Building Briefs - February 10th

• Morar Living invests £20.5m into Scottish senior living sector with opening of Bridge of Weir and Musselburgh care homes

Morar Living’s Bridge of Weir care home is a £12m, 74-bed purpose-built facility, set in the heart of the beautiful Renfrewshire village; whilst Harbour House is an £8.5m 43-bed newly converted development, located on the Firth of Forth waterfront at Fisherrow Harbour in Musselburgh.

The homes will accommodate residents from both the private and public sectors. Each has private dining areas, hair salon, cinema room. a bar, games room, several lounges and quiet lounges all designed to provide residents with a choice of venue in which to spend their time and socialise with friends old and new.

The homes will provide more than 100 much-needed jobs across the two locations, while the construction projects created almost 120 contractor and site worker positions locally.

Morar Living currently has more than 200 beds over three new care homes in Scotland – Castlehill in Inverness, which opened earlier this year, Harbour House in Musselburgh and the new Bridge of Weir Care Home in Renfrewshire.

A further three care homes are currently under construction at Perth, Stirling and Helensburgh and are expected to open during 2021.

• Glasgow West Housing Association breaks ground at Dover Street

Glasgow West Housing Association (GWHA) has broken ground at its latest Dover Street development.

The project, which is being delivered by The JR Group and is due for completion in the Spring of 2023, consists of a prime-site commercial unit; and 55 self-contained flats for social rent (including five wheelchair accessible flats), in close proximity to Glasgow City Centre and the West End of Glasgow.

Joe Heaney, GWHA’s chairperson, said: “This has been a complex and challenging development project, and we are thankful for the ongoing support of the Scottish Government, Glasgow City Council and our local community, in reaching this important milestone.

“There is overwhelming demand for social housing in our area, and we are excited about the significant contribution these high quality, energy efficient homes will make towards our vision of shaping thriving communities.”

Craig Whyte, commercial director for The JR Group, commented: “We are delighted to be partnering with GWHA to break ground on this project. This is a substantial development which includes much-needed homes for Glasgow, so it is great to deliver these on behalf of the housing association, with the aim of creating a thriving new community.”

• Former Ayr Grammar Primary could be transformed into museum

South Ayrshire Council has proposed putting the Former Ayr Grammar Primary on the market.

A group has expressed interest in transforming the ex-school into a museum and for it to be handed over as a community asset.

Councillors will decide whether to go ahead with the sale at a Leadership Panel meeting next week.

A council paper due to be presented to elected members said converting it into flats is the “most realistic option in terms of future use for this building”.

• Perth City Hall development set to begin

Work on the multi-million-pound project to create a new museum at Perth City Hall that will proudly place the Stone of Destiny at its centre is set to get underway next Monday, February 15.

Perth & Kinross Council has reached out to residents and businesses which surround the site, extending an online presentation invitation to those that will overlook the renovation activity by BAM Construction.

The presentation gave a breakdown of the work and a timeline of what will happen. Locals were told that the conversion of city hall will be completed over two phases, the first being the main build which is expected to take 100 weeks starting from February 2021.

In the second phase, which should commence early in 2023, the museum’s interior fit out takes place.

That phase is expected to take 27 weeks and be complete by summer 2023.

Perth & Kinross Council has given no set date for an opening although it is expected to be in 2024.

• Big plan to revamp old South Ayrshire school

A community development charity has ambitious plans to redevelop a former village primary school into a community centre facility.

South Ayrshire Council has approved the transfer of ownership of the former Pinwherry Primary School to Pinwherry and Pinmore Community Development Trust (PPCDT).

They plan to redevelop the old school, near Girvan, to a sustainable, multi-purpose and accessible community-centred facility.

The group will benefit from a £107,000 capital grant from the council’s Advancing Community Assets Fund to complete essential repairs.

• First Inverness homes enjoy gigabit speeds as CityFibre project progresses

Inverness’ digital transformation has reached another milestone now that the first homes have connected to CityFibre’s new gigabit-capable full fibre network.

As homes and businesses start to benefit from this best-in-class broadband, the city has moved one step closer to saying goodbye to its capacity-constrained copper network and beginning its full fibre future.

CityFibre is investing around £20 million to bring this future-proof digital connectivity to the city. Since construction began in November 2019, works have been largely completed in the Culloden, Balloch and Smithton areas of the city.

Services are being made available from BrawBand, a broadband offering launched recently by award-winning Inverness-based internet services provider (ISP) HighNet, and TalkTalk is expected to join the network soon.

As Inverness becomes the latest city to join the full fibre revolution, CityFibre is on its way to achieving its target of bringing full fibre to eight million homes. Currently, full fibre connectivity is available to less than 20 per cent of UK properties.

CityFibre’s deployment of Inverness’ full fibre network expansion is due to be largely completed by the end of this year.

• Old Course flats decision appealed

Developers have appealed a decision to throw out plans for four luxury houses near the Old Course in St Andrews.

Councillors rejected the planning application for the homes overlooking the Swilcan Bridge in October.

Members of the northeast planning committee said the development would have a negative impact on the famous site. They also raised fears it would create a flood risk.

One member branded the modern design “literally quite shocking”.

However, planning agents Iceni Projects have now lodged a bid with the Scottish Government in an attempt to overturn the decision.

They claim councillors ignored proposed measures to eliminate any risk of flooding before refusing the application.

And they say the existing house is no longer fit for purpose and has little architectural merit.

• Fife Council to prioritise tackling flooding and potholes

New plans have been set out for capital spending over the next ten years as part of Fife Council’s biennial review. 

As well as planned expenditure on new schools, care homes, community facilities, environment and infrastructure, the council plans to commit additional funding to five key projects: £5.45m towards addressing flooding issues across Fife; spending on roads to be accelerated with an extra £2m brought forward for each of the next two years and additional funding to be committed to key community projects with the required upgrading of the Beacon leisure centre in Burntisland, the new community facility for Abbeyview in Dunfermline and the Inverkeithing community hub at the Wing. 

The council will make final budget decisions on March 11. Decisions on council tax and rent will be made on February 25.

• Plans for Common Good Asset Register for Kingussie and Grantown on Spey

Highland Council hopes a new Common Good Asset Register can be created for Kingussie after investigations identified a number of common good assets belonging to the Badenoch town’s Common Good Fund.

In addition, investigation work is also underway in Strathspey to establish assets belonging to Grantown on Spey with the aim of setting up a Common Good Asset Register there too sometime in the future.

After identifying the Kingussie’s assets officers have now outlined the next steps in the process which would be required to establish a register including a public consultation.

Investigations into property in Grantown on Spey will be brought before a future meeting of the Badenoch and Strathspey Area Committee.

Members at this week’s meeting of the Badenoch and Strathspey Area Committee noted the report presented to them which highlighted the list of property proposed for Kingussie in accordance with the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015.

Councillors also agreed to the launching of a public consultation on the list of proposed properties in Kingussie and noted the position regarding the ongoing investigation into properties in Grantown on Spey.

Common Good assets are property including buildings, land, rights (e.g. fishing), artwork, regalia, furniture, stocks and shares and cash funds that belonged to the Burghs of Scotland (pre-1975). They are held by the council principally for the benefit of the local community within the specified geographical boundary of the former burgh to which each fund relates and must be accounted for separately to other council property.