Building Briefs – May 14th

• A90 Laurencekirk junction ground investigations to start

The work is to help inform the ongoing design work for the planned improvements at this busy junction.

Some traffic management measures will be required when necessary to allow work on or near the carriageway to be carried out safely. This will include alternate single file traffic sections on the adjoining A937 side road controlled by temporary traffic signals or at times stop/go boards as required.

Contractors will monitor traffic and take steps where necessary to adjust or remove traffic management to ensure delays are kept to a minimum.

• Housing minister starts construction on Springfield development in Hopeman

Construction has started at Springfield’s affordable housing development at Hopeman in Morayshire with housing minister Kevin Stewart in attendance to mark the occasion.

The private and affordable developer will be building 22 affordable homes, just off Forsyth Road in the seaside village.

Built in partnership with Moray Council, the one bedroom flats, two bedroom bungalows and three bedroom homes will be highly energy efficient making them cheaper to run for tenants and greener for the environment.

• Lovell shortlisted for two Scottish Home Awards

Partnership housing developer Lovell has been successfully shortlisted in two categories of the 2019 Scottish Home Awards for developments located in South Lanarkshire and Fife.

Situated on the former derelict site of Auchinraith Primary School in Blantyre and developed on behalf of Clyde Valley Housing Association, Lovell’s 38-unit affordable housing scheme has been shortlisted in the Small Affordable Housing Development (social rent) category of the 12th annual awards, alongside eight other finalists.

Featuring attractive landscaping to further enhance the streetscape, the Harthill development includes a variety of differing property designs to ensure a mix of occupants from single persons to families, providing an integrated community.

Lovell also features amongst a shortlist of seven finalists in the Show Home of the Year (Selling price over £400k) category for its Argyll luxury show home at the Lochside Grange development in the Fife coastal village of Kinghorn. Spanning 209 square metres and set within lush landscaped gardens, the Argyll is an impressively spacious five-bedroom detached home that aims to be both aspirational and comfortable.

The winners of this year’s awards are due to be announced at a special ceremony at the Glasgow Central DoubleTree Hilton Hotel on June 13.

• Plans lodged for Kinloch Castle restoration

A multi-million pound business plan to restore one of Prince Charles’s favourite castles has been lodged with Scottish Natural Heritage.

Kinloch Castle, a Category-A listed building on the island of Rum, is renowned as an outstanding monument to late Victorian and early Edwardian times. In its heyday the former shooting lodge was a favourite haunt of aristocrats and royals.

However the building, complete with its original contents, including an orchestrion and other treasures, is now riddled with decay due to a lack of resources from owners Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH). The first part of a crucial restoration plan, aimed at bringing the castle back to its former glory, would cost more than £7 million.

Now registered Scottish charity the Kinloch Castle Friends Association has lodged plans requesting the transfer of the castle and its contents.

A report by Smith and Garratt, surveyors with expertise in heritage projects, estimates the cost of the first phase of restoration of the castle at £6.9m.

But since that report was completed the need for a stand-alone combined heat and power unit for the castle has pushed the costs up further.

Part of the accommodation was previously run as a hostel but since this closed in 2013, because of the need for improvements the castle has been lying unoccupied, with only seasonal tours taking place. The new plans would see urgent building work tackled first with the former hostel accommodation reopening as a B&B for 51 people.