 12 flats on the site of a former high school in Lochgilphead started to be connected to full-fibre in October, and full-fibre for 50 new premises at Sandwick by Stornoway will follow soon, with 1,275 metres of core fibre spine already in place to serve the site.

Meanwhile, the first FTTP at a building site in the Oban exchange area has gone live on the Glenshellach development, where 26 houses and 24 flats will be able to connect.

Openreach has been working closely with several local developers – including Kirkwall-based Orkney Builders Limited; E&H Building Contractors Ltd on Shetland; Lochgilphead-based Macleod Construction Ltd; and Calmax Construction on the Isle of Lewis – to make sure the future-proof, ultrafast infrastructure goes in with the bricks to enable smooth network delivery.

• Osprey breaks new ground in Monymusk

Osprey Housing has completed a deal to provide its first ever homes in Monymusk.

In partnership with a local developer the housing association is building five three-bed properties in the village, which represents another milestone in its highly successful development programme across Aberdeenshire and wider North East region.

The total cost of Osprey’s development is just short of £700,000 with £416,000 coming from Scottish Government grant.

The five terraced or semi detached properties are expected to prove very popular with families and are due to complete by March 2019.

• Primary pupils pave the way as tenants move into new Inverness homes

Artwork designed by pupils from Merkinch Primary School has been incorporated as part of the finishing touches to a £6 million plus project to create new homes in Inverness.  

The P1 and P4 pupils jumped at the chance to get creative and draw images of iconic landmarks around the city. Their designs have been etched onto a footpath leading from the new homes to a play area and onto their school.

The project at Glendoe to create 53 affordable rent, mid-market rent and low cost ownership homes at Merkinch Place is a partnership between the Highland Council, the Highland Housing Alliance (HHA), the Scottish Government and the Inverness and Highland City-Region Deal.

The land was previously the location of council social work offices. O’Brien Properties was awarded the contract and started on the site in May 2017.

Nineteen months later families are moving in. Ten properties are for Highland Housing Alliance (4 x 3 bed houses and 6 x 2 bed cottage flats) six properties are for LIFT (4 x 3 bed houses and 2 x 2 bed cottage flats) and 37 properties are for the council (30 x 1 bed flats, 5 x 3 bed houses, 1x 3 bed bungalow and 1 x 4 bed bungalow).

• Alzheimer Scotland and Macmillan thank DM Hall staff for £60,000 fundraising

 Two leading Scottish charities, Alzheimer Scotland and Macmillan Cancer Support, have hailed the 230 partners and staff at chartered surveyors DM Hall for their fundraising efforts over the past two years which secured a total of £60,000 for their vital work.

Claire Du Preez, corporate fundraiser manager for Alzheimer Scotland, said: “We are very grateful to DM Hall for all their fundraising efforts over the last two years including the organising of the Summer Ball earlier this year at Prestonfield House, which helped to raise an enormous sum. All money raised directly by the partnership enables us to continue provide and expand vital community support and ensure that no one anywhere in Scotland faces dementia on their own.”

The Summer Ball was the highlight of DM Hall’s 2018 corporate social responsibility calendar, which also saw charitable initiatives over the last two years as well as comedy nights in Scotland’s cities.

Praise for DM Hall’s efforts was echoed by Laura Foreman, regional fundraising manger for Macmillan Cancer Support, who said “We are delighted by the sum raised over the past two years by DM Hall and would like to record our sincere thanks. The money raised will help up support more people living with cancer in the local community.”

• Pupil’s card design a Christmas cracker

A crafty pupil from West Barns Primary School near Dunbar has seen her festive design transformed into Christmas cards, thanks to CALA Homes (East).

The housebuilder crowned seven-year-old Gracie Lowen Swan the winner of their festive competition, with her snowy Christmas design hugely impressing the developer’s sales team.

Featuring stockings, a Christmas tree and even a festive robin, packs of the cards have been given to the school to distribute, while residents at CALA’s nearby Castle Bay development will also see the design posted through their letterboxes.

While Gracie received the top prize of a voucher and the published cards, all of the Primary 3/4 pupils that submitted ideas were presented with selection boxes for their hard work and creativity.