Building Briefs – March 27th

• Housing association brings grounds maintenance in-house

The Association, which has extensive areas of land throughout Argyll and Bute located and neighbouring its 5,100 properties, said the move will help deliver its strategic objective of maintaining and improving the neighbourhoods its tenants live in. 

For six months of the year the primary focus will be on grass cutting and plant maintenance during the growing season. The remaining six months of the year will see a focus on neighbourhood improvement involving a series of projects to modernise public areas in ACHA estates.

In addition to the annual grounds maintenance budget of £363,000, there will be a specific five year programme of £300,000 per annum for five years to support environmental projects.

• Highland main line upgrade work complete

Network Rail has completed a £57 million programme of upgrades on the Highland main line between Perth and Inverness.

Completion of the Scottish Government-funded investment in the line linking Inverness to Glasgow and Edinburgh, will help deliver an hourly service, with average journey times reduced by around 10 mins and enable potential improvements to the times of the first and last trains between Inverness and the Central Belt.

The project, which has been ongoing since summer 2018, primarily focussed on Aviemore and Pitlochry and delivered work to remodel and extend tracks and upgrade signalling which will enable trains to move more efficiently along the rail corridor. 

Along with the introduction of new trains, it will improve connectivity, support more services and improve journey times to create a more attractive public transport choice for all of the communities along the line.

From Friday night until the early hours of Tuesday morning, engineers worked around-the-clock to complete new infrastructure between Perth and Inverness – including laying track at Aviemore, testing newly-installed signalling systems at Aviemore and Pitlochry and introducing longer platforms at Pitlochry into service.

The project has also helped to conserve the history of the stations; working with the community to restore some of Pitlochry station’s decorative features including the Victorian water fountain and benches.

• Take-up on Scotland’s retail parks increases as more vacancies create new opportunities

The number of retail units to let on Scottish out of town retail parks in 2018 totalled 82, 8% up on the long-term average, as administrations and CVA’s (company voluntary arrangement) released vacant units onto an otherwise constrained market, according to Savills research.

Key retailers driving activity include Aldi, Lidl, The Range, Home Bargains, Iceland/Food Warehouse and B&M as well as a number of bulky goods retailers. Scotland has also seen a number of new entrants in the market, with Homestore & More securing its first UK stores at Craigleith Retail Park in Edinburgh and Mavor Avenue, East Kilbride in 2018.

As the wider retail sector continued to struggle against changing consumer habits and rising costs, 2018 was dubbed ‘the year of the CVA’, says the international real estate advisor, with big brands including Carpetright, New Look and Homebase – all of which had a dominant retail park presence – opting in favour of a CVA and Maplin, Toys R Us and Fabb Sofas going into administration. The result was a release of vacancies across Scotland’s retail parks, generating increased churn in the sector and opportunities for new entrants.

• Stone wolves to guard Inverness Town House

A home has finally been found for two carved sandstone wolves that will adorn pride of place at the front entrance the Grade A Listed - Inverness Town House.

Provost Helen Carmichael and Depute Provost Graham Ross have chosen the final resting places for the new carvings which were created by Laing Traditional Masonry Sculptors and Conservators Derek Cunningham and Ivan Navarro.

Cllr Carmichael was on a recent site visit with principal project manager Jason Kelman and site manager Jaimie McLennan to inspect the third and final phase of refurbishments works at the Town House.

The phase 3 works include full stone repairs and replacement, mortar re-pointing, guttering and window repairs and replacement. The wolves are expected to be installed in the coming weeks.

The stone wolves were created to replace two missing statues of dogs, seen in historic photos at the top of the Town House. However, just before the wolves were due to be installed in September 2017 the two original statues were accidently uncovered in crates during a clear-out and office move at a Council storage unit. The original statues are intricately carved stone dogs, imbued with incredible personality and possibly based on the stonemason’s own dog at the time. The dogs were restored and reinstated to the Town House.

The Inverness Common Good Fund owns Inverness Town House.  The refurbishment works are being funded by the Inverness Common Good Fund and Historic Environment Scotland and are being carried out by Laing Traditional Masonry.

The anticipated final cost of the Phase 3 refurbishment works is £3.04 million with an expected completion date of September 2020.

• Second phase of Chapelton Bridge works to begin

Inverclyde Council has announced the second phase of planned works on Chapelton Bridge will begin on Monday.

The Bridge will be closed until 31 May to allow the bridge to be widened as part of a £650,000 scheme to improve road safety and cut congestion.

The work initially started on 11 February, but was briefly suspended due to a delay in the delivery of the pre-stressed, pre-cast concrete beams which will form the bridge deck.

The project is designed to remove a major bottleneck at Glen Avenue, Port Glasgow.

In November 2018 Inverclyde Council started work to improve road safety and cut congestion by widening the single-lane Chapelton Bridge.

The first phase involved diverting the water, gas and electricity utilities that ran under the bridge. This was finished in December 2018.

The second phase of the project involves widening the bridge deck itself. The work is expected to be finished on 31 May 2019 and the bridge will remain closed while it is being done.

Chapelton Bridge is the main pedestrian route for pupils going to and from St John’s Primary and is also an important bus route.

The project is being funded by Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT).

• Work to begin on new Tayport skate and parkour facility

Work is due to begin on a new modern concrete skate and parkour facility for young people in the Tayport community.

The ‘Tayport Top Park group’ formed several years ago and has been campaigning and fundraising to upgrade the old skate facility and play area at Cross Green Park. Working alongside Fife Council to develop their ideas, the group engaged with their local community on the new designs and enlisted their help with fundraising.

The group were successful in securing funding for the new play park in November 2016. Since then they have continued to fundraise and are now about to achieve their founding aim of a purpose-built skate park and parkour facility for the community.

Funding has been secured from Leader in Fife, Fife Council, Tesco Bags of Help, Royal British Legion Scotland, Rotary Club and other local groups and businesses.

Work is due to begin on site in April and should be complete by mid-summer.