Building Briefs – November 10th

Link Group Ltd’s new ‘retirement living’ development at Abbey Place, Paisley has been officially opened by Renfrewshire Council’s convener of housing and community safety, Councillor Tommy Williams.

The £4.3 million construction of 38 ‘independent living’ homes, aimed at retirement living, for social rent and new supply shared equity commenced in March 2015, using £2.3m funding from the Scottish Government.

Built by Westpoint Construction, the 13 homes for social rent included one and two bedroom properties, three of which were designed to meet the needs of a wheelchair user. There were also 25 homes available to buy through the New Supply Shared Equity scheme including one and two bedroom properties.

Each property has gas central heating and hot water systems, high thermal insulation and double glazing to create warm, comfortable and energy efficient homes that will be easy and economical to run.

The development offers additional resident facilities such as a fully furnished day lounge and en-suite guest bedroom. There is also an area for storing and charging mobility scooters within the building.

Balfour Beatty begins £35m Perth transport infrastructure scheme

Balfour Beatty has started work on a £35 million transport infrastructure project in Perth.

The scheme involves building a new A9/A85 junction and link road to Bertha Park in the west of the city. The development is due to be completed in Spring 2019.

Phase 1 of the Perth Transport Futures Project, which has been developed by Perth & Kinross Council’s Roads Infrastructure Team and designed by consultants CH2M, includes:

The scheme will ultimately include the development of the Cross Tay Link Road, which will further enhance the transport network in and around Perth.

Work to start on new Greenock Car Park

Inverclyde Council is beginning work on the surfacing and layout for a new 43 space car park on Dalrymple Street, Greenock.

The car park will be on the space left by the now demolished ‘Dalrymple House’ a former social work office in the town centre.

The new car park includes three dedicated spaces for disabled drivers.

Work will commence on site November 14 with completion expected by the end of February 2017.

Robertson Timber Engineering to build its 6,000th hotel room

Robertson Timber Engineering has secured a contract to build what will be its 6,000th hotel room in only two years.

The company, which manufactures out of County Durham and Elgin, has been contracted to design and build a £200,000, 64 bedroom extension to the Helston hotel in Cornwall.

The new Whitbread accommodation brings Robertson’s total number of bedrooms created to 6,000 – equating to £6 million worth of business over two years.

UK hotels are continuing to benefit from the improving economic travel backdrop. According to professional services firm PWC, the regions Robertson Timber Engineering operates in have welcomed double digit growth in terms of revenue per room.

Similarly, Visit Britain estimated that the country would welcome 36.7million overseas visitors in 2016, an increase of 3.8 per cent on 2015. This market confidence is steadily becoming a reality as Robertson’s hotel build order book continues to grow.

Inverclyde museum to close for £2m refurbishment

Inverclyde Council’s historic McLean Museum and Watt Library complex in Greenock is to undergo a £2 million refurbishment.

The buildings will be closed from December 2016 to allow emergency repairs to the parapets and towers, window replacement and roof repairs and treatment for wet rot.

The council’s education & communities committee has also approved plans to move high-value and particularly fragile exhibits and artefacts to safe storage while the work is carried out.

The council is investing £1.8 million towards the refurbishment work alongside a £287,000 grant from Historic Environment Scotland.

Considerate Constructors Scheme announces new Board directors

The Considerate Constructors Scheme has formed a new statutory Board of directors.

The new board includes four independent non-executive directors: Roma Agrawal, a distinguished structural engineer; Richard Byrne, a prominent health and safety director; Nick Coley, a successful entrepreneur within civil engineering and contracting; and Simon Harvey, a renowned strategy and marketing director with a wealth of experience of launching consumer products to younger generations.

They were appointed at an Extraordinary General Meeting of the Scheme in London on November 2.

