Building Briefs - March 23rd

• Inverness West Link project on track for completion in spring

Stage 1 of the West Link Project was completed in December 2017 and Stage 2 began in 2018. This phase of the project was originally planned for completion by the end of 2020, however the site was forced to close due to COVID-19 restrictions for a number of months.

This has inevitably meant a delay in completion, with the project expected to be completed around the end of May 2021.

Work is currently underway in installing the second bridge over the Caledonian Canal. The engineering work has been modelled in 3 D on computers and the complex installation is now at the stage of making minute and detailed adjustments to the mechanism in situ, to bring the bridge perfectly into alignment.

A community liaison meeting was held yesterday evening to bring the local community up to date with the project.

• Greenhill HR makes donation to Alexander Community Development Transition to Trade

Alexander Community Development has received a donation of £1,000 from Greenhill HR towards its Transition to Trade programme.

Transition to Trade is a positive pathway for young people who want to get into the construction industry. There has been a sharp drop in the number of school and college leavers entering the construction industry, particularly in certain trades and the home building sector.

The donation from Greenhill HR will go towards the enrichment of the Transition to Trade schools programme for 2021. This donation will allow Alexander’s Community Development to access resources that will enhance the delivery of the programme, focusing on the development of young people’s soft skills.

• New economic model to make case for rural connectivity

A consortium of research partners – working together in support of Moray’s regional growth deal – could pave the way for better connectivity in remote and rural areas by creating a new commercial model for delivering critical telecommunications infrastructure.

CENSIS – Scotland’s Innovation Centre for sensing, imaging, and Internet of Things (IoT) technologies – The Scotland 5G Centre, and Digital Health & Care Innovation Centre (DHI) have received funding from the Scottish Government to develop an economic model that could redefine the assessments behind infrastructure deployment, prioritising the potential value to communities over cost.

The new approach will aim to address the ‘digital divide’ between areas that have access to fast, reliable telecommunications – typically large population centres – and communities that experience limited access to increasingly vital public services, many of which are in rural Scotland. 

The consortium’s feasibility study will draw on a much wider range of factors to determine the overall viability of network infrastructure, rather than relying purely on the number of people in a given area.

Using healthcare as the principal use case, it will factor in the societal and quality of life benefits that enhanced connectivity could bring to rural areas. This will be determined, for instance, by the cost prevention and health benefits delivered by supporting people with underlying conditions to live more independently and avoid hospitalisation, or re-admission, through tele-medicine or remote care services.

The health use case will be developed by DHI, while CENSIS will look at the additional applications in other sectors. The Scotland 5G Centre will analyse the connectivity through different telecommunications standards – including, but not exclusively, 5G.

Although the project’s main geographical focus will be Moray, it will also examine how the same model might be applied to rural and remote areas in the south of Scotland. The principles developed by the study could be employed by communities in the UK and potentially across the world.

• Solar Energy UK welcomes new board leadership team

Matt Black has been appointed the new chair of Solar Energy UK by the association’s board.

Matt, a director at Solivus and adviser to solar investors and developers, takes on the role following five years of service by Jonathan Selwyn, who has stood down to focus on his new role as managing director at Bluefield Development.

Matt carries a wealth of industry experience having held senior roles at Foresight Group and Armstrong Capital Management, in addition to being a Solar Energy UK director since 2016.

He is joined by Christelle Barnes, UK manager at SolarEdge, and Gareth Williams, managing director of Caplor Group, who are taking on vice-chair roles.

Christelle has held senior roles at multinationals including Kingspan and Conergy, while Gareth has headed Caplor Group for over 30 years in addition to being a Microgeneration Certification Scheme trustee and an environment advisor to the BEIS science team.

• SGN launches free eLearning for working near gas pipelines

SGN has launched free eLearning highlighting the importance of working safely near gas pipelines while giving clear guidance on what to do before starting any work.

SGN manages the network that distributes natural and green gas to 5.9 million customers across the south of England and in Scotland. It owns and operates 74,000km of gas mains, including high-pressure (HP) pipelines, which are a critical part of the national infrastructure. As these pipelines run underground across the length and breadth of the country, it’s inevitable that work will need to be carried out near them at times.

