Building Briefs – March 14th

Capital move for Graham + Sibbald as surveyor eyes further growth

Chartered surveyor and property specialist Graham + Sibbald has relocated its Edinburgh office from Manor Place to 40 Torphichen Street, one of the city’s most modernised office developments in the regenerated Haymarket area of the capital.

The firm experienced an unprecedented level of activity in 2017 on the back of a new business rates system in Scotland and is actively advising hundreds of business owners across the country in relation to ongoing appeals.

Tim Bunker, one of the industry’s top rating specialists, joined from Ryden last March, Katherine Monro moved to the Aberdeen office from Knight Frank last month and Graham + Sibbald expects to add further people to the team in 2018 as the chartered surveyor targets a top spot in the sector.

In its latest hire, Graham + Sibbald has appointed Tom Templeman as head of building surveying for the East of Scotland. Joining from Faithful + Gould and having previously spent a decade at DTZ (now Cushman & Wakefield), Templeman’s remit includes Edinburgh, Dundee, Fife and Aberdeen and will focus on strategic advice across a broad range of property types.

Having previously worked at Graham + Sibbald as a building surveyor between 1998 and 2002, he brings extensive commercial and public sector experience gained across the UK advising lenders, funds and investors around the surveying of buildings and assets including corporate headquarters, offices, hotels, shopping centres and retail parks.

Councillors agree to progress new Lossiemouth High build

Moray councillors have agreed to progress building of the new Lossiemouth High School.

Costs for the project had escalated due to the challenges presented by the build, including difficult ground conditions. However officers have been working to redesign elements of the school and, as agreed by councillors, the total extra cost to the council will now be £1.3 million.

Changes to the design have been made, but without compromising on classroom sizes or community facilities. Moray Council, with funding from the Scottish Futures Trust, remains committed to completing the build by June 2020 to include a new secondary school, community centre, library, 3G pitch and swimming pool.

St Mirren stars immortalised at Sanctuary Scotland development

The names of the former St Mirren stars to have a street named in their honour in new housing on the site of the club’s old Love Street ground have now been revealed.

Renfrewshire Council ran the #SaintsStreets competition which gave supporters the chance to name five streets at the new affordable housing development.

Work is already underway on the £17 million project being delivered by Sanctuary Scotland, in partnership with Renfrewshire Council and the Scottish Government, to transform the site into 132 new affordable homes.

St Mirren-related suggestions came flooding in with 1000 whittled down by a judging panel into a final shortlist which went to the public vote earlier this month.

More than 6,000 votes were cast during the week-long poll before the following five names emerged as the winners:

These five streets add to two already named ‘North Bank’ and ‘Cairter’s Corner’ after well-known sections of the old ground they sit on the locations of.

Sanctuary Scotland has also confirmed it will name the children’s play area at the new housing development after the club’s mascot Paisley Panda.

Fresh attempt to demolish former Dundee pub

New plans to finally demolish a former pub to make way for housing have been submitted to Dundee City Council.

The long-closed Jimmy Shand in Dickson Avenue, Menzieshill, is the subject of another application by MCD Construction Consultancy on behalf of Neil Findlay and Punch Taverns.

The new plans, if approved, will see the Shand demolished and six semi-detached houses constructed in its place. It is the latest in a series of attempts to finally develop the derelict pub, which closed in 2011.

CALA Homes donates defibrillator to East Lothian community

CALA Homes has donated a much-needed defibrillator for an East Lothian village.

Malcolm Miller decided to try and source a defibrillator for his local West Barns community after his mum, Mary, passed away as a result of heart issues aged 64.

The 29-year-old, who works as a project manager for an engineering company, initially decided that he would undertake a number of fundraising challenges in order to raise money to buy the life-saving device.

However, he also decided to send emails to a number of businesses to ask for their support and was stunned when CALA Homes responded to say it would step in to donate the life-saving equipment.

A defibrillator delivers a dose of electric current to the heart in order to try and shock the heart to stop so that it can start rhythmically pumping naturally again.

The device was ordered and delivered to CALA’s Castle Bay development, in Belhaven near Dunbar, where a delighted Malcolm was able to collect it.

It will now be placed within West Barns village to provide emergency treatment to anyone who take ill with heart problems in the town.

Clark Contracts builds donations for local foodbanks

Staff at construction, refurbishment and maintenance company Clark Contracts have held their third annual foodbank collection for The Trussell Trust.

The three week drive saw collection points set up at the company’s offices in Paisley and Edinburgh and over 30 building sites in Scotland.

