Seven day working for AHS construction is approved
Rosalind Griffiths
Work on the new Anderson High School and halls of residence site at Clickimin will go on seven days a week, the council’s planning committee agreed on Tuesday.
But measures will be put in place to mitigate the noise impact to residents on Sundays.
The developer of the site, SIC children’s services, applied to increase the original six-day working to seven, proposing to start work at 9am on Sundays. Environmental health expressed concerns about this, and the times were subsequently changed to a 10am start and 4pm finish time. These times were unanimously approved by the planning committee.
A statutory consultation about Sunday working has been carried out with residents and no representations against the proposal have been received. Lerwick Community Council also had no objection.
Planning chief Iain McDiarmid said rock breaking and compressor work could be done on Sunday, but would belimited to certain areas of the site. He added there was “no option” other than to take the contractor’s word about this, and enforcement action could be taken if necessary.
Project manager Trevor Smith said the noise would not exceed 60 decibels, and monitored with noise-sensitive receptors place next to nearby homes. He added that rock-breaking would go on for six months.
Mr Smith said the project was now approaching “financial closure” with technical, legal and financial agreement close to being reached with partners Hub North Scotland and Scottish Futures Trust.
Work on the site’s surrounding paths and a new roundabout is already taking place, and Mr Smith said he hoped it would be possible to “mobilise the main contractor as soon as practicable”.
The “target date” is the end of May, and he said: “We’re working hard to reach it.”
He added that he was “expecting a heavy involvement of local contractors” in the site and ground works preparing the site for the main contractor.
One of the main benefits of the extended work, which will add 15 per cent of working time per week, is that it will reduce the construction period by up to 15 weeks, according to the planning application. It will mean the bulk of the earth work will be completed by September, and work involving specialist plant such as cranes can be done before the winter. Mr Smith said: “One of the benefits [of longer working] is that it will take advantage of the weather and longer daylight hours.”
Ian Bruce
What an eye sore and a wast of millions of pounds
James Watt
Oh the irony!!!
John Tulloch
I’m inclined to agree, James, however;
Lerwick does need a new secondary school and this is, roughly, the right place for it.
However, it’s been designed to shoe horn in the rural pupils displaced by the ‘Shetland National Plan’, the “Blueprint for Education”, using an allocation from the Capital Budget which, we hear, is completely divorced from the Revenue Budget.
That means, financially, we’re trying to “pump a quart into a pint pot”, hence the ‘poverty spec’ and the building’s unfortunate appearance, as well as accusations of money being wasted.
The ‘Blueprint for Education’ was, of course, born of the Holyrood/Westminster/COSLA-inspired ( 🙂 ) local authority funding system which has been under-funding Shetland schools by 40 percent of actual spend.
It was a determined, if quixotic, attempt to organise Shetland’s education system along the lines of Edinburgh and Glasgow which – thank God – has failed, leaving SIC to watch £10Mpa sucked from its ‘timidly-husbanded’ oil reserves.
COSLA is culpable of formulating funding to a ‘per pupil’ basis which is to the advantage of the big boys who run that club and the SNP Scottish Government is in the firing line for having presided over that piece of iniquity for eight years in government.
James Watt
@ John
I was only meaning the irony in Ian’s comment, bemoans spending on a new school, yet makes two mistakes while constructing a relatively short sentence.
John Tulloch
If we’re concerned about keeping buildings in keeping with the area they’re in, this “grett baarn” makes the plastic windows in Church Road seem like a bit of a joke.
Thomas Goodlad
Yes John, never a truer word has been spoken.
I’m sure most of us would never have noticed the new windows in Bona Vista but we will certainly be aware of the new buildings at Clickamin!
Robin Stevenson
I have to say, I really don’t see the logic in using wood as a finishing material in Scotland, every new build I’ve seen throughout Scotland looks terrific for the first year or two, there after, once weathering kicks in, they looked like dilapidated sheds, alls good in a climate of mild sunny weather, but in Scotland? who has the final say on design?
joe johnson
The new AHS school looks horrible.
Iantinkler
Cattle Shed with a touch of abattoir, even uglier than Mareel from the car park. takes real skill to design something so awful. Must be after another design award!
Robert Duncan
Building looks alright to me, I really don’t get what the fuss is about.
Ian tinkle
“Building looks alright to me, I really don’t get what the fuss is about” As they say, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Looks B?><? awful to me.
Robert Duncan
Fairly understated modern design. People would be complaining far more if it were an arty contemporary building with frills and features. Another example of the lose-lose reality of Shetland public affairs.
David Spence
I would be more interested in the design in terms of whether or not it could stand up to the battering it will get from the wind and horizontal rain which will hit it directly from the south.
ok, the old AHS was even more exposed, lets say, and it has survived (even although it was an even bigger eyesore than this new design, and the awful prefabricated construction of the 70’s (I do not think it was just fashion that was awful in that decade lol)).