Building Briefs - March 1st

• Alliance Electrical turn Dundee Science Centre green with large solar panel installation

The new solar panels will generate enough renewable energy to power the entire centre, reducing its environmental impact and rendering it carbon neutral.

In addition to the solar panel installation Alliance also completed electrical works to install new LED display lighting as part of the centre’s £2 million Connect Project. Due to current Covid restrictions, Dundee Science Centre remains closed to visitors.

• Demolition of former Braeside School begins

Demolition of the former Braeside School in the Airyhall area of Aberdeen has started.

The works are due to continue until summer 2021 and the contractor is Central Demolition.

The demolition was due to start next week however the electricity supplier was able to disconnect the supply early so the works started early.

The works comprise full demolition of the school building and adjacent janitors lodge, including all foundations, areas of hard standing, ramps and play equipment. All existing drainage to be sealed off and capped at ground level.

Most of the demolition works are due to take place from 8am and 5pm, Monday and Friday due to the nearby residential properties, and any Saturday working is to be agreed between the contractor and the city council.

No decision for the future of the site has been made and moves will be made for the site to be put out to market for potential interest.

• Dundee adds additional sustainability into capital plan

More than £20 million extra has been earmarked by Dundee City Council to help build a green recovery from the pandemic.

The council’s £386m capital plan for the next five years contains an additional £22m of projects which focus on energy, mobility, waste and resilience.

Among the items identified in the plan are £9m for the Broughty Ferry to Monifieth active travel corridor, £6m for sustainability and low carbon projects, £3m for housing energy saving measures and projects including sustainable transport and infrastructure and fleet electric vehicles.

The additional expenditure in the plan reinforces a city-wide commitment made last year by the Dundee Partnership to establish a Dundee Climate Leadership Group which will bolster local efforts to tackle climate change and help achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions for the city in the next 25 years.

• Energy Assets pursues pole position in metering operations

Meter installation engineers at Energy Assets look set to cut their carbon footprint, thanks to engagement with a specialist team from Williams Advanced Engineering (WAE).

Energy Assets, which has an install base of 900,000 meter assets, worked with the Business Dynamics Team from WAE – born from the Williams motorsports organisation - to review meter and data logger maintenance and performance. The outcomes included logistics innovations with the potential to reduce field engineer mileage annually by around 10%, along with enhancements in data capture and communication.

The performance improvement consultancy team used big data tools to help Energy Assets develop an intelligent risk score covering fault monitoring and predictive maintenance, based on analysis of 250,000 meter assets across Britain.

These data mining insights allowed Energy Assets to take a fresh look at elements of its meter installation procedures, enabling them to plan and resource their field engineering teams more effectively. The WAE team also employed advanced diagnostics to inform a predictive meter maintenance regime alongside period-based schedules.

• Virtual exhibition showcases replacement East Beach bridge options

A virtual exhibition showing the journey so far to replace the East Beach footbridge in Lossiemouth launches today.

Residents and visitors to Lossiemouth are being offered the chance to share their views, as well as local businesses, as part of the community engagement process.

It shows work done during phase one of the bridge replacement project – funded by the Lossiemouth Community Development Trust, HIE and the Scottish Government – and carried out by contractors Beaver Bridges. It’ll also detail the involvement of the community and local businesses to develop the town, and a flyover of what the replacement bridge could look like.

Attendees of the week-long virtual exhibition will be asked for their feedback by noon on Tuesday 9 March, and this will be used to support the business case being submitted to the Scottish Government to allow work to progress to phase two of the project – design and build. Subject to funding being secured, it’s anticipated the bridge could be completed by Spring 2022.

• Shepherd sells eight acre industrial and distribution headquarters site in Newhouse

Shepherd Chartered Surveyors has sold the substantial former Anderson Group industrial and distribution headquarters site in Newhouse to a private investor.

Located a short distance south east of the Newhouse Junction of the M8 Motorway, which provides direct access to the A73 Carlisle Road and the B7066 Glasgow and Edinburgh Road, the site provides excellent connectivity and strategic central location.

The eight acres site is unique and offers excellent yardage and a variety of office, workshop and warehouse accommodation amounting to 50,000 sq ft.

The headquarters site had been marketed at offers over £1.5 million.

• Continued demand accelerates new phases at Barratt’s north sites

Barratt Homes has this month launched new phases at both Ness Castle, Inverness, and Osprey Heights, Inverurie, as the trend for swapping city life for suburban locations continues to drive demand for new homes locally.

With home working here to stay, and research by Rightmove reporting a doubling of searches for homes in small towns and villages since the pandemic began, it’s no surprise that both sites, which each benefit from easy access to town and city amenities on one hand, and some of the best outdoor attractions on the other, have experienced a spike in interest from buyers.