Scheme executive chairman Isabel Martinson leads the new statutory Board of directors, which also comprises representatives from the Schemes owners, Dr Diana Montgomery, chief executive of the Construction Products Association (CPA), Professor John Nolan, chairman of the Construction Industry Council (CIC) and chief executive of CIC, Graham Watts OBE. Mike Petter joins the Board as chairman of the new standing Service and Performance Committee.

Lack of supply ‘driving up’ Scottish house prices

Scottish house prices have maintained their upward projection as the number of new properties on the market continued to fall, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) have said.

The organisation’s October RICS UK Residential Market Survey found that while the number of potential buyers had risen for the second month in a row, the number of properties coming on to the Scottish market continued to drop, that has been visible in Scotland for the past year.

Prices continue to rise, with a net balance of 40 per cent more respondents seeing growth, rather than a decline, up from a net balance of +33 in September.

The survey also predicted rent rises for tenants over the next three months as demand outpaced supply.

RICS chief economist, Simon Rubinsohn, said the lack of housing supply in Scotland was replicated across the UK.

Official opening of £10.6m West Dunbartonshire education campus

Two new primary schools and an early learning centre have been officially opened in Bellsmyre.

The new Bellsmyre Education Campus incorporates Aitkenbar Primary School co-located with St Peter’s Primary and the new Bellsmyre Early Learning and Childcare Centre (ELCC) which was formed from the amalgamation of the former Andrew B Cameron and St Peter’s centres.

The building was opened to pupils in August and on November 8, a ceremony was held to officially launch the new campus which was developed following a £10.6 million investment by West Dunbartonshire Council.

The development has moved over 400 pupils from ageing buildings in Bellsmyre into state of the art schools purpose built for today’s learning.

The campus includes new flexible learning spaces created in place of traditional classrooms to enhance pupils’ education experience supported by new ICT.

In addition new outdoor areas were created allowing pupils to learn outside, as well as a new 3G pitch and play grounds.

Dundee set for environmental upgrades

Dundee City Council is to invest around £240,000 carrying out environmental improvements across the city.

Councillors will discuss proposals to carry out landscape improvements and street furniture upgrades at a meeting on Monday, 14 November.

The projects involve redesign and landscape improvements at Orchar Park, including installing new benches and litter bins, as well as path remediation.

In Finlathen Park, plans involve upgrading the stairs to south of park, landscape improvements including improvements to planted areas, new street furniture and notice boards.

Various cemetery upgrades will also be carried out, with an additional tree replacement programme and landscape upgrading at Balgay, Eastern, Western and Barnhill Cemeteries.

Call to use disposed army bases for affordable housing

Scottish Ministers have been urged to intervene in the proposed sell-off of Scottish defence sites to ensure the land is used to help tackle the country’s affordable housing shortage.

The UK government this week announced plans to sell off almost a tenth of its defence sites including Glencorse Barracks in Midlothian, Redford Barracks in Edinburgh, and bases in Stirling.

Defence secretary Michael Fallon said the Ministry of Defence (MoD) now plans to dispose of 56 more defence sites worth up to £1 billion by 2040, with the estate currently too large and costly to maintain, in addition to the 35 sites which it had previously announced.

The MoD owns around 1,000 sites in total, 91 of which will be sold off.

Eight of the sites to be sold are in Scotland, including Fort George, an 18th-century fort which currently accommodates soldiers from the Black Watch.

During a statement to MSPs at Holyrood on the issue, Andy Wightman, housing spokesperson for the Scottish Greens and MSP for Lothian, urged Scottish Ministers to work with the MoD to transfer any affected land into local control to guarantee its use for community benefit.

In the past, unions have been critical of MoD land being sold on the cheap and without guarantees that developers would build affordable homes.

Chief executive appointed at Lanarkshire Housing Association

Lanarkshire Housing Association has announced the appointment of Simon McManus as chief executive with immediate effect following the retirement of James Stevenson in May.

Mr McManus, a qualified Chartered Public Finance Accountant, had been the acting chief executive on an interim basis after serving as the corporate services director for a number of years.