Building Briefs – September 10th

Two promotions to director and one to associate at DM Hall

Chartered surveyors DM Hall has promoted Eric Andrew and Nick Hancock, two Edinburgh-based residential surveyors, currently associates in the firm, to director.

Jonathan Hunter, a residential surveyor in DM Hall’s Musselburgh office has been promoted to Associate.

Eric Andrew, who was elected a professional associate of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) in 1996, and has been promoted from Associate, has worked in the Edinburgh Residential office since 1999. He has extensive experience in the local market and specialises in residential valuation and survey work.

Nick Hancock worked as an estate agent in London and Edinburgh before re-training as a chartered surveyor in 2007. He re-located to Scotland and has worked in the firm’s Edinburgh Residential office since 2012. He was promoted to Associate in 2015. Nick has experience in a number of areas including planning, development and consent and also operated as a land agent. He is a member of DM Hall’s Business Development Committee.

East Lothian born and bred Jonathan Hunter joined DM Hall’s Livingston office in 2014 as a chartered surveyor and was promoted to senior surveyor shortly thereafter. Qualified originally in construction he retrained as a chartered surveyor and completed also a Master’s degree in Real Estate Management from the University of the West of England. He is now based in the firm’s Musselburgh office from which he advises client in the region on surveying and valuation matters.

The newly-hired graduates are: Hannah Sime, who will operate from the firm’s Kirkcaldy office; William Humphries, Oban; Amelia Rogers, Aberdeen; Leanne Saunders, Dunfermline; Margaret McDowall, Hamilton; Graham Wilson, Musselburgh; Jack Chinery, Dundee; Vanessa Harris, Cumbernauld, and Oliver Lawson, Edinburgh Commercial.

New £4m school opens in Girvan

The new £4 million Invergarven School has been officially opened in Girvan.

The facility will help support education in Girvan and South Carrick, and is targeted at primary and secondary children and young people with additional support needs.

CBC built the school in the grounds of Girvan Academy, replacing the 1870 building on Henrietta Street.

The school provides spaces for learning and teaching including a sensory room, life skills kitchen, multi-use hall, a rebound therapy trampoline room, hydrotherapy pool and external areas that support outdoor learning. The new school also increases capacity by around a third with 20 children and young people able to be taught at any one time.

Fife schools benefit from summer holiday improvements

A range of improvements have been carried out across Fife schools, making for another successful annual holiday improvement programme.

The school summer holidays provided a six-week window of opportunity to carry out significant improvement works to the school estate without affecting term-time school activity. This year has delivered a varied and extensive programme of school projects worth £3.5 million.

Some of the highlights include re-roofing works at Beanstalk Nursery in Dunfermline, Carleton Nursery in Glenrothes, Falkland Primary School and Balmullo Primary School. Window replacement programmes were completed at Markinch Primary School and Torbain Primary School in Kirkcaldy.

New fire doors were installed at Pitreavie Primary School in Dunfermline. New fire alarms, ceilings and lighting have been installed at Hill Of Beath, Dairsie, Lynburn, Sinclairtown and Caskieberran Primary Schools. A new fire alarm was also installed at Tulliallan Primary School in Kincardine.

Alteration works to improve school layouts have been delivered at St Marie’s RC Primary School in Kirkcaldy and Hyndhead School in Buckhaven and cloakroom improvements were carried out at Leuchars Primary School.

At St Andrew’s RC High School in Kirkcaldy the technical block was re-roofed and new roof lights installed.

A new connecting corridor has been constructed at John Fergus School in Glenrothes. It was a challenging project to complete in six weeks but has transformed the school’s layout.

These summer projects sit alongside longer-term improvements such as the ongoing work to deliver a new £4.5m integrated community facility being built at Capshard Primary School in Kirkcaldy and the £300k refurbishment of toilets at Lochgelly High School.

This year, the new £1.4m Pathhead Primary School nursery extension project was also completed in the summer holidays and is set to provide high quality playrooms and outdoor areas for children aged two to four years old.

East Lothian Council homes upgraded with new kitchens and bathrooms

A number of East Lothian council homes have been upgraded with new kitchens and bathrooms in the last year.

Approximately 452 bathrooms and 482 kitchens were installed by East Lothian Council’s Property Maintenance service.

The service also repainted the windows, gutters and downpipes of 1,180 houses.

Road work to be carried out in Kirkwall

Road work is to be carried out on Junction Road and New Scapa Road in Kirkwall, starting today.

The work will last for up to three weeks with diversions and changes to public bus timetables in place throughout.

The section of road between Hornersquoy (the turnoff from New Scapa Road into the main Balfour Hospital entrance) and the crossroads at Main Street will be closed to traffic between the hours of 07:00 and 18:00. The junction at High Street will also be closed.

The junction of Manse Road onto New Scapa Road will be closed throughout the duration of works but access to residential properties and businesses on Manse Road and the surrounding area will be accessible at all times via Laverock Road and Broadsands Road.

Pedestrian access will be maintained at all times.

Highland Carriageway Widening Works Enter Final Stage

The ongoing £0.5 million project to widen the B9006 Culloden Road carriageway in the Highlands has reached its final stages.

An overnight closure of the road will be in place from Monday 10 September to Thursday 13 September from 6.30pm-6.30am to allow the works to take place.

Wills Bros is carrying out the project on behalf of the Highland Council.

The project involves the construction of an additional westbound lane for city centre traffic. It will provide two continuous lanes for traffic between the Inverness Campus junction and Inshes Roundabout and it will widen Culloden Road’s approach to the Roundabout.