Clark Contracts has previously held foodbank collections in December 2015 and 2016, donating over 1,000kg of food, but made the decision to move the collection to January this year following feedback from The Trussell Trust who advised that January and February continue to be one of the busiest periods of the year yet they receive fewer donations than in December.

The donations collected at Clark Contracts’ head office in Paisley were delivered to Renfrewshire Foodbank’s warehouse in Renfrew, whilst food collected in the company’s Edinburgh office and on sites across the country were delivered to local foodbanks.

Scottish Urban Students Forum event to discuss future of urban planning and the built environment

The Urban Society of Heriot-Watt University will be launching the first annual Scottish Urban Students Forum networking and speakers event on April 6 at the Scottish Poetry Library.

The theme for the inaugural networking and speakers event will be Perspectives in Placemaking: The future of Planning and the Built Environment for prospective new entrants to the industry.

The event will include keynote talks from Cliff Hague (full line-up to be confirmed), a Q+A panel of industry professionals and a networking event for students to engage with public and third sector professionals to discuss how to build the future of the built environment in Scotland.

If you are interested in this event, then book your place here to guarantee your place. This event has a limited number of spaces so be sure to book ahead.

Refreshments will be provided upon arrival.

Programme

Details are subject to change but the provisional programme will include:

Scottish projects among winner of £25m 5G rollout competition

The UK government has announced the winners of a £25 million competition to pave the way for a future rollout of 5G technology in the UK.

From the Orkney Islands, Inverness-shire and Perthshire to the West of England and south Wales, the six projects led by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), universities and local authorities represent the best of UK innovation, resources and expertise.

They will test 5G across a range of applications, including smart farming with drones, using the ‘Internet of Things’ (IoT) to improve healthcare in the home, increasing manufacturing productivity and maximising the future benefits of self-driving cars.

They are part of a £1 billion commitment through the government’s Digital Strategy to keep Britain at the forefront of connectivity by accelerating the deployment of next generation digital infrastructure and driving forward new 5G business opportunities.

5G RuralFirst, led by Cisco and lead partner University of Strathclyde, will deliver testbeds and trials to exploit 5G benefits for rural communities and industries like agriculture, broadcasting, and utilities, to address the challenges of and build the business case for 5G rural deployment.

Based primarily on the Orkney Islands, and in the farmlands of Shropshire and Somerset, the project will integrate spectrum sharing strategies for 5G; bringing connectivity to rural communities, enabling smart farming in partnership with Agri-Epi Centre (including drones, autonomous farm vehicles and remote veterinary inspections); innovative methods of delivering broadcast radio over 5G working with the BBC, alongside the delivery of 5G connectivity for IoT in utility and other industries in rural areas.

5GRIT will be trialling innovative use of 5G technology across a range of rural applications, such as smart agriculture, tourism and connecting poorly-served communities, using shared spectrum in the TV bands and a mix of local ISPs and self-provision.

The aim is to ultimately make high quality connectivity available across Cumbria, Northumberland, North Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Inverness-shire, Perthshire and Monmouthshire. Here the consortium will develop 5G-ready AR apps for tourists and investigate how high-bandwidth wireless connectivity can increase food production in farming, including through use of AR and an unmanned aerial system.

Last chance to apply for CALA’S £15,000 community bursary scheme

Organisations and projects across the West of Scotland looking for the chance to receive a share of £15,000 as part of the CALA Homes Community Bursary scheme are being urged to get their applications in before the closing date of March 23.

Now in its second year, the scheme aims to provide support for a wide range of charities, schools and good causes in the areas in which CALA operates. In 2017, 118 initiatives across the country received a share of more than £100,000, including homelessness charity The Kindness Project.

The £15,000 fund will be split into three £5,000 pots spanning Glasgow, Lanarkshire and Renfrewshire.

You can apply by downloading an application form from the CALA website.

New Year, New Home for Healthy Working Lives

Healthy Working Lives has launched its new website, allowing businesses across Scotland to access personalised advice to improve the health, safety and wellbeing of their workforce.

The new home of health, safety and wellbeing is packed with interactive features. And its fresh and concise new content structure will make it easier for businesses to find what they need, when they need it.

Healthy Working Lives is a free and confidential NHS service, delivered by NHS Health Scotland in partnership with Scotland’s 14 local NHS Boards.

One of the site’s highlights is the ability for people to create a personalised health and safety action plan for their business.

Take a tour of the new home of health, safety and wellbeing here.