Building Briefs – February 1st

Association of Women in Property announces new national chairman

The Association of Women in Property has announced Brenda Jones, technical director at WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff as its national chairman for 2017/18.

With 26 years of experience in the property and construction industry, Brenda now leads WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff’s project management team in Scotland.

Brenda studied Social and Political Sciences and discovered her interest in construction whilst undertaking a Masters in Social Policy at the London School of Economics. She then worked in the social housing sector before training as a building surveyor.

Brenda worked as a building surveyor for a number of London boroughs, before moving into a project manager role and locating to Glasgow. Here she joined Atkins for five years, followed by Scottish Enterprise and then Heery, a specialist project and construction management consultancy.

Heery has since been through two major mergers and is now part of the global engineering professional services consultancy WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff, which will renamed WSP in May.

Self-build trend fuels Scottish plot sales

The appetite for self-build homes in Scotland is continuing to grow as more people are attracted to its lifestyle and costs benefits, according to property consultancy CKD Galbraith.

The firm has reported that certain regions are experiencing particularly high levels of demand from buyers looking for plots large enough for a single dwelling. The firm’s Elgin office has reported strong sales throughout the last year and has a number of plots still available across Moray.

Some particularly desirable areas of the country have seen plot prices steadily increase in response to the growing appetite and demand for good land in good locations. For example, the firm’s Aberdeen office is currently marketing two plots in Inchyra, on a highly desirable street in Aberdeen only a short distance from the city centre to the west, the exclusivity of such plots comes included in the price.

Other regions experiencing a growing demand for suitable blocks of land are the Scottish Borders and Dumfries & Galloway.

Dumfries and Galloway Council to discuss installing renewable technologies in schools

Dumfries and Galloway Council is to discuss installing renewable energy and power saving technologies in schools across the region.

The council’s energy and carbon policy includes equipping buildings with renewable energy technologies where appropriate. It is proposed the council pays to install and maintain new renewable and energy saving technologies, which will make a significant contribution to reducing CO2 emissions and costs, including Climate Change Levy (CCL) charges.

The Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 sets out stringent targets for reducing greenhouse gases, while the Scottish Government has set reduction targets of 42% by 2020 and 80% by 2050.

The planned projects aim to reduce costs for the council as well as helping to meet carbon emission reduction targets. New technologies include micro combined heat and power (CHP), LED lighting, biomass, and smart metering.

The Children, Young People and Lifelong Learning Committee will meet to debate the proposals on Friday.

Scottish Government launches fracking consultation

A consultation has been launched on unconventional oil and gas extraction (UOG).

A moratorium on the process, which includes hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” and coal bed methane extraction, has been in place since January 2015.

A dedicated website has now been created for the public during the duration of the consultation, which will run until 31 May.

The site contains information on unconventional oil and gas, as well as findings from commissioned research by the Scottish Government.

UOG means development connected to the onshore exploration, appraisal or production of coal bed methane or shale oil or shale gas using unconventional extraction techniques, including hydraulic fracturing.

Kirkwall flood defence scheme work to start

Andrew Sinclair Ltd is to begin a £1.75 million flood defence scheme in Kirkwall.

The local contractor will start building a 1.1m-high uninterrupted barrier between Ayre Mills and St Catherine’s Place roundabout from Monday.

The 10-month scheme, which is 80% funded by the Scottish Government, will help bolster low lying parts of central Kirkwall against storm surges.

Construction will first take place at Harbour Street opposite the Kirkwall Hotel. Works at the Kirkwall Basin will be taken forward in three phases; starting at the area east of the Corn Slip (opposite the Kirkwall Hotel), followed by the area west of the Corn Slip and then the Corn Slip itself.

Once works at the basin are complete, construction will move onto the remaining sections of new flood walling, eastward to Shore Street and west as far as Ayre Mills where the existing Ayre Road seawall will be raised and the rock armour crest level raised.

Overall, features of the project includes increasing existing wall and rock armour heights in places, the installation of permanent floodgates at major openings such as to piers and slipways, and removable barriers at smaller ones. The walls in front of the marina and basin will be faced in Orkney stone, with the top 0.45m portion being a panel of toughened glass.