Building Briefs – March 4th

A £4.5 million project has created 41 affordable homes in one of Scotland’s most desirable new communities.

Families in East Dunbartonshire will this month receive keys to flats in Woodilee Village, a 210 acre site between Kirkintilloch and Lenzie, near Glasgow, where the former Woodilee Hospital once stood.

Twenty-nine flats built and managed by Sanctuary Scotland Housing Association have been offered for social rent to people on East Dunbartonshire Council’s waiting list. A further 12 Sanctuary-built flats will be sold through the Scottish Government’s shared equity scheme to first time buyers.

The Sanctuary Scotland homes are part of a wider redevelopment of the site of the former Woodilee Hospital. The overall project will see more than 800 properties created by a consortium of builders, with all bar Sanctuary’s privately sold. It was a condition of planning that the Woodilee site featured affordable properties. The council asked Sanctuary Scotland to create 41 affordable flats, Sanctuary’s biggest development to-date in East Dunbartonshire.

The Scottish Government gave £2.25m in grant funding towards the Sanctuary build, which includes a shop unit available for lease.

Travis Perkins posts £362m profit

Travis Perkins, Britain’s biggest supplier of building materials, has posted a 14.9 per cent rise in earnings, hiked its dividend 22.6 per cent and said it was confident it can continue to outperform the markets it operates in.

The firm, which owns brands including Travis Perkins, Wickes, City Plumbing and Keyline, said adjusted profit before tax rose 12.8 per cent to £362.3 million as revenue increased 8.4 per cent to £5.6 billion. Travis Perkins is paying a total dividend of 38 pence, up from 31 pence in 2013.

The firm noted that whilst it was still early in the recovery of the UK construction industry, the new housing, commercial and industrial markets and the repair, maintenance and improvement market have been as expected.

New bungalows completed in Stirling

Nine new council homes have been completed in the Cornton area of Stirling.

The bungalows on Adamson Place add to others already built by Stirling Council’s Housing Service in Stirling’s Riverside and in Killearn, with a further 10 currently under construction in Cowie.

The new properties all come complete with underfloor heating and solar panels, as well as very high levels of insulation to ensure they meet very high standards of energy efficiency.

New chief executive at Loreburn Housing Association

Loreburn Housing Association has announced the appointment of Lorraine Usher as chief executive from 12 March 2015.

Lorraine takes on the role following a particularly challenging time for the Association in relation to its governance, which has now been rectified.

Loreburn Housing Association owns and manages around 2,500 homes across Dumfries & Galloway and employs 100 members of staff and has a turnover of around £12 million.

Permission sought for 12 turbines south of Inverness

A 12-turbine wind farm has been proposed for a site next to a 33-turbine project already being constructed south of Inverness.

Developer RES has submitted a planning application to Highland Council for Aberarder Wind Farm.

In 2010, RES secured approval for the 33-turbine Dunmaglass Wind Farm about 20 miles (32km) from Inverness. SSE is now developing the site.

Archaeology firm boosted by construction revival

A revival in the construction industry has helped Edinburgh based archaeology firm Headland secure £4.5 million in new business over the past year.

The company, which carries out work for road, rail and renewable energy construction projects, is forecasting that its workload will increase by a further 20 per cent in the coming year to take turnover to more than £5m.

Headland has also added to its team in the last year with 40 additional employees across its offices in Edinburgh, Hereford and Luton.

The company has worked on more than 300 projects in the last year including advance archaeological works for the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route and Clyde Windfarm.

Planners demand say in look of new Queen Street station

Councillors are to write to the Scottish Government over plans for the £120 million redevelopment of Queen Street Station in Glasgow, specifically about Network Rail being allowed to press ahead with the work without getting permission from city planners.

Senior councillors believe they should have input into the design of the dramatic new station entrance as it is in a conservation area and on the edge of the city’s historic George Square.

Under Transport and Works Scotland (TAWS), Network Rail does not need to ask the city council for planning permission but can ask Scottish Ministers to agree the scheme.

But the decision to sideline the council has angered members of the planning committee who unanimously agreed to raise the issue in Holyrood.

£5.2bn worth of renewable contracts in 2014

Figures released this week have revealed that £5.2 billion worth of construction contracts for 1,095 renewable energy projects were awarded in 2014, which includes a record amount of solar power projects worth over £1.7bn.

The data from Barbour ABI, a sister company of Ecobuild and a chosen provider of construction data for the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and the UK government, revealed last year renewable energy planning applications increased by 26 per cent compared with 2013, continuing the trend of year on year growth in the sector.

