Building Briefs – February 26th

• First Minister officially opens Dundee’s Regional Performance Centre for Sport

The Caird Park campus has been up and running since the end of last year. It hosts a full size indoor 3G football pitch and outdoor 3G ‘rugby sized’ pitch suitable for both rugby and football.

The pitches are designed to meet World Rugby and FIFA compliance standards and already Glasgow Warriors have had a training camp and both Dundee FC and Dundee United FC have trained at the centre.

It also includes eight court multi-sports hub building with spectator seating, a strength and conditioning suite and a state-of-the- art-sport science suite.

An indoor athletics centre with an 80m running straight provides all-weather training for athletes, while the outdoor athletics track was resurfaced and a covered spectator area added. The velodrome has also been refreshed with a new area of hardstanding provided for competition, with upgraded floodlighting.

The centre is a partnership between Dundee City Council, Leisure & Culture Dundee and sportscotland.

An innovative £5 million energy centre which allows a district heating capability was also included in the major construction programme.

• Survey and design works progressing on new Alford recycling facility

Survey and design works are progressing on a new household recycling centre for Alford.

Aberdeenshire Council confirmed in December that developer Kirkwood Homes would be upgrading and expanding the existing facility for the village which will feature increased opening hours and accept additional materials for recycling.

Alford Household Recycling Centre on Mart Road had limited operating hours and accepted reduced streams of materials when compared with larger sites.

The new ‘drive-in, drive-out’ facility will feature an extended range of materials collected for recycling including soil and rubble and will also operate four days a week Friday to Monday.

Kirkwood Homes is undertaking the construction of the recycling centre under a planning agreement linked to its development at Wellheads, Alford.

The current facility closed in mid-January to enable Kirkwood Homes to undertake preliminary works on the site.

• Osprey Housing delivers a ‘life changing’ new home

The parents of an Aberdeenshire boy with complex learning difficulties including Down’s Syndrome are celebrating after being handed the keys to a new-build home which has been specially adapted for them by Osprey Housing Group.

Kevin and Patricia Logie moved into their Stonehaven house on 24th September 2019 with daughter Jessica, 12, Oliver, six, Harrison, 22 months, and four-year-old Reece, who faces multiple medical challenges associated with Down’s and requires 24-hour care.

They had been living in a property in Kemnay where all three bedrooms and the bathroom were upstairs, and the front and rear gardens were reached by steps and bounded by low fences.

Reece also had to share a bedroom with his siblings and his night waking and crying disturbed the whole family, including Jessica who is in her first year at Robert Gordon’s College in Aberdeen after being awarded a 100% scholarship.

Osprey was able to work with Reece’s occupational therapist and social care team to find a solution, delivering a house specifically adapted to his needs within the new £5.16 million Carron Den mixed development.

The four-bedroom, energy-efficient semi-detached property gives Reece his own bedroom and wet room on the ground floor with three further bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs. The garden has been fitted with the right kind of boundary fencing, access is on the level, and the property is also sound-proofed, so the family no longer needs to worry about Reece potentially disturbing the neighbours.

Carron Den is a development of 43 properties, 32 of them social housing and 11 mid-market rentals. As well as customising a home for the Logies, Osprey Housing Group has included four further properties adapted to allow residents with learning disabilities to move into their first independent tenancy.

By working closely with Aberdeenshire Council, Osprey was able to identify individuals who would benefit most from supported independence and deliver customised specifications.

The Carron Den development was supported by a £3.05m Scottish Government grant and £2.11m in private funding from Lloyds Banking Group. The final phase will be handed over to residents on 9 March.

• My Ness Project to progress to next stage

The additional works required to enhance the access arrangements to the My Ness art piece and to enable the project to be completed are now fully funded. 

The Inverness City Arts Working Group (ICArts) agreed to proceed to the construction phase of the My Ness Project at a meeting held on Monday of this week.

Following the report to councillors at the Highland Council’s city of Inverness area committee in November 2019, officers worked with Creative Scotland to close the funding gap which emerged following the changes to the original design in order to improve access requirements to the My Ness piece of art beyond the original specification which met with legal requirements.   

The next phase will involve giving close care and attention to the natural environment and an ecological assessment will be undertaken, alongside liaison with the Ness District Fisheries Board. 

The project team are also working closely with the council’s tree officer to ensure that all necessary precautions are taken to protect the local environment. One mature tree is to be removed located adjacent to the Fisherman’s Hut and one on the opposing riverbank.  The tree that is adjacent to the Fisherman’s Hut is in a poor condition and is being removed under a general tree management plan for the area. Otherwise, site clearance work will involve the clearance of undergrowth and shrubs.

• Construction firm helps launch The Winter Kitchen

Construction and property company McAleer & Rushe is among a number of groups from across Glasgow to have joined forces to launch The Winter Kitchen to ensure that homeless and vulnerable individuals have access to food, shelter and health and care support throughout the winter.

In a fantastic example of the power of partnership working, a group of charities, businesses and benevolent individuals have collaborated to create The Winter Kitchen, a pop-up soup kitchen in the heart of the city.

Located on Dixon Street, The Winter Kitchen is already proving popular, with 145 visitors, six onward referrals and three injection equipment kits supplied in its first week. This is due in part to its central location.

Anticipating this, the team reached out to partners from across the city. This means that any vulnerable individuals looking to begin their recovery journey can be signposted towards longer-term support opportunities that work for them.

Where night shelters, churches and hostels already offer vital services in the evenings, during the daytime there is little on offer for those in need. Whether it’s short term help (food, clothing, medical attention) or longer-term support (signposting to recovery communities/services across the city), The Winter Kitchen will plug that gap until late March, but the charity is appealing for help.

Several charities have come forward to offer food, clothing and staff time with nurses from the NHS on hand to provide support to individuals with health issues. Local businesses have also made vital contributions: landlords Ramage Young offered the premises for peppercorn rate; McAleer & Rushe made soup and offered their tradesmen services for free to help get the space ready.