Building Briefs – October 20th

National recognition for north east trade awards ceremony

Scotland’s only award ceremony to recognise excellence within the trades and construction industry, has itself received special recognition, winning the award for ‘Best Awards Scheme’ at this year’s prestigious Scottish Event Awards.

The Trades Awards, which were launched in 2013 to showcase outstanding individuals and companies within the north-east construction industry, are open to businesses of all sizes, with categories including ‘Apprentice of the Year’, ‘Tradesman of the Year’, and ‘Best Trades Business’.

The awards ceremony, which has been sponsored by Stewart Milne Group for the past two years, faced stiff competition from The Forth Awards, a well-established annual event that celebrates Edinburgh’s local heroes with both listeners and the business community. Other local winners included Spectra Aberdeen’s Festival of Light 2016, and Robert Gordon University’s Student Festival.

Housing charity breathes new life into East Lothian site

Scottish housing charity LAR Housing Trust has concluded a deal to buy 19 properties in Macmerry, its third development in East Lothian since its launch a year ago.

The site on Westbank Road in the town has been primed for development for the last two years and work is now underway to complete the site.

LAR provides high quality homes at below market rents and has focused its initial development work around Scotland on the Lothians and Aberdeen areas.

The five three-bed and 14 two-bed properties are being built by Springfield Partnerships.

LAR aims to provide at least 1,000 affordable homes over the next five years across Scotland.

£1m boost for Broad Street revitalisation plans in Aberdeen

Aberdeen City Council’s plans to revitalise Broad Street received a further boost with the announcement of a £1,015,482 award from Sustrans Scotland towards the project.

The plans were approved earlier this month and will see a transformed and improved streetscape extending from Union Street to the Gallowgate/Upperkirkgate junction creating a vibrant pedestrian-priority area capable of staging range of cultural events throughout the year.

Highlights of the design plans include a water feature, a raised lawn area giving a space to relax and enjoy the view of Marischal College, new trees and granite bench seating. Lighting improvements to Marischal College will help ‘theme’ the building and will be integrated with lighting of the water feature.

MoD reveals plans for major RAF Lossiemouth revamp

The Ministry of Defence has revealed details of a major revamp of RAF Lossiemouth.

Runways and a new air traffic control centre will be built at the Moray base ahead of the arrival of a new fleet of surveillance planes in 2020.

Nine Poseidon P8s will be based there by 2021, along with Typhoon fighter squadrons.

The MoD also plans to build new houses and a fire station at the airbase, according to documents published this week.

East Dunbartonshire community and early years centre plans unveiled

Residents of Auchinairn are being invited to view the latest plans for the village’s new purpose-built community and early years facility.

A community information event is being held on October 27 at Auchinairn Primary School for anyone who would like to see the design of the building and find out more about the type of facilities it will offer.

Council officers and representatives from architect Homes Miller will be on hand to provide background and answer questions at the event which comes on the back of a series of consultation events, held since May 2015.

East Dunbartonshire Council announced in August that Glasgow City Football Club was no longer able to provide the sports ground that they had hoped to develop next to the new centre. As a result, the layout of the site has been revised and the football club element has been removed from the building.

Aberdeenshire Council appoints new head of housing

Aberdeenshire Council has appointed Aberdeen City Council’s communities and housing citywide manager Rob Simpson as its new head of housing.

The appointment follows the death of former head of housing Douglas Edwardson who passed away following a road accident in December last year.

Mr Simpson, who was also acting head of communities and housing for a period earlier this year, will take up his new role at Aberdeenshire Council on November 21.

Prior to working at Aberdeen City Council, Rob Simpson was team manager in Aberdeenshire Council’s Business Services. There he programme-managed a wide range of projects delivering the Worksmart and WorkSPACE strategies, including the new HQ in Peterhead and working on shared services with Aberdeen City Council.

Property and construction firms urged to join The BIG Stampede to raise funds for charity

A herd of safari animals is set to invade Lanarkshire in summer 2017 as The BIG Stampede prepares to charge into town and local property and construction businesses are invited to join the pack.

The Banks Group in Hamilton, which develops land for a variety of uses including residential and commercial property, is already leading the charge to support the creative tourism project and raise funds for Glasgow Children’s Hospital Charity.

Organised by Hamilton Business Improvement District, in partnership with Wild in Art, the free public art event will see a herd of elephants, tower of giraffes, pride of lions, band of gorillas, crash of rhinos and pod of hippos stampede into the town in summer 2017.

The large-scale Wild in Art event will bring businesses, artists and schools together to create a spectacular scuplture trail through the streets, parks and open spaces of Hamilton and the surrounding areas, while raising valuable funds for Glasgow Children’s Hospital Charity.

The initiative will showcase the artistic talent in the area and will positively contribute to the economic, social and cultural life of the town.

Businesses are able to become part of the pack by sponsoring a safari animal. Local artists will then be tasked with creating bespoke designs for each blank animal, transforming them into unique pieces of art to be enjoyed by residents and visitors to the area.

The BIG Stampede has a selection of sponsorship options available including the Safari Trail Sponsor and Safari Charity Sponsor packages, as well as the Safari Community & Education Sponsor option.

For further information about The BIG Stampede and to find out about sponsorship opportunities, visit www.thebigstampede.co.uk