Building Briefs - December 17th

• Clydebank care home welcomes first residents

In line with coronavirus restrictions, residents from Mount Pleasant House and Frank Downie House moved in over a two day period, and will remain within their support bubble of residents and staff for a 14 day period.

The move has been carefully planned, with the involvement of Public Health experts.

The themes of renewal and growth have influenced every aspect of the new home with residents seeing the move to the new facility as a fresh new beginning rather than the end of an era.

The home has been built and designed to reflect modern living including special features and soft furnishings to support residents living with dementia.

The building has one 14-bedroom flat and seven 10-bedroom flats with each resident having their own en-suite room. Each flat has living and dining areas and a kitchen to allow residents to relax and enjoy a variety of environments, while maintaining their independence.

All of the flats have been designed with supportive colour schemes to assist those with dementia in helping identify with their home and in creating a warm and homely feel. Residents have been involved in choosing their colour schemes and soft furnishings.

There are lounges, sitting rooms and adaptable communal spaces within each flat, which can be used as recreational rooms for hobbies. The lounges and bedrooms each have wall-mounted Smart TVs, which can also transmit films and performances which are playing in the cinema room.

A number of activity rooms will enable residents to continue and develop new hobbies and there will also be an onsite Bistro and hairdressing salon.

Residents can walk around the building, providing a sense of freedom within a safe environment.

Outside, a variety of courtyard and garden spaces provide an opportunity for gardening as well as enjoy the sculptures and water feature, grass activity zone and spaces to rest and socialise.

The new care home building will be powered by the Queens Quay district heating scheme and also has roof mounted photovoltaic panels as on-site renewable energy technology.

• Moray’s £300m Learning Estate Strategy approved

The new long-term approach to the learning estate in Moray has been approved by councillors following consultation with parents.

The strategy provides for individual solutions to be developed to meet the needs of different areas in Moray, rather than a one-size-fits-all approach. This could range from building new facilities to overhauling existing schools.

The principles underpinning any options that could be progressed in each community were agreed by parents, Head Teachers and community representatives ahead of gaining approval by full council.

Coming out on top is the desire to ensure inclusive, accessible facilities to support the wellbeing of pupils and staff, buildings that are managed in the best way possible, alongside equipping our schools with the appropriate digital technology.

• Scotland’s digital infrastructure boosted with next generation connectivity

High capacity 100Gbps connectivity services delivered into DataVita data centre set to futureproof Scotland’s businesses and public sector organisations

SSE Enterprise Telecoms, one of the UK’s leading connectivity providers, announced that Scotland’s digital capabilities have received a significant boost with the delivery of critical, high-capacity network infrastructure into the DataVita data centre, Scotland’s only purpose-built hyper-secure tier 3 facility.

As a provider of diverse connectivity directly into DataVita, SSE Enterprise Telecoms is able to offer separate routes for the network into the data centre and public infrastructure, to maximise bandwidth, minimise latency and deliver optimum service levels. The project will help deliver speeds of 100 gigabytes per second (Gbps) to Scottish businesses and public sector organisations, enabling them to benefit from the next generation of high-speed connectivity. 

With its new network infrastructure, the DataVita data centre will support the deployment of 5G networks, which will underpin the roll out and adoption of technologies such as Cloud, the Internet of Things (IoT) and the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). And with the connectivity provider’s UK-wide network, Scotland’s businesses will no longer have the country’s connectivity limited by geographical constraints. Better access to these digital services will particularly support the manufacturing, finance, and public sectors, as well as the Scottish economy.

The new infrastructure directly connects DataVita to SSE Enterprise Telecoms’ more than 20,000km UK-wide network. As a result, Scotland’s businesses will have easy access to next generation connectivity and Service Providers and Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) will have access to a more expansive network when rolling out connectivity and 5G services.

SSE Enterprise Telecoms designed and managed the entire 100Gbps connectivity project, from design stage to full data deployment.

