Building Briefs - May 28th

• Fire training carried out at Highland Council properties due for demolition

The Highland Council’s housing team arranged for the properties on Meiklefield Road to be used on Monday evening for the first of several planned vital training evenings hosted by the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service for the Dingwall retained crews, who are on-call to respond to emergencies.

Councillor Angela MacLean and housing officer Faye Dyer were in attendance observing how the training is delivered and to better understand how firefighters use Breathing Apparatus when extinguishing fires.

The exercise was also used to gain insights into the challenges faced by SFRS personnel when tackling a house fire; useful front-line information which can be put to good use when designing new houses for council rent.

Earlier this month, the council unveiled plans to regenerate parts of the Meiklefield Area in Dingwall. Work will include the demolition of 12 flats to make room for 14 new flats and houses. The new homes are intended to be the first phase of a project aimed at improving housing throughout the wider Meiklefield area.

• Inverness city centre road junction resurfaced

A busy city centre junction in Inverness has been resurfaced as part of the Highland Council’s roads maintenance programme for 2021/2022.

Around 700m2 of the B865 Academy Street junction with Friars Lane and Chapel Street has been resurfaced at a cost of £40,000. The previously degraded road surface was identified as a priority project in the council’s capital works programme for the Inverness area and a new road surface and new road markings have greatly improved the junction.

• Next phase of consultation on Galashiels Community Campus to be launched

Members of the public will be given another opportunity to give their feedback on the plans for Galashiels Community Campus this summer.

A Proposal of Application Notice (PAN) has been submitted to Scottish Borders Council this week triggering a 12-week statutory consultation including a public meeting during July.

This phase of the consultation will focus on the council’s preferred option to build the Community Campus within the existing school boundary and a portion of the town’s Scott Park.

Updated designs of the Campus will provide greater detail on the council’s vision for the project which continues to be developed and refined.

The council will also be staging a public meeting in July with the local community, providing another opportunity to go through the updated designs for the Campus in detail. The new consultation will be available online in advance of the session.