Building Briefs – February 4th

The on-going efforts to regenerate the Clyde Gateway area have received another boost from the decision by SPIE to bring more than 140 jobs to the area.

The company has become the first tenant at One Rutherglen Links, the £5m development built by Clyde Gateway on a formerly vacant and derelict site.

The four-storey Grade A office is one of only a handful of speculative builds of its type in the Glasgow city region in recent years and SPIE UK will be occupying the top two floors taking up over half of its 4,000 sq.m.of floor space.

Skanska UK hails positive year

Skanska UK’s construction and development businesses recorded a consolidated operating income of £38.4 million in 2015 on revenues of £1,430m.

This equates to an operating margin of 2.7 per cent.

During this period, £1,493m of orders were booked by Skanska UK.

Minister agrees to explore case for vacant land assessment

Land reform minister Aileen McLeod has agreed to investigate the options for bringing Scotland’s 11,000 hectares of vacant and derelict land into use for housebuilding.

The Scottish Greens had previously lodged amendments to the Land Reform Bill to include a requirement to bring the vacant and derelict land into the valuation system so it can be taxed, with the resulting revenue ring fenced for housebuilding. Analysis by the party had suggested that the move could yield around £300 million a year.

However during yesterday’s meeting of the rural affairs committee at Holyrood, Scottish Green MSP Patrick Harvie withdrew the amendment in light of the minister’s pledge to meet with Mr Harvie and Scottish Assessors to investigate the options for bringing such land into the valuation system.

Mr Harvie warned that he could still bring the amendment back at the final stage of the bill.

North Lanarkshire school refurbishment creates top class environment

A one year extension and refurbishment of Netherton Primary School in North Lanarkshire was completed.

The extensive improvement work, costing £1.9m, took place over two phases and has resulted in bright new facilities for children to learn.

The first stage saw the construction of a new admin wing containing a school office, meeting room and medical room.

Two classroom huts were then demolished at the rear of the school to allow new educational space to be created.

The extension includes four new classrooms, a multi-purpose room, new dining area and kitchen, additional toilets and store rooms; and it now means that pupils are now all learning together under the one roof.

Modern construction and design techniques including solar panels on the roof, sun-pipes in corridors - which increase natural daylight, and low-level windows - which control temperature and air flow, have been used throughout the refurbishment to promote natural light and ventilation.

And these features, along with improved insulation and high-spec windows, are intended to improve energy efficiency and future-proof the building for generations to come.

Local apprentices were employed on the project and school pupils were given presentations by the contractors and architect to ensure they were kept safe while work was taking place.

Plans to revamp UK’s “most inaccessible” cathedral

A bid has been launched to carry out a £500,000 revamp one of Dundee’s oldest buildings.

If successful, the application will see St Paul’s Cathedral on the High Street become fully accessible to the public.

The plans include revising the 160-year-old building’s steps and installing an LED lit railing, as well as constructing completely new disabled access consisting of service lifts and ramps.

Also included in the proposal is the installation of a glass structure within the existing archway’s entrance to the building.

‘World’s oldest golf pub’ saved from demolition

An historic former pub with close links to golf’s 19th century heyday has been saved from demolition.

Last orders were called at Mrs Forman’s bar in Musselburgh last year after the site was sold by Punch Taverns to an Edinburgh-based property firm.

Plans submitted to East Lothian Council in October sought to demolish the building to make way for new housing, prompting an outcry from golf historians.

Architects EMA Architecture and Design Limited have since withdrawn the original demolition plan. A new planning application is being considered by the local authority, which will retain the former pub but see it converted into a private house.