• Town Centre Fund projects agreed at Sutherland County Committee

Members at a special meeting of Sutherland County Committee this week agreed on projects to receive funding from the Town Centre Fund for investment in Brora, Golspie and Dornoch.

At the beginning of the meeting, members agreed to divide the grant three ways across Golspie, Dornoch and Brora. Each community was therefore allocated £28,052.

The projects agreed for investment are as follows:

Brora

Brora and District Action Group (BaDAG) have been awarded £18,000 to provide dedicated motorhome parking spaces within the existing lorry park, including electric hook ups. This work will complement the chemical waste facility project already underway and funded during Round 1 of the Town Centre Fund. The group were also awarded £10,000 for the provision of new/replacement town centre gateway (north and southbound) signage highlighting updated local facilities (especially those for motorhomes/caravanners) and natural attractions.

Golspie

Go Golspie have been awarded £20,000 towards a package of works to bring the former YMCA building back into use. The works include roof repairs to the rear of the property, toilet refurbishment and electrical works.

Go Golspie were also awarded £8,052 for the erection of several tourism signs on the A9 throughout Golspie to identify/highlight attractions for tourists including scenic walks, historic buildings etc.

It was also agreed that BaDAG and Go Golspie can work together on their signage projects.

Dornoch

Dornoch Area Community Interest Company were awarded £28,052 towards the first phase of ‘Project Curlew’ which seeks to create 38 car spaces, 4 dedicated motorhome spaces, flexible 5 coach/ 8 motorhome spaces, 8 motorcycle spaces and 10 bicycle stances on part of the former Abattoir site. There will also be 3 disabled spaces, 3 parent & child parking slots and charging points for 4 vehicles and a charging point for e-bikes.

• Scottish Parliament agrees to postpone fire alarm standard to February 2022

The Scottish Parliament’s local government committee has agreed to a postponement of new regulations for fire and smoke alarm regulations until 2022.

The Scottish Government sought parliamentary approval for a 12-month delay to legislation which requires all homes in Scotland to have interlinked smoke and carbon monoxide alarms, following criticism of the timing of implementation due to the impact of coronavirus.

The new standard, which currently apply to private rented property and new-builds, would have been extended to all homes in Scotland in February 2021.

Activity by social housing landlords to make the changes is well under way.

The Scottish Government has made more than £15 million of loan funding available for social landlords ensuring that social tenants are safe in their homes, and have provided the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service in the region of £1m funding to enable them to install alarms during their Home Fire Safety Visits to owner occupied properties assessed to be at high risk from fire.

Homeowners can install tamper proof long-life lithium battery alarms themselves. Mains-wired alarms are also available and are generally cheaper than the tamper proof long-life battery alarms but should be installed by a qualified electrician. Both types of alarm are widely available in general hardware outlets and online.

The Scottish Government said it will continue to work with partners to spread awareness of the changes before the new deadline, and to support householders to ensure the required alarms before the new deadline.

• Historic wall restoration project ongoing

Work is ongoing to restore a historic C listed wall dating back to the 1800s within scenic Almondell & Calderwood Country Park.

The stone and lime mortar wall, which borders the original walled garden of the old Almondell Estate, was in danger of being lost due to its deteriorating condition.  

The £200k restoration work project is being funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund (previously Heritage Lottery Scotland) and West Lothian Council with support from Sustrans Artroots Project and Scotmid.  

West Lothian Council’s Parks & Woodland and Construction Services teams are working in partnership with volunteers from the Friends of Almondell & Calderwood on the project, which will involve stabilising and restoring the wall using traditional materials and techniques.

Restoration will take place over the coming weeks with completion estimated for early 2021. The project will also offer training opportunities for staff and volunteers interested in traditional lime mortaring methods so as to carry the project into the future and ensure that the wall is maintained for years to come.

Almondell & Calderwood Country Park attracted over 166,000 visitors last year, with the walled garden location being a main attraction for young families using the children’s play area and hireable BBQ within its boundaries.