Industrial estate in Stirling village could get 12 new business units
Expansion plans for an industrial estate near Doune have been resubmitted to Stirling Council planners.
RTA Building & Construction Co Ltd are seeking permission to build industrial units and storage units on land south of Lochill Industrial Estate and north of Kilmadock