Whilst the renewable sector benefited from high levels of investment in 2014, 45 per cent (409 projects) of renewable wind projects submitted for detail planning were refused at the planning stage, considerably higher than the average refusal rate of 12 per cent across the construction sector.

The figures also illustrated that solar energy projects had the biggest increase in approvals year on year in 2014, increasing by 59 per cent. Furthermore, 611 solar farms with a value of over £100,000 were submitted for planning in 2014, compared to only three solar farms in 2010, showing rapid growth for this sector over the last five years. Additionally the total contract values for renewable wind projects increased by 23 per cent year on year in 2014.

Island airport pulls out of race to become UK’s first spaceport

A Scottish airport has pulled out of the race to become the UK’s first spaceport just hours after being shortlisted.

Stornoway Airport was yesterday shortlisted alongside Campbeltown and Glasgow Prestwick as potential sites but owners Highlands and Islands Airports Ltd (HIAL) have said they plan to concentrate on their traditional business.

HIAL also said it does not intend to develop plans for Campbeltown - which it manages - but will support its owners if they decide to.

Three locations in Scotland were shortlisted by the Civil Aviation Authority, including Stornoway, Campbeltown and Glasgow Prestwick. RAF Leuchars was also confirmed as a potential temporary facility.

‘Crass’ glass atrium will ruin Concert Hall

A Scottish architect has criticised the “crass” glass rotunda being added to Glasgow’s Royal Concert Hall as part of a multi-million pound supermall development.

Professor Alan Dunlop compared the row over the plans for Glasgow’s city centre, which involves the removal of the steps outside the concert hall, to the controversy over the future of Edinburgh’s old Royal High School on Calton Hill, which could be turned into a “six-star” hotel.

He said it was a “tale of two cities” with two controversial commercial developments in the heart of each city.

In Glasgow, he said, “a much loved, used and important piece of public realm and city centre space, the Concert Hall steps is to be demolished to help create a new, massive commercial development with a crass glass rotunda shopping mall entrance to its international concert hall and including a massive 11-storey-high car park.

“Now a commercial extension to the Millennium Hotel drawn in sketch-up, whose main design aim seems to be to obscure the car park, looks like being approved.

“Both of which will loom large over Glasgow’s most important public space for the next 100 years”.

In Edinburgh, he said the plans for the Royal High School would transform the “abandoned and derelict neo-classical icon”.

Three out of four construction firms have no apprentices

There has been a 30 per cent increase in the number of construction companies taking on apprentices but more than three-quarters make no room for them.

A survey of 1500 construction employers for the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) revealed that 26 per cent of firms took on apprentices in 2014. This is an increase from just 20 per cent in 2013.

Asked if they were likely to take on apprentices in the year ahead, only 25 per cent of companies said they would – down slightly from 27 per cent in 2013, but significantly up from 15 per cent in 2011.

Of those who do employ apprentices, 75 per cent said that they were either ‘satisfied’ or ‘very satisfied’ with them. 20 per cent were dissatisfied and 5 per cent neutral.

Historic sites set to share revamp pot

The house where Peter Pan author JM Barrie was inspired to create his classic children’s tale is among several historic sites across Scotland to share £1.7 million of restoration funding.

Historic Scotland’s Building Repair Grants Scheme will also help to revive medieval Dean Castle in Kilmarnock, 18th Century Lamer Island Battery at Dunbar, and gothic mansion Brough Lodge in Shetland, among others.

Moat Brae House in Dumfries, Barrie’s inspiration for Peter Pan, will receive £300,000.

Consent for work at old Aberdeen factory site

The green light has been given to start developing a derelict factory site.

Listed building consent has now been granted to develop Broadford Works in Aberdeen, which was bought by First Construction 10 years ago.

It means the site, which is owned by businessman Ian Suttie and has lain derelict for years, can now be converted into more than 500 homes – although a developer has not yet signed up.

Mr Suttie’s firm First Construction saw its plan for an urban village kicked out by the council but the decision was overturned by the Scottish Government.

However, the government never granted listed building consent as the application lacked detail.

That has now been signed off on by Aberdeen City Council after a steering group was set up to come up with a “pragmatic strategy” for developing the site.

The former Richards factory has the largest concentration of Category A listed buildings at risk in Scotland.

And the listed building consent requires that 11 historic mill buildings on the site are preserved.