Mike Cowie, sales and marketing director for Barratt Homes North, said: “The pandemic has changed the way we live and work, and as a result we’re seeing growing interest from city dwellers looking to move further from their offices.

“This is a whole new market of prospective homeowners that now has the flexibility to move beyond typical commuter zones, so, with this in mind, we’re confident that the expansions will be really popular.”

• Allanwater Homes sells out three developments

As it prepares to launch two more new developments in Haddington, and Chryston near Glasgow, Allanwater Homes has spoken of how it’s been affected by the current boom in the Scottish property market.

Caused by pent up demand due to two major lockdowns, coupled with people re-evaluating their priorities when it comes to their home, the property market is now one of the most vibrant sectors in the economy, with sales of new build homes doing particularly well.

“Although the first lockdown meant house moves and related activities could not go ahead unless deemed ‘reasonably necessary’, we were delighted to secure a number of ‘virtual’ reservations for properties, some from plan, at several of our developments across Scotland. This went on until June when restrictions were relaxed, and after that it became even more of a surge of enquiries and actual reservations,” said Cheryl McGeever, sales & marketing manager for Allanwater Homes.

“As a result of this demand, with our Sales Advisors working really hard to give each prospective buyer a socially distanced appointment at our Sales Offices where possible, we were delighted to secure sell outs at our developments at Heartlands, West Lothian, in Rumblingwell, Dunfermline, and at The Views in Saline in Fife.”

“We’re now selling from our final phase at Silver Glen in Alva which has been another very popular development for young families, with another development in Alva coming later this year,” added Cheryl.

Other current Allanwater Homes developments are situated at Stirling, Cambusbarron, Alva and Alloa.

• New council homes completed in Dalry

The latest generation of modern and energy-efficient council homes have been completed in North Ayrshire.

The £7.66 million project at the site of the former Watt Court in Dalry, sees 49 new units created as part of a wider plan to build 1,575 new homes across North Ayrshire.

Supported by a Scottish Government grant of £2.891m, the new development comprises a sheltered housing complex, amenity bungalows, supported accommodation and a new Local Housing Office for Dalry. The properties are a mix of one and two bedrooms.

The heating for the sheltered housing complex and bungalows is provided by a sustainable Biomass district heating system which also serves Dalry Primary School.

Work started on site in 2018 and, despite delays caused by restrictions as part of the COVID-19 pandemic, was recently completed with the final supported accommodation units.

North Ayrshire Council is on schedule to complete hundreds of new council homes this year at sites including Flatt Road in Largs, St Beya Gardens in Cumbrae, Brathwic Terrace on Arran, Towerlands in Irvine, and Springvale in Saltcoats.

Other developments currently under construction include Dalrymple Place in Irvine, St Michaels’ Wynd in Kilwinning and Irvine Harbourside.

• Rural Stirling Housing Association celebrates award for Claish Farm site

The design and construction of affordable homes in Callandar has won an award for the safety of the site’s COVID-19 arrangements, relationship with neighbouring businesses and the use of effective paving in the design.

The Claish Farm site near Callandar won Silver in the Lovell National Health & Safety Awards for the design and construction of the 50 affordable homes for Rural Stirling Housing Association.

The awards are organised to promote good health and safety on Lovell construction sites, with Claish Farm the only Scottish winner and beating off competition from six other Lovell regions across the UK.

Four members of the Claish Farm team; Matt Collins; Euan Lindsay; Henry Rankine; and Ryan McKenzie will each receive £200 of John Lewis vouchers for their work on the site, with Lovell adding a further £100 for dinner and drinks for each individual to spend once hospitality reopens.

• Edinburgh to revise City Plan 2030 timetable

A report outlining a revised timetable for the City of Edinburgh Council’s City Plan 2030 is set to be considered by councillors on Wednesday March 10.

The report, which will be public on March 4, will say that the proposed plan will now be considered by councillors in the summer with the preference being for a committee in August.

The proposed plan was due to be considered by the planning committee last month but the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) was subject to a significant cyber attack just before Christmas which is still affecting its services.

The council said this is having an impact on work on the Strategic Flood Risk Assessment required for the proposed plan as well as many other matters.

The proposed plan was originally due to be considered by councillors in December but disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic has led to some technical reports not being fully completed.

• Fife Council to increase rents by 1.5%

Fife Council has agreed a one-year rent increase of 1.5% for council houses from April 2021 – adding £1.13 a week to the average rent cost - to help fund investment of more than £250 million in housing over the next three years.

The same increase will apply to service charges, garages and temporary accommodation. Lockup charges will be frozen for one more year while improvement proposals are finalised.

See the full reports on the HRA report online.