Building Briefs – June 22nd

Robertson honoured as Scotland’s leading Family Business

Robertson has received the EY Family Business Award of Excellence at a glittering award ceremony held at Gleneagles Hotel.

The infrastructure firm, which has been led for more than 50 years by Bill Robertson, was honoured by professional services giant EY at their EY Entrepreneur Of The Year 2018 Scotland ceremony.

Joined by his wife Hilda and children Elliot and Sonya, all of whom are Board Directors, Bill was praised for the leadership he has shown throughout several decades at the helm, during turbulent economic cycles, and playing a key role in bringing talented young people into the industry.

Robertson has grown significantly since being founded in Elgin in 1966. From its roots as a joinery business it now has 22 businesses and more than 2600 employees.

Working across Scotland and in several areas of England, Robertson is currently delivering a wide range of projects across the public and private sectors. It recently completed work on one of its largest ever projects – the flagship £140m distillery and visitor experience for The Macallan, one of the world’s leading luxury single malts.

Murray Landscapes scores top marks at hub South West’s eighth Building for Growth awards event

Brothers Lee and Marc Murray, of family-run business Murray Landscapes, have come out top at the latest Building for Growth Programme course created by hub South West.

hub South West, the construction and infrastructure focused partnership works with local authorities and private sector enterprises in Ayrshire, Lanarkshire and Dumfries and Galloway to provide state-of-the-art community facilities.

Now in its eighth cycle, hub South West’s Building for Growth programme is targeted at ambitious local SMEs looking to grow in a sustainable manner by building upon the skills and internal capacity to take on increasing volumes of work. Over 90 delegates from 70 companies across the region have now graduated from the course.

The eighth Building for Growth programme, which got under way in March this year, ran over a period of 12 weeks. Session workshops focused on topics such as smart tendering, team building, strategic growth and exit options, marketing planning, supplier development programmes, corporate social responsibility and pitching for business.

Motherwell-based Murray Landscapes, which was founded by Marc Murray in 2009, is projecting an annual turnover of £250,000 this year. It was rated top participating company on a number of business attributes including leadership, marketing, strategic planning, pitching for business and business analysis by a panel of construction sector judges.

Marc – who also works as a fire-fighter in Bathgate Station - has built Murray Landscapes into a six-strong team. The company recently took Runner-Up prize for the Best Landscaping Company in Scotland at the Scottish Home Improvement Awards.

Murray Landscapes provides a range of quality landscaping services including design, construction and maintenance to both commercial and domestic clients. It has recently launched a new division called Murray Extreme clean which specialises in external cleaning services.

Barratt Homes East Scotland wins NHBC Commended health and safety awards

Barratt Homes East Scotland celebrated this week after its efforts to make Barratt Homes’ developments across Edinburgh and the Lothians the safest they can be were recognised by the NHBC.

Greenacres’ site manager Colin Graham led his onsite team to success after they underwent a trio of health and safety inspections over a four-month period, resulting in an NHBC Commended 2018 accolade – awards given to site managers who demonstrate the highest levels of health and safety in every aspect of their work on site.

The NHBC Health and Safety Awards finals will be held at the ICC in Birmingham on 6 July. The event will see Colin compete for the Highly Commended Award and the overall National Award.

NHBC’s ten-year Buildmark warranty covers around 80 per cent of new homes built in the UK. All of the homes at Barratt Homes’ Greenacres development is covered under this warranty.

New land register will improve transparency

The first steps are being taken to create a public register of people who ultimately make decisions about how land is used and managed.

The Scottish Government is publishing proposals that will, if agreed, reveal for the first time the controlling interests of land owned by trusts and overseas companies.

The register will be held by Registers of Scotland and will be free to the public.

Community input helps shape trams to Newhaven designs

A series of workshops with residents, traders, active travel organisations and community representatives is under way to refine proposals for taking trams to Newhaven.

The three workshops, which centre on key themes raised during the six-week first phase of public consultation held by the project team during March and April, kicked off on 14 June with a focus on the section between Pilrig Street and Foot of the Walk.

Twenty four people attended the four-hour session, including elected members, community councillors, local businesses, partner organisations including Lothian Buses and interest groups such as Sustrans and Living Streets.

Four viable alternative layouts for Pilrig Street to Foot of the Walk were presented to the workshop, with one - 3b - being preferred by the attendees.

This option includes two running lanes for all traffic (one northbound, one southbound), segregated cycleway and maximised footway on both sides of the street, plus a 1.8m central verge which can be used as a safe crossing point/refuge. Option 3b also accommodates parking and loading on both sides, where space is adequate.

Although this option was preferred, a number of issues were raised, such as loading for commercial premises.

The Trams to Newhaven project team is currently examining these issues ahead of a second workshop on Pilrig Street to Foot of the Walk on 27 June, where a preferred option will be chosen as part of the final designs for Council to vote on later in 2018.

The remaining workshop in the series, on 25 June, will focus on public realm at Elm Row.

Meanwhile, members of the Transport and Environment Committee heard a presentation from the project team outlining amendments which have already been made to the Trams to Newhaven plans following the spring consultation.

Angus councillors approve the sale of Traill Pavilion

Traill Pavilion in Montrose is to be sold.

The unanimous decision was taken by elected members at a recent meeting of Angus Council last week. The building is surplus to requirements and will now be sold having been placed on the market earlier this year.

Traill Pavilion is a single storey Grade C Listed building, located on Traill Drive at Montrose seafront next to the Splash playpark facility, which was gifted to Montrose and opened in 1913. It has been held on the Montrose Common Good, however the council is free to sell the property under the terms of the Montrose Water etc Order Confirmation Act 1910.