Building Briefs - March 22nd

• Maxim Park invests in technology to support return to offices

Shelborn has appointed global workspace technology provider, Office App, to roll out its tenant experience app across the business park, with the technology set to play an important part in supporting a return-to-work, as coronavirus restrictions begin to ease.

Strategically located between Glasgow and Edinburgh, Maxim Park comprises nearly 800,000 sq. ft. of commercial real estate and is home to over 50 businesses, including Ricoh, Balfour Beatty and Aviva.

The new park-wide app, powered by Office App, will seamlessly connect all tenants to a wide range of existing services and amenities through their smartphones. Offering a personalised user experience, tenants will be able to use the app as a pass to access spaces, as well as check desk availability, book rooms, order food and report any issues, all at the touch of a button. The app will also display and connect users to all community events, site offers and wellbeing and convenience services across Maxim Park.

• Dundee thoroughfare set for £640,000 facelift

A historic Dundee thoroughfare is set for a £640,000 facelift.

The road surface and pavements on Euclid Street/Crescent, between Constitution Road and Albert Square, will be replaced with new granite setts and flagstones.

Mark Flynn, convener of Dundee City Council’s city development committee, said: “Euclid Street/Crescent has been at the heart of Dundee for more than two centuries, and while it now doesn’t see as much traffic as it used to, it remains popular with pedestrians.

“The current carriageway and pavements were in need of an upgrade and this work will bring them up to date, while retaining a period look with high quality materials.

Work starts on March 29 and is expected to take five months. While contractor Dundee Plant is on-site pedestrian access to buildings will be maintained.

• Views sought on Aberdeenshire Council bridges prioritisation process

Aberdeenshire Council is seeking the views of the public as it looks to develop a policy and procedure for the prioritisation of its bridge repairs and renewals.

The local authority is responsible for 3,500 miles of public road, carried by 1,308 bridges, which equates to a bridge approximately every 2.7 miles of road.

Nearly 70% of those bridges are more than 100 years old and with such an ageing bridge stock there is now a significant programme of works required to be carried out over the next 10 years.

In addition, a greater frequency of severe weather events has increased the number of bridge closures and restrictions due to flood damage.

The optimum investment necessary to maintain, repair and renew bridges over the next 20 years is projected to be £102 million – or around £5.1m per year.

Aberdeenshire Council has now devised a draft policy and associated procedure to show how required works should be prioritised across the region and how available funding should be allocated.

Presentations around the prioritisation programme are currently being made to elected members on all six area committees.

The public engagement exercise – which involves maps, historical information on bridges and roads and a short survey, as well as the draft policy and procedure - will be available via the council’s Public Consultations webpage until April 12 at https://engage.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/.

• Restoration of Castle Street pend completed in Dundee

A city centre shortcut has had a £200,000 facelift in readiness for the end of lockdown and visitors returning to Dundee.

The pend between Castle Street and City Square has been transformed with new floor coverings, wall tiles, lighting and drainage repairs.

Designed in-house by Dundee City Council’s city development team the £211,000 project includes new granite floor coverings, feature wall tiles, lighting, painting, stone cleaning, canopy maintenance and above and below ground drainage repairs.

The distinctive use of colour, lighting and high-quality material finishes were chosen to brighten up the pend and strengthen the sense of place within the city centre.

New signage will be installed at both ends of the pend to highlight City Square, Castle Street and the access at the opposite side of the square to Crichton Street.

The work, by Angus-based Anderson Specialist Contracting, has taken around eight months to complete.

• One-fifth of all community owned assets are in urban areas, Community Land Scotland finds

A new report published by Community Land Scotland has revealed that 20% of all community-owned assets are now urban, and not just rural.

The change came about following the Community Right to Buy extended to cover urban areas in 2016. Almost £7 million of funding was provided by the Scottish Land Fund to enable the buy-outs.

From Dumfries to Aberdeen, people have been using the new powers and funding made available to them by the Scottish Government since 2016 to buy and run shops, redundant churches, community centres, High Street buildings, woodland, parks, pubs and bowling greens. 

Although urban communities owning assets was not a new phenomenon – the great stories of Glasgow’s first housing associations have much to teach us about a community’s refusal to take ‘no’ for an answer, often in the face of intransigent authorities – what has happened since 2016 places Scotland at the front and centre of international urban land reform and community led regeneration. In the five years since the introduction of the game-changing Community Empowerment Act and the extension of the Scottish Land Fund to all of Scotland’s communities, the energy, ambition and achievements of Scotland’s urban communities has been inspiring.

When Covid hit, many of these community groups were able to build on the credibility and reach of their organisations to respond quickly and effectively to the crisis, often being first on the scene and well ahead of larger agencies. Now many of them are turning their focus towards providing local leadership and action on the huge issue of the climate crisis.

Community Land Scotland said the struggles many of them had to go through – to save their local facility or bring a derelict building or site back into use, or campaign for local regeneration – has given them the strength and skills to respond to these new challenges.

• Report highlights need to build much more accessible and adaptable homes across Scotland

A new Age Scotland report has outlined the housing needs of older people with a series of recommendations for the Scottish Government and local authorities. 

The research highlights a need to increase the availability of accessible and adaptable homes so that people can live well and independently for as long as possible.

Age Scotland’s focus group research, funded by the Scottish Government and published today, is an extension of the major national housing survey into the needs of older people released last year. It highlights the preference of older people to be able to live in a home with step-free access, that was over a single storey and had access to a garden.

The report recommends that more homes which are accessible and adaptable are built, including targets for local authorities; that the Scottish Government work with housebuilders to deliver a greater mix of home types in new developments and foster intergenerational communities; ensure Scottish Government national housing strategies recognise and meet the needs of older people boost investment in care and repair services so that older and disabled people have easy and cost-effective ways to adapt their home wherever they live in Scotland.