Building Briefs – January 30th

Pitlochry’s newest and most dramatic visitor centre opened its doors to the public for the first time today.

The Pitlochry Dam Visitor Centre is expected to welcome 88,000 visitors in its first year of opening, who will learn about the SSE’s historic role in bringing hydro electricity to the Highlands.

The free entry centre will showcase the great engineering feats of the hydro projects of the 1950s, the benefits to society of bringing power to the glens and the incredible story of how salmon navigate their way through SSE’s dams and fish ladders.

Thanks to its innovative design the visitor centre and 60 seat café appears to ‘hover’ off the ground, providing breath-taking views of the dam and River Tummel below.

Pitlochry Dam Visitor Centre will pay tribute to the achievements of the ‘Tunnel Tigers’ and hydro pioneers whose endeavour and foresight powered a green energy revolution.

The main exhibition space will use a range of technologies to tell the story of the great engineering projects carried out by early pioneers to bring electricity to the Scottish Highlands.

The exhibits in the new centre will also demonstrate how energy is harnessed from nature using wind and water and turned into electricity. In addition, visitors will discover the secrets of the annual journey made by salmon when they return to their native Perthshire rivers to spawn and the part played by our salmon ladder, which has been crossed by over 250,000 salmon since it was built in 1952.

Stirling primary school officially opens

St Ninians Primary in Stirling has been officially opened less than 18 months since the first sod was cut.

The school’s existing Victorian section has been retained and refurbished to provide a dedicated home for the nursery class, and a new two-storey building created to accommodate primary school pupils and staff.

Now a wide, flexible ‘school street’ will allow break out from classrooms for small group learning while more flexible dining, social and PE spaces will provide better facilities for larger whole school events including assemblies and school shows.

The £8.2 million development was funded jointly by Stirling Council and the national Scottish Schools for the Future programme, project managed by hub East Central Scotland and built by Robertson Construction Central.

St Ninians is the latest in a round of recent projects Stirling Council has spearheaded to improve the school estate, including the recent opening of the new St Margaret’s Primary School and Cowie Nursery earlier this year.

Pat Munro to start Highlands road improvement project

Contractor Pat Munro is to begin a road upgrade project in the Highlands.

The company will start carrying out drainage and road strengthening works to Swordale Road, Evanton on Monday, 30 January.

Features include resurfacing, extending passing places and ditching/drainage works.

The Strategic Timber Transport Scheme (STTS) is providing over 50% of the funding towards the project, which will facilitate timber extraction from the Swordale area over the next 10 years.

The project is expected to be completed in two weeks, depending on weather conditions.

Pair of North East residential surveyors promoted to partner at Shepherd

Shepherd Chartered Surveyors has promoted a pair of North East residential surveyors to partner.

Aberdeen-based Stuart Dunne and Peterhead-based Andrew Sykes are two of nine new partners appointed by Shepherd across its commercial and residential surveying departments.

Having joined the firm 12 years ago as a university student Dunne qualified as a Chartered Surveyor in 2008, becoming an associate in 2012 and, following his latest promotion, is now involved in running Shepherd’s Aberdeen residential office. He is involved in a wide range of valuations primarily for residential purposes, including Home Reports for properties being marketed for sale.

Having joined the firm 28 years ago, Sykes became an associate in 2006 and, following his latest promotion, now heads Shepherd’s Peterhead office where he is primarily involved in providing Home Reports for properties being marketed for sale.

In addition, following Shepherd’s recent merger with Hardies Property & Construction Consultants and a realignment of the business, Neil Moir, who headed up Hardies Aberdeen office, also joins the Aberdeen office as a partner.

Pier’s £23m upgrade for larger ferry

The Highland Council will have to spend £23 million on a pier because it is too small for a new publicly-funded ferry.

Transport Scotland is building the 335-feet long CalMac ferry for the Western Isles triangle route between Tarbert, on the Isle of Harris, Lochmaddy, on Uist, and Uig, on Skye.

It is due to begin sailings in the second half of next year.

But Highland Council say it is too big for the existing pier at Uig – which it owns – and will have to charge higher fees to get the money back.

A council spokesman said: “While the council will pay for the construction we will recoup the costs through harbour dues from Transport Scotland over an agreed timescale.

“The current estimate for the project is £23m, which also includes improvements to the passenger facilities and marshalling arrangements. We are aiming to deliver it in time for the new vessel.”

The ship is one of two new ferries in a contract worth £97m being built by Ferguson Marine Engineering Ltd.

£3.8m funding to deal with impact of flooding in the Borders

Scottish Borders Council will receive £3.8 million of special financial assistance from the Scottish Government to help deal with the damage caused by last year’s unprecedented storms.

The emergency funding through the Bellwin Scheme, will meet the majority of the costs incurred through storms which caused devastation in the area in December 2015 and January 2016.

The Bellwin Scheme is discretionary funding which exists to give special financial assistance to councils who face an undue financial burden as a result of large-scale emergencies.

This funding comes on top of the £2.39m that was allocated to Scottish Borders Council last year to help distribute funding to ensure that every household, business premises or charity directly affected by flood water received help.

Over 200 households and businesses received £1,500 grant payments, and 38 businesses received grants of £3,000.

Scottish Government funding is also being made available to the council to take forward a flood protection scheme in Hawick which was badly hit by flooding in December 2015.

Thousands benefit from funding for West Dunbartonshire community projects

Communities in West Dunbartonshire are set to benefit from more than £91,000 of funding after their projects received the backing of residents in their local community.

The grants from the first round of Community Budgeting are being used by community organisations to support initiatives including upgrading sporting facilities, installing floodlighting at sports pitches, upgrading community facilities, installing benches and delivering greenspace projects.

Organisations funded include Age Concern, Men’s Shed and Central Radnor Park Tenants and Residents Association in Clydebank, and Meadow United and Friends of Levengrove Park in Dumbarton.

Teachers to benefit from A9 Dualling programme

A new module launched today for teachers involved in the Scottish Government’s Academy9 educational initiative will help improve their professional development.

The module, which has been accredited under the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF) will help teachers involved in STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) subjects to help raise awareness about the A9 Dualling programme in the areas of engineering, ecology, geology and sustainability.

The tutors for the module will be staff currently working on the A9 Dualling programme.

A new Academy9 Glow blog which also went live today will feature extensive material on the A9 Dualling programme for use by both teachers and pupils.