Building Briefs – August 21st

A team of brave trekkers scaled the heights of Britain’s highest mountain to raise money for a very special children’s charity.

The group of eight workers from Persimmon Homes West Scotland took on the Ben Nevis climbing challenge raising £6,749 for Yorkhill Children’s Charity.

After months of preparation and training walks the team set out, reaching the pinnacle in four and a half hours.

The trekkers set themselves a challenge to raise funds for their chosen charity, smashing their initial target of £2,000 by raising £6,749.

Over £4m to improve West Dunbartonshire cemeteries

Multi-million pound works to improve West Dunbartonshire’s cemeteries and crematorium are underway.

The council is currently constructing a new Dumbarton Cemetery in Garshake Road in addition to the town’s historic facility to provide sufficient burial space for the future.

Over the next year Vale of Leven and Kilmaronock cemeteries are being extended to ensure they can continue to meet the needs of the community, and infrastructure works are being carried out at North Dalnottar to extend the area of land used for burials.

A £1.5m refurbishment programme is also set to begin at Clydebank Crematorium this week which will upgrade the facility and ensure the crematorium continues to meet environmental regulations.

Countdown begins to opening of £7m Premier Inn hotel in St Andrews

Premier Inn is set to open its 66th hotel in Scotland in the town of St Andrews in the Autumn, creating 25 new, full and part-time all year round jobs and four apprenticeships.

Located on the main Largo Road, the contemporary three-storey, 65-bedroom hotel and restaurant will feature the company’s latest high-spec, modern design, self-service check-in facilities, free car parking and sheltered cycle parking.

The hotel has been built using the best-performing green technologies, including the heating and cooling of rooms provided via air source heat pumps which incorporate heat recovery technology, resulting in the reduction of carbon emissions.

High insulated windows to reduce cooling requirements have also been installed, resulting in energy consumption and demand on resources being significantly reduced, which is part of the company’s Good Together CSR strategy to ensure that new hotels are built to the highest sustainable standards in the industry.

The hotel has also achieved a ‘Very Good’ BREEAM rating. BREEAM is the world’s foremost environmental assessment method and rating system for buildings and sets the standard for best practice in sustainable building design, construction and operation and has become one of the most comprehensive and widely recognised measures of a building’s environmental performance in the UK.

The new hotel in St Andrews is part of Premier Inn’s expansion plans that will see the company extend its current number of bedrooms UK-wide to 85,000 by 2020.

A77 landslip works continue

The on-going programme of repairs and landslide mitigation works on the A77 is to resume on Monday 24 August 2015.

The work to improve the resilience of the route is being carried out by Scotland Transerv on behalf of Transport Scotland and will see further repairs and drainage improvements to the hillside at Carlock Hill. Geotechnical surveys will also be carried out just north of Cairnryan to help plan the next stage of the programme.

The work follows the publication of the South West Landslide Action Plan by Transport Scotland. It sets out the long-term measures that will be taken in future to try to mitigate the effect of landslides in the area.

Reduced risk of collapse among building firms

The risk of firms in Scotland’s construction sector collapsing has fallen over the past six months, according to research by insolvency trade body R3.

The proportion of companies considered at higher than normal risk of insolvency has dropped by 4.3 per cent since February, slightly faster than the 4.1 per cent UK average. The rate has fallen in five of the past six months, with only April recording a small month-on-month increase, R3 said.

Just over 30 per cent of construction businesses in Scotland are now considered at heightened risk of insolvency, marginally higher than the UK average.

Wind farms planned near Duns, Leswalt and Glenluce

Plans for three wind farms in the south of Scotland have been revealed.

Ecotricity wants to build 16 turbines on land near Duns in Berwickshire where there is an “isolated landscape” and “high wind speeds”.

Councillors have also been asked to reject plans for an eight-turbine development at Larbrax Moor, near Leswalt in Wigtownshire.

However, planners have recommended they approve proposals for a nine-turbine wind farm near Glenluce.

Ecotricity will apply to the Scottish Government for permission to build at Inch Moor, near Duns.

The firm said it wants to build turbines that measure 126.5m (415ft) in height.

It claims the project could meet the energy needs of about 36,500 homes.

Meanwhile, Dumfries and Galloway Council planners have recommended that Brookfield Renewable’s plans for Larbrax Moor are refused.

They claim it would have a “significant and adverse impact on the landscape”.

Plans for the wind farm near Glenluce are expected to be approved by the same council.

Under plans submitted by WilloWind Gass, the turbines would fill a gap between the operational Artfield Fell wind farm and the Airies wind farm, which has been approved but not implemented.

Planners have recommended it is approved, subject to strict conditions.

Edinburgh and South East residents to have say on regional development plans

Residents and interest groups living in Edinburgh and the South East of Scotland have been invited to share their views on how to shape the future of the region at a series of engagement events organised by the South East Scotland Strategic Development Planning Authority (SESplan).

The events mark the second stage of a public consultation launched on 21 July to discuss the Main Issues Report, which will be used to develop plans to accommodate the area’s future growth.

Over the next two decades the local population is expected to grow by 18 per cent and the number of households by 25 per cent.

These events aim to gather views on how to respond to the need for more housing and infrastructure, as well as the potential impact this could have on green belt areas.

Feedback received will help identify the key issues and priorities of people living in the South East of Scotland and will be used to form a strategic development plan for the area.

West of Scotland Housing Association appoints new chief executive

West of Scotland Housing Association (WSHA) has appointed Lynne Donnelly as chief executive.

Currently operations director at Partick Housing Association, Lynne will bring a wealth of experience and knowledge to WSHA after working in the housing sector for over 30 years, in a variety of roles.

In her most recent position, Lynne was responsible for three key business areas: housing management, reactive and planned maintenance and factoring, ensuring a quality service was delivered to 1,750 customers and over 2,000 owner occupiers.

Lynne Donnelly will take up the position of chief executive at the beginning of October 2015.

Owners of empty West Dunbartonshire homes could benefit from Council Tax changes

Owners of empty homes in West Dunbartonshire could be eligible for refunds after councillors approved backdated changes to Council Tax charges.

In April 2014, West Dunbartonshire Council was keen to get local empty homes back into use and introduced a policy which meant owners of empty homes could be liable to pay 200 per cent Council Tax.

Discretions on this charge were introduced in July 2015 which exempted owners if they could prove they were making efforts to refurbish their home to live in, or were actively marketing the property but experiencing delays beyond their control.

Councillors agreed this month that residents would be entitled to a refund backdated to April 2014 if they matched the above criteria and had been billed for the additional Council Tax.

Residents now have six months to contact the council to apply for a refund or adjustment of outstanding Council Tax debt. They will need to supply evidence to support their claim for exemption.

In a further change, any new owners who purchase a property will be exempt from paying Council Tax for up to three months to allow them to make their home habitable.

A further discretionary period of up to nine months will be considered to bring the property back into use if the owner has agreed a plan with the council to take positive steps to occupy their property and has also committed to eight-weekly inspections to review progress.

Owners of existing empty properties that require work to be completed to bring the property up to a suitable standard for sale, rent or to live in will also be exempt from paying the additional council tax for up to three months if they agree to inspections to check work is progressing. The owners will also have to provide evidence to show that any delays in making their home habitable has been outwith their control.