Building Briefs - June 30th

• Lochmaben businesses come together to support primary school

Pitched roof tile manufacturer Russell Roof Tiles worked with Lee Glover Roofing Contractors, Dumfries and Galloway Council and North West Roofing Supplies to provide a seamless roofing supply for Lochmaben Primary School – that is future proofed for years to come. 

The re-roofing project started March 2020 but stopped due to the pandemic. Work restarted in July 2020 to completion in September 2020.

Russell Roof Tiles is based on an 11-acre Halleaths site and recently unveiled a £1.7m capital investment programme for the tile plant.

The firm worked closely with Lochmaben-based Lee Glover Roofing Contractors to supply over 13,000 Grampian tiles in Peat Brown.

• Bridge of Allan Co-op approved

Plans for a new Bridge of Allan Co-op store have been unanimously approved by Stirling Council’s planning panel.

The retailer is to demolish the existing building on the corner site of Keir Street and Fountain Road, and replace it with a new two-storey one, flush with neighbouring Fountain Road buildings.

The panel unanimously approved the application, adding a condition that details of ground levels would be clarified. Planners said an advisory note that the applicant should engage with adjoining neighbours to ascertain the condition of the wall could also be attached.

• Coveted railway heritage award unveiled at Ballater Old Royal Station

A coveted railway heritage award was unveiled at Ballater Old Royal Station earlier this week.

The B-listed station - historically used by the Royal Family travelling by train to their home at nearby Balmoral Castle - was destroyed by fire in May 2015 and carefully rebuilt and restored by Aberdeenshire Council before reopening in August 2018.

Back in December 2019, the council received the prestigious South Eastern Commercial Restoration Award from HRH The Princess Royal, but the Covid pandemic delayed a formal unveiling of the commemorative plaque.

Judges who visited the station in the summer of 2019 said the £4.2 million reconstruction of the building was “most praiseworthy” and singled out the council’s determination to see the works completed to a high level.

The judges singled out the renovation of the Royal waiting room – now used as a private dining room – as a “jewel in the crown” and an “astonishing display of craftsmanship” which could easily have merited its own entry for an award.

Following the devastating blaze which ripped through the building in May 2015, officers quickly committed to the restoration of the structure, working with partners including Historic Environment Scotland and the Royal Household.