Building Briefs – October 15th

Close partnership working between Argyll and Bute Council’s Housing and Council Tax teams on an innovative policy to deal with empty homes has netted national recognition and a silver award.

The team took a silver award at the national Institute of Revenues, Ratings and Valuations (IRRV) Performance Awards 2014 for their entry to the Excellence in Innovation category.

The Housing and Council Tax teams work closely together on a set of empty homes initiatives. Part of a council policy agreed in August 2013, these are aimed at bringing empty homes back into use and therefore increasing the level of affordable housing available to people in communities across Argyll and Bute.

Since the policy came into force, the teams have brought 539 empty properties back to life in Argyll and Bute.

Work completed at Highlands distillery

Construction work at a new malt whisky distillery in the Highlands has been completed. It is understood that production will begin on site this month.

When operational, it will be capable of producing up to 10 million litres of spirit a year.

The French-owned Chivas Brothers Ltd, which is part of Pernod Ricard, have built the new facility on the site of a former distillery near Carron in Moray.

The new distillery has been named Dalmunach, after a nearby pool in the River Spey, the owners said.

The design of the distillery is inspired by the shape of a sheaf of barley, reflecting the core ingredient of single malt whisky. It houses eight unique copper pot stills, with a tulip shape used for the wash stills and an onion shape used for the spirit stills, replicating those from the Imperial distillery which was situated on the site until 2012.

Other original features from the previous distillery have been incorporated to ensure a sense of heritage remains intact, including red brick from the former mill building which has been reclaimed to create a feature wall in the new entrance area.

Work begins on new East Ayrshire Council housing

Work on East Ayrshire Council’s £1.38m Skeoch Road housing development site is well underway in the heart of Mauchline town centre.

Part of the council’s extensive town centre house building programme, the development was made possible by the charitable trust, Jean Armour Burns Houses Ltd, who approached the council seeking assistance to take on the responsibility of a terrace of existing tenanted houses and an adjacent site.

To protect the existing tenancies of the elderly residents, the council purchased the site and it will now accommodate ten beautiful, new affordable homes specially designed for older and ambulant disabled people.

The works are being managed by Atrium Initiatives on behalf of the council and are being built in partnership with McTaggart Construction, a large private housing developer, and supported by funding from the Scottish Government.

The homes are due for completion in January 2015.

Demolition work begins at Liberton High School gym

Work has commenced at Liberton High School in Edinburgh to demolish the gym hall where a student was killed earlier this year after a wall collapsed.

Keane Wallis Bennett, 12, died in April when a free-standing modesty wall collapsed and fell on top of her in the PE changing rooms at the school.

A project costing £2.5m has been approved by Edinburgh Council to replace the facilities, which would involve extending the current school building where some of the school’s PE classes are already held.

In August, it was confirmed that the Scottish Government would provide a financial contribution towards the cost of the work.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has said an investigation into the accident is ongoing.

Views sought on Leanachan Masterplan

Forestry Commission Scotland and the Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) is wanting to hear from the local community regarding the completed Leanachan Masterplan.

The proposals would see a five-star resort hotel, bunkhouse and low-impact tourist accommodation, as well as a campsite located in an enhanced woodland setting, the Commission has said.

A drop-in day has been organised for next month at the Pinemartin Café, Nevisrange, to allow the local community to view and comment on the plans. The event will take place on 4 November from 2pm to 7pm.

Public consultation event for Aberfeldy Public Realm Works

Residents of Aberfeldy are invited to attend a public consultation event taking place from Tuesday, October 21 until Thursday 23. The purpose of event is to propose a number of options to the community for improvements to Aberfeldy Square and gain feedback on what they feel would be the best option.

Aberfeldy’s reputation as a hub for the leisure tourism has been growing over recent years, and Perth and Kinross Council wants to ensure that this reputation continues to gain prominence by creating an attractive town square which will serve the community and visitors both now and in the future.

The overall aim of the project is to create a sense of place in Aberfeldy and for the space to be flexible which will increase the town’s capacity for events in the future. The new square will help promote the area as an all year round destination, assisting with job sustainability/creation, as well as hopefully reducing reliance on seasonal trends.

The consultation events will take place between 12pm and 7pm on each of the days and the public are encourage to come and view all of the options being presented. Feedback gained from these sessions will be invaluable to the project moving forward. These sessions will also provide the opportunity to ask questions and get more information about the project.

Aberdeenshire property company launches Fife development

Aberdeenshire-based Deveron Homes has officially launched its brand new, multimillion pound residential construction project in Fife.

The company’s Lansdale Rise development is situated in an elevated position above the town of Burntisland, to the west of Grange Road, just off the A921 Aberdour to Kirkcaldy road. Subject to gaining the necessary consents, the £10.3 million development will feature 37 stylish two, three and four bedroom energy-efficient homes.

Phase one is set to comprise a selection of three bedroom cottages and bungalows, together with a selection of three and four bedroom detached villas.

Scottish civil engineering firm wins multi million pound earthworks contract

A Scottish specialist civil engineering contractor has secured a multi million pound contract to assist in the development of a major road improvement for the Highways Agency in England.

Daviot Farms Limited (DFL), headquartered in Inverness, has been awarded the eight figure sum contract as earthworks associated with the motorway upgrade of the A1 between Leeming and Barton in Yorkshire.

The contract will see DFL partner with a Carillion / Morgan Sindall joint venture over a three year period.

The upgrade will develop a 12-mile dual carriageway section into a three-lane motorway, as well as new local access roads, which will improve safety for traffic and surrounding communities.

DFL will employ up to 100 project staff and operational personnel to support the contract.

RICS launches nationwide infrastructure photography competition

RICS has launched a new nationwide photography competition for members of the public to capture images of major infrastructure projects.

Entrants are invited to photograph any man-made physical structure which benefits society, including roads, bridges, water supply systems, telecommunications and energy generating facilities, such as power stations or renewable sources of energy generation.

The renowned Swiss-French architectural photographer Helene Binet will be one of the judges.

Entrants will be in with a chance of winning a £3,000 prize for camera equipment, and can enter their photographs by logging onto www.rics.org/uk/footer/rics-infrastructure-photographer-of-the-year/.

The deadline for entries is midnight on Friday 19 December. Winners and shortlisted entries will be announced in January 2015.

£5m investment will bring data storage centre to Aberdeen

Publishing firm DC Thomson is set to invest £5 million to establish a data centre in the Aberdeen.

Brightsolid, the Dundee publishers’ cloud computing company, said the new data facility will position Aberdeen as a “global tech hub”.

The firm plans to build the data centre at The Press and Journal’s offices on the Lang Stracht.

The site will initially comprise 200 high-density racks, with a second phase build doubling the facility to 400 racks.

The build is scheduled to commence during October 2014 and the facility due to open in April 2015.

Pothole repair spending soars

The amount of money spent by councils on repairing potholed roads has soared by more than a third since the SNP came to power seven years ago, according to new data.

Figures uncovered by the Scottish Conservatives showed the bill has gone up from £163 million in 200708 to £220m in 201314, an increase of 35 per cent.

Over the seven years, 18 out of 26 councils that responded to freedom of information requests spent more than they were allocated for road repairs.

Aberdeenshire Council had the largest overspend – £136.7m, compared to a total budget of £120.3m.

Aberdeen spent £17.7m, more than its road repair budget of £15.4m, while Argyll and Bute spent £40.6m when its total repair budget was £38.8m.

Highland Council allocated £76.9m for road repairs and spent £77.9m over the seven years.

However, Moray spent £1.6m less on road repairs than allocated, as did Orkney at £247,000.