Building Briefs – October 23rd

Henry Boot Developments has completed the sale of two new purpose-built retail warehouse units at its 6.8 acre Livingston Retail Park development in Livingston.

Both units have been acquired by Magell Ltd, with the sale reflecting an initial yield of 6.3 per cent.

Dunelm Group PLC occupies a 20,000 sq ft unit, while the second 23,000 sq ft retail warehouse is home to B&M Retail Ltd. The discount retailer also benefits from an additional 5,000 sq ft for a garden centre.

2017 has been a successful year to date for Henry Boot Developments with several landmark projects underway throughout the UK, including the new Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre, Markham Vale in Derbyshire, The Chocolate Works in York, the Imperial Tobacco site in Nottingham, and Kampus, a £250million mixed-use scheme in Manchester city centre.

HBD was advised by Savills and Springford Ltd. Magell was advised by Colliers.

Campaign to help keep Edinburgh flats in good repair

The City of Edinburgh Council launched a campaign today to encourage flat owners to work together to keep their properties in good repair as we move towards winter.

The council wants to raise awareness of a toolkit produced by its Shared Repairs Service to offer private homeowners help and guidance when seeking to repair their properties.

In some cases, the Service will be able to cover the ‘missing share’ to enable much-needed works to go ahead if an owner in a tenement property is unable or unwilling to get involved.

The new, easy to use step-by-step toolkit will provide helpful advice to anyone looking to fix a leaking roof, blocked guttering, a chimney, or stonework in need of repair. The toolkit will take homeowners through the process with their neighbours to get these and many other areas of their property fixed more easily and efficiently.

Since the new service was launched earlier this year it has proven to be popular with Edinburgh residents. It has enabled over £600k of work, carried out privately in 46 tenement buildings, and completed over £350k of repair works on behalf of owners in four tenements. The service has helped around 500 people in all so far.

City Building creates a buzz with latest green initiative

There has been a hive of activity at City Building as it marks National Honey Week (23-29 October 2017), by adopting three beehives.

The Glasgow-based firm is creating a buzz by teaming up with beekeepers Plan Bee to build and maintain habitats for the local honeybee population, which is under threat of extinction due to rising pesticide use, pollution and climate change.

The three hives will be located on the grounds of City Building’s manufacturing division, RSBi where they will have plenty of trees and flowers to forage. By creating an environment where they can thrive, City Building is helping to preserve the endangered species.

The project is the latest in a series of environmental initiatives which have been implemented by the company in recent years. Since 2007, City Building has reduced its carbon footprint by 25% and is one of the few construction companies in Scotland to achieve the Queen’s Award for Enterprise: Sustainable Development.

Plan Bee is an eco-innovation business offering beehive adoption, management and educational services to individuals and organisations.

Construction team share a toast to support STV’s breakfast campaign

The team at DJ Laing recently shared a toast with their breakfast cuppa to support the Big Scottish Breakfast, an STV Children’s Appeal for children affected by poverty in Scotland.

The site team at Malt Loan, Carnoustie got together under one roof to have morning brekkie to raise awareness of this fundraising initiative to help children get a good start to the day and the best start in life.

The Big Scottish Breakfast will be held on Friday 27th October with schools, businesses and community groups across the country getting together for breakfast events to raise money for Scotland’s children.

Jim Cosgrove, site manager for D J Laing Homes, said: “Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Our workforce is important to us so the least we can do is help them get a good start to their working day. It was great to get everyone to eat together. Thankfully, no one wore their PJ’s!”

If your school, business, sports team or community group would like to arrange your own Big Scottish Breakfast on Friday 27th October, go to www.stv.tv/appeal to sign up or make a donation.

Plans rejected for 25-turbine scheme in Perthshire

Plans have been rejected to build 25 wind turbines miles south east of Kenmore in Perth and Kinross.

Scottish Ministers refused consent for the Crossburns Windfarm scheme due to concerns over its impact to ecology, the landscape and tourism.

The decision followed a site visit and Public Local Inquiry into the plans.

Proposals for the scheme, which had a ground to blade tip height of 115 metres, aimed to develop the project around 4km south west of Aberfeldy.

Conservation charity John Muir Trust welcomed the decision. It was among a number of organisations who objected to the application, including Scottish Natural Heritage, Perth & Kinross Council, RSPB and four neighbouring communities covering a vast area of Highland Perthshire.

Plans approved for new Glenshee Ski Centre chairlift

Plans have been approved to build a new four-man chairlift at Glenshee Ski Centre near Braemar.

The development is part of an ongoing programme at Glenshee to replace older infrastructure and improve the visitor experience at the site.

The facility is expected to be operational by 2019.

Historic West Lothian repair project complete

Work on a £1,000 historic stone slab restoration project in West Lothian is now complete.

A team of council apprentices have helped to restore a 12th century ‘refuge stone’ into a dyke wall near Beecraigs Country Park after the ancient boundary stone had been vandalised last year.

Working in partnership with Historic Environment Scotland, five apprentices from the council’s NETs & Land and Countryside Services received training from an expert dyker Richard Love of the Dry Stone Walling Association for the project.

The recruits managed to complete the skilled work repairing the wall and reinstalling the heavy stone slab in just one day.