Building Briefs - May 26th

• Works planned on West Link Stage 2 in Inverness

There will be overnight closures on the A82 between the new Torvean roundabout and the Tomnahurich roundabout for four nights from Monday 31 May 2021.

The closures will come into effect between the hours of 4pm and 6am. The works are to allow carriageway surfacing to take place. 

Works will also be carried out beyond the Torvean roundabout on the A82 heading south which will feature signal control and a convoy system.

Access for emergency vehicles, public transport and for any residents or local businesses within the closed section will be maintained.

• Plan to demolish former home of The P&J

An application has been lodged to demolish the former home of Aberdeen Journals.

The offices on the Lang Stracht were occupied by The Press and Journal and Evening Express from the 1970s up until 2018 when they moved to city centre premises.

Aberdeen City Council has applied to knock down the building, which has been empty since it was left by Aberdeen Journals.

The redundant structures located on the site will also be knocked down at the same time.

The building is located at 16 Lang Stracht on Mastrick Industrial Estate in Aberdeen.

It will cost £900,000 to demolish the former offices and surrounding structures.

• £1.5m investment for Lochgilphead Front Green

Residents in Lochgilphead are set to benefit from new recreation facilities, as work starts to transform the Front Green. 

Argyll and Bute Council has appointed Hawthorn Heights Ltd to start work on 31 May. 

Improvement works include a new play park, a new public square where community events can take place, drainage and landscaping to help ease the impact of flooding, additional seating areas and new walking and cycling facilities.

Work to improve the Front Green involves substantial engineering that includes removing soil from a large part of the site, installing the new seating wall and new drainage, which will help to make the site more usable.

Due to the scale and nature of the works, it is necessary to close the Front Green until works complete in January 2022. This is the only safe way to deliver the works while protecting the workforce and the public.

During construction works, the bus shelter will remain unaffected and services will operate as normal. The public toilets will remain open.

• Two former schools in Lewis to get new leases of life

Work is underway to redevelop two former schools in the Isle of Lewis into community hubs offering social and economic opportunities for residents and visitors.

Carloway Community Association (Coimhearsnachd Chàrlabhaigh) is refurbishing and extending the old Carloway Primary School. The building was taken into community ownership in 2017 following its closure four years earlier.

The community group has been awarded £200,000 from Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) for the £1 million project. The 140-year old building will be modern, energy-efficient and fit for purpose for generations to come.

Plans include a community shop, a commercial kitchen, improvements to the existing hall, office and meeting space along with a permanent home for Comann Eachdraidh Chàrlabhaigh and Urras Oighreachd Chàrlabhaigh.

A successful Crowdfunding campaign and ongoing fundraising efforts mean that the community is contributing £30,000 to the costs of the project.

On the other side of the island in Point, work is underway to redevelop the old Knock Primary School, complete with state-of-the-art green energy features. These include solar PV panels and an air source heat pump, which will help the building become virtually self-sufficient in energy and ultimately powered by a local turbine of its own, in addition to solar.

The £1m renovation project secured £200,000 from HIE. The building has been home to the community wind farm organisation Point and Sandwick Trust (PST) and Comann Eachdraidh An Rubha as well as Bùth An Rubha and Café Roo since 2014.

A dedicated museum and exhibition space will be created for Comann Eachdraidh an Rubha and Urras Eaglais na h-Aoidhe and improved offices for PST, archive and storage facilities for the Rudhach community paper and a meeting room. There will also be a flexible multi-use area, complete with office facilities and wifi, for community use.

• Skye and Raasay communities to shape future investment plan

Residents, businesses and communities in Skye and Raasay are being encouraged to take part in a consultation throughout June to help shape an ambitious new Investment Plan for their area.

The consultation, which takes account of feedback gathered at previous events held in January, is being launched in early June. The consultation workshops are being organised by the Highland Council and Highlands and Islands Enterprise, and are independently led and facilitated by Architecture & Design Scotland.

Several invited workshop sessions are proposed to discuss how current and future projects can address the main priorities for people and communities across the area. Following feedback from the January workshop, the June online engagement sessions will be split into smaller groups, to enable greater depth of discussion and focus on participant contributions.

To ensure wide participation an online survey has also been created at www.highland.gov.uk/skyeraasay to make it inclusive for people to get involved. It will be available and promoted alongside the June events.

• Engineering work for West Coast Mainline

Network Rail engineers will be carrying out essential maintenance and upgrade work on the West Coast Mainline this weekend to improve journeys for passengers.

From Saturday, May 29, until the early hours of Tuesday, June 1, teams will be working at a range of key locations between Glasgow and the Border.

At Carstairs, engineers will be renewing two junctions and working on overhead electric power lines as well as refurbishing a road-over-rail bridge near Carstairs station.

Work will also be taking place to renew life-expired track at the Dryffe Water Viaduct, near Lockerbie, and at several other locations including around Gretna and Wamphray.

South of the Border, Network Rail teams will be undertaking track works between Crewe and Carlisle.

Cross-border services on the West Coast Mainline and some ScotRail services, via Carstairs, will be significantly affected and customers should only travel if their journey is unavoidable.

• Highland Council develops bids for Levelling Up Fund

The Highland Council is continuing to work at pace to submit bids into the UK Government’s Levelling Up Fund and Community Renewal Fund.

The Highlands can submit one transport bid and one bid for each Westminster constituency. At the Council meeting on 13 May it was agreed that the transport bid would relate to the North Coast 500 route, tied in with an expansion of Electric Vehicle Charging Points and improvements to tourism related infrastructure.

The bid for the Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross Constituency will focus on Wick as a centre for regeneration, and encompass various interlinked projects such as infrastructure works on the Wick Harbour outer seawall which will hopefully attract further investment to the port, physical regeneration of the town centre and other active travel and environmental improvement projects.

The bid for the Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey Constituency will be centred on Inverness Castle, Northern Meeting Park and Bught Park facilities and a compelling case can be made for these three significant venues in the City, which taken together could lead to significant improvements to attract increased visitor numbers, improve facilities that are in great need of investment. It is also proposed to identify whether smaller environmental regeneration projects relating to Aviemore and Nairn Links can be incorporated into the overall bid submission package.

The bid for the Ross, Skye and Lochaber Constituency is intended to focus on a comprehensive regeneration scheme to develop the gateways to the Outdoor Capital of the UK and Eilean a’ Cheo. This is intended to comprise investment in physical regeneration of cultural and heritage assets such as the Nevis Centre and the Ben Nevis Visitor Centre as well as the important transport related assets of Portree Harbour (as part of the wider Portree regeneration schemes) and potentially the Corpach Marina.