Improvements are in progress to transform Aurs Road from a winding, single carriage road to a safer, straighter road with a new active travel route and waterside promenade. Work is being carried out by civil engineering firm GRAHAM on behalf of East Renfrewshire Council.

GRAHAM has supported a variety of community benefits to date including:

• £3000 donation to Include Me 2 Club; a Barrhead-based charity which supports and works with children, young people and adults with additional support needs and disabilities.
• £4187 donation to Work East Ren, the council’s employability service to fund a Construction Skills Certification Scheme (CSCS) course to upskill local people to access opportunities in the construction sector
• £500 donation to the Young Enterprise Scotland awards event
• Work experience, work placements and career events with local schools and young people, with further work placements planned.

In addition, three jobs on the GRAHAM Aurs Road construction site have been filled by previously unemployed local people via Work East Ren.

East Renfrewshire Council leader, Owen O’Donnell, said: “Large-scale projects such as the transformation of Aurs Road offer the opportunity to deliver wider benefits for our communities. I’m delighted that the team from GRAHAM have really embraced this ethos and are already delivering significant community benefits including jobs for local residents, work placements, career events and donations to valued local charities such as Include Me 2 Club.”

Douglas Jupp from GRAHAM said: “At GRAHAM we strive to make a difference by leaving a positive lasting impact on the wider community, people and environment in which we work. Delivery of Community Benefits at the Aurs Road project has been a great success thanks to collaboration with local services such as Work East Ren, where their knowledge of the local labour market helped ensure site vacancies were filled by local people. GRAHAM has actively engaged with 10 local schools to arrange site visits, work placements, and STEM outreach workshops and donated to community groups and local organisations that directly benefit the people of East Renfrewshire.”

Local groups are encouraged to add their wishes to the community benefit wish list to ensure suppliers of major contracts in the area support projects directly requested by communities.

The £22.68 million transformation of Aurs Road is being funded through the Glasgow City Region City Deal, with funding provided by both the UK and Scottish governments and Transport Scotland through Sustrans’ Places for Everyone programme, the Scottish Government’s Bridge Fund and developer contributions from new house building projects in the area.