The most common cause of incidents involving the gas network is damage by others. This can happen whenever land within the proximity of pipelines is disturbed. Not only is damaging a pipeline illegal, but the consequences can be catastrophic. That’s why SGN has created free eLearning to share with all its stakeholders including young farmers clubs, agricultural colleges, landowners and the local authorities.

Click here to complete the course.

• Taylor Wimpey completes Kilmarnock homes

The final chapter of Taylor Wimpey West Scotland’s Walker’s Grove and the vision for its Altonhill development in Kilmarnock was completed this month when customers Mark and Jennifer Taylor moved into their new home at the development.

Since the start of construction of the first phase of new homes in 2004 the masterplan has matured and evolved to deliver 728 new homes.

The completion of the final development of 104 new homes represented the last phase of 17 years’ continuous investment in the local area by Taylor Wimpey West Scotland.

As part of its commitment to the community, an agreement with East Ayrshire Council has also seen Taylor Wimpey West Scotland make important contributions over the years which has provided for the upgrade of existing education and the creation of play facilities within the local area.

The overall master plan at Altonhill has a large amount of amenity open space. A public park with a fully equipped play area catering for all age groups was completed recently, and a further equipped play area to the north is a now open and being enjoyed by the local community.

• Sanctuary and Cruden bring learning outdoors in Port Glasgow

Nursery children from an Inverclyde school are getting closer to nature at playtime in a new educational outdoor area created by local developers.

The outdoor learning area at St Francis Primary and Nursery School in Port Glasgow has been brought to life by Sanctuary Scotland and Cruden Building.

The school is on the doorstep of Sanctuary Scotland’s new development of 24 affordable flats on Dubbs Road in Port Glasgow, which have been built by construction partners Cruden Building.

Funding for the play area transformation was made available by Sanctuary’s MORE! initiative, through which Cruden Building provided its skills and time to turn the nursery children’s dreams into a reality.

Sanctuary’s MORE! programme sees development partners work together to add value to areas where homes are being constructed by donating skills, resources and equipment to help important local community projects.

The team from Cruden created the exciting new area by building timber bench seating, planters and troughs, a water activity wall, work benches and a new mud kitchen, with astrograss, woodchips and mulch surrounding the area.

The partnership between Sanctuary and Cruden has created 19 new jobs, four new modern apprenticeships and nine work placements across the four development sites in Inverclyde.

Sanctuary is developing a total of 96 much-needed homes for social rent across Greenock and Port Glasgow, which will be managed by Sanctuary Scotland.

• Bellsmyre regeneration works step up a gear with Jackie Baillie visit

Caledonia Housing Association is moving full steam ahead in its ambitious £30 million regeneration of Bellsmyre area of Dumbarton.

Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, The Vale of Leven, Helensburgh and Lomond, visited the site to witness the major demolition works of the old unpopular tenements. These are to be replaced with new affordable family friendly homes with their own gardens. She also viewed the groundworks to prepare foundations for the 66 new affordable homes being built at Muir Road.

Six further blocks of the unpopular original three-storey tenements have been included in the first phase of demolition at Pennicroft and Whiteford Avenue in the regeneration area. This acceleration of Phase 1 of the development plan is due to more tenants moving either to new permanent homes or temporary accommodation, until the new homes are complete at Bellsmyre.

Bellsmyre regeneration area – which will be completed in three phases - will include the construction of new, affordable, two-storey homes to replace a total of 225 traditional flats. The development at Muir Road will be a mix of houses and flats with one, two and three bedrooms to cater for a wide range of families and individuals. There will be 44 two and three-bedroom houses, and 22 one and two-bedroom flats.

Muir Road is on programme to complete in June 2022.

• Tenants move into three Osprey Housing new builds in Inverurie

Osprey Housing has added to its rural Aberdeenshire portfolio with tenants moving into three new builds in Inverurie.

The houses — two two-bedroom and one three-bedroom — are in Portstown and offer residents state-of-the-art design while also boosting the town’s social housing provision.

For mother-of-four Jane Allan, the move to her terraced home in Portstown marked a new chapter in her life.