Contract signed for £60m West Lothian three-school project

Plans to build a primary and two new secondary schools in Winchburgh reached an important milestone on Wednesday when Contract Close was signed allowing construction to start next month.

The £60m project is being delivered for West Lothian Council by its development partner hub South East, with Morrison Construction appointed as the main contractor – the same team that successfully delivered the award-winning West Calder High School. 

Winchburgh is one of West Lothian's three Core Development areas which will see a significant number of new homes being built over the next ten years. The proposed schools project includes: 

• A replacement Holy Family Primary School with initial capacity for 230 pupils plus a 64 place nursery
• A non-denominational secondary school – Winchburgh Academy - with initial capacity for 660 pupils 
• A denominational secondary school – Sinclair Academy - with initial capacity for 660 pupils 
• A shared physical education and community block with floodlit synthetic and grass sports pitches, and a 25m swimming pool

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A digital approach to enabling a world-class learning estate

Understanding and responding to the way public buildings perform in real-time provides many opportunities to increase efficiencies and improve the wellbeing of users while also reducing energy and carbon emissions.

With huge advancements being made in technology and the growth of the IoT (Internet of Things), SFT's Infrastructure Technology team in conjunction with Censis has produced a new publication that looks at how the IoT can be used across social infrastructure to deliver improvements.

To read the IoT publication, please click on the link below. 

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hub South West signs deal to deliver social housing development

hub South West has signed a £7.4 million social housing contract with Cruden Group to undertake the construction of 48 homes in the Auldkirk Road area of Cambuslang.

The contract, hub South West’s third housing project with South Lanarkshire Council, will provide homes designed by Mast Architects ranging from two-bedroom cottage flats to five-bedroom semi-detached houses.

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New initiative launched to help deliver 5G

For an enhanced 4G and in time 5G network to function to its potential and deliver real benefits, it relies on land and buildings to host mobile network infrastructure.

Recognising the opportunities and challenges faced by the public sector and the telecoms industry in identifying and securing an existing or new site, SFT, as a partner of the Scotland 5G Centre has established the Infralink Programme. 

As one of the Scotland 5G Centre's initial projects, it will improve the engagement between the public sector and the telecoms industry by providing practical tools and guidance to improve the efficiency of knowing who owns strategic sites, and agreement of terms that recognise the imposition on landowners but contribute to wider connectivity strategic aims.

Islands and Falkirk receive Growth Deal funding from Scottish and UK Governments

Last week, Western Isles, Orkney and Shetland Councils received £100m of investment and Falkirk Council a sum of £90m, with SFT's Investment & Place team playing a supporting part in both deals reaching this momentous milestone.

The team has worked closely with the local authorities and their partners, assisting in the development of the deals and bringing a range of skills (and wider SFT capability), challenge and experience to the process.

Both deals will now move to Heads of Terms, again which SFT will play its part in supporting.

ICS publishes report on how Scotland's infrastructure should be delivered

Speaking of the final report published by the Infrastructure Commission for Scotland (ICS) earlier this week, SFT's chief executive, Peter Reekie said:

"I very much welcome the publication of the report by the ICS, focussing on how Scotland’s infrastructure should be delivered to secure an inclusive, net-zero carbon economy.

"SFT and Scottish Government have provided the secretariat for the Commission to support its work over the last 18 months. I know that the Commissioners and the team have put a massive amount of energy into the research, broad engagement across Scotland, deliberation, thinking and writing to put this and the Phase 1 report together. It is an important contribution which will serve all of us involved in Scotland's infrastructure well for many years to come.

"I am determined that SFT plays its part in bringing the recommendations to life and look forward to working with stakeholders on that in the coming months."

A link to the report and all supporting documents is available here.

Green light for Glasgow’s largest Passivhaus development

West of Scotland Housing Association (WSHA) has received planning consent from Glasgow City Council for its landmark Passivhaus social housing development in Glasgow’s East End.

The new homes will be at a former brownfield site on the corner of London Road and Springfield Road on the edge of the Commonwealth Village in the shadow of Celtic Park and the Emirates Arena.

As a development partner of hub West, the project was procured through its pre-procured contractor's framework and CCG (Scotland) Ltd was appointed as the preferred developer.

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Webinar recording - delivering private sector pipeline after Covid

SFT's chief executive Peter Reekie recently spoke at an Infrastructure Intelligence webinar, looking at prospects for private-sector construction and the infrastructure pipeline and the implications for firms working in the industry after Covid.

In Peter's presentation, he spoke on four key public sector infrastructure themes: 

• Regulation
• Enabling investment
• Co-investment and
• Co-ordination.  

The webinar was recorded and is available to watch and listen to via the link below.

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