Building Briefs – May 20th

Housebuilder Springfield Properties has taken inspiration from the well-loved children’s programme Play School and installed colourful round viewing windows for nursery kids next to its Hanover Housing Association care home construction site in Elgin.

Springfield has installed viewing panels in the site’s hoarding for the nursery children, after they expressed a want to watch all the live action and progress of the construction. The panel at the Magic Roundabout Childcare Centre, positioned adjacent to the site, has the “through the round window” feature from the TV show as its muse.

The windows are different shapes and colours and have been designed to be bright, fun and inviting for the children.

The site team will also hold a session with the children to talk to them about construction and safety, as a part of their mission to engage with the local community.

Springfield Properties started work on the 32 special requirement flats, designed specifically for residents with dementia, earlier this year working with Hanover Housing Association.

CCG signs repairs contract with Hawthorn Housing Co-operative

CCG Asset Management (AM) has signed a four-year repairs contract with Hawthorn Housing Co-operative.

The firm will install 40 new boilers, 160 new heating systems, 40 new kitchens, and 191 new bathrooms for homes across the North Glasgow area.

Survey work is now underway and AM expects to be on site this summer.

£1.3m award for two north Aberdeenshire regeneration projects

Regeneration projects in Banff and Fraserburgh will benefit from a cash injection of more than £1.3 million, it has been announced.

The Aberdeenshire Council projects secured a share of this year’s £25m Scottish Government Regeneration Capital Grant Fund (RCGF).

Combined with recently announced lottery funding from Creative Scotland, Banff will get more than £300,000 to revive silversmithing in the town by bringing a derelict building back into artisan use as a studio for contemporary silversmith graduates.

The Meal House, a B-Listed building at the east end of Bridge Street in Banff, is on the “Buildings at Risk” register due to its poor condition.

“Fraserburgh 2021”, a long-term regeneration effort to restore the built-heritage of the town, improve the town centre and improve health and wellbeing, will receive £1,056,243 towards the project total of £2.2m.

This project combines the redevelopment of Saltoun Square Council Chambers with a proposed new sports development at the town’s South Links.

The redevelopment of the Chambers and the adjacent former Police Station is a key part of the town’s newly-designated Fraserburgh Conservation Area.

The intention is to have an innovative mix of new uses, from an improved Council Service Point to facilities for community and civic functions.

A dedicated Enterprise Hub on the site will look to educate, support and accelerate indigenous business growth and ensure a pipeline of growing local businesses.

It is being developed in partnership with the Heritage Lottery Fund and Historic Environment Scotland, among others.

With major funding secured, efforts will now be focussed on securing the remaining funds and establishing the project teams responsible for delivery.

It is hoped work will start at Saltoun Square Council Chambers and Police Station in August 2017, with work on the sports development finished by autumn of 2018. The Silversmithing project in Banff is scheduled to be ready by 2019.

Housing plan for former Paisley Co-op site

A former supermarket site in Paisley could be brought back to life as a housing development, Renfrewshire Council has announced.

The vacant Co-op site on Wellmeadow Street is set to be sold to Sanctuary Housing Association, which plans to use the area for social housing.

The council currently leases the ground, on which the supermarket and car park are built, to the Co-op.

However, since the owners don’t plan to use it as a supermarket, the council has to sell on the ground lease to allow the deal to happen.

Old Edinburgh cinema faces bulldozers

A campaign to save a former Edinburgh cinema and transform it back to its art deco glory days has been launched after plans to demolish it were revealed.

An application has been submitted to planning chiefs to knock down the C-listed former George Cinema in Portobello and turn it into flats.

But locals are outraged at the prospect of losing the historic building – which currently houses a bingo hall – and have launched a bid to save it from demolition and to turn it back into a cinema and art space.

Disused Perth building brought back to life as new council flats

A disused building in Perth which was formerly used by the police and NHS has been converted into affordable accommodation by Perth & Kinross Council.

The building in Glengarry Road, Craigie, has been refurbished and turned into four high quality one-bedroom flats. Tayside Police formerly used the building as a base, before it was bought by NHS Tayside and used as a convalescence centre.

The building lay empty for around five years, until it was bought by the council for use as social housing.

Several other disused buildings are also being brought back into use by the council as affordable housing. In St Catherine’s Road, Perth, a project is underway to convert former shops into nine housing units, and in Nimmo Place, Perth, a former children’s home is currently being refurbished to provide six housing units.

Council houses that have lain empty for several years at Old Mill Road in Rattray will also soon be handed over to new tenants following refurbishment.

The programme of refurbishing disused buildings for use as social housing is running alongside the council’s new-build programme which in itself has provided around 200 new houses and flats for local people over the past few years, and is ongoing.

Balfron High School repair programme

A final repair programme has been drawn up to bring a Stirling school forced to close for repair works back into full operation.

Stirling Council said work has already started on key areas of Balfron High School.

More areas of the school will become available as repairs progress, and the repair programme will continue into the summer holidays to ensure that Balfron is fully operational for the start of the new school year.

In the meantime, 12 temporary classrooms will be delivered to the Balfron campus on May 21-22 and then fitted out in time for the return of S1-3 pupils on June 6th, when the current temporary off-site arrangements end and the SQA exams conclude. The classrooms will give staff the space and facilities they need to continue to deliver the best education possible for pupils until the end of term.

New chief executive at Manor Estates

Manor Estates Housing Association has appointed Graeme Russell as its new chief executive following the retirement of Lynn McDonald.

Graeme is well-known in the housing world, particularly in Edinburgh, where he spent over 30 years working for Gorgie-Dalry, Canmore and Dunedin Canmore Housing Associations.

More recently, he has worked with SFHA and Bield Housing Association.

Exhibition events to showcase flood scheme plans in Angus

A series of exhibition events showcasing plans for a local flood protection scheme are due to take place in Angus.

The council is currently developing the Arbroath (Brothock Water) Flood Protection project to provide a 1-in-200-year standard of protection for the town.

Elements of the scheme include:

• The construction of three flood storage areas at Brothock Meadows, St Vigeans and Hercules Den, using embankments and flow controls to retain flood water above the natural ground level.

• Enhanced defences including a combination of new flood walls where there are no flood defences, or where existing defences are in poor condition, the local raising of existing walls and some minor remedial works to existing walls.

The works will improve on the existing flood prevention scheme which was built in 1987.

Residents are now being invited to attend a series of local events detailing plans for the project.

The exhibitions will take place between 3pm - 7pm at Voluntary Action Angus, Arbroath on:

• Monday, 30 May

• Tuesday, 31 May

• Wednesday, 01 June

CMS boosts North Lanarkshire hospices’ funding

CMS Window Systems has made generous donations to two North Lanarkshire hospices, after they were nominated by North Lanarkshire Council to receive the second and third instalments of CMS’s ‘ten donations for ten years’ anniversary initiative.

The donations were made as part of a year of support by CMS for ten charities dedicated to improving the lives of people in ten communities in which the business operates.

North Lanarkshire Council nominated the two hospices to benefit from CMS’s 10-year anniversary charity programme; across the year, the firm will make ten donations of £1000 each to causes nominated by its most valued customers.

The two North Lanarkshire hospices both provide vital services for patients receiving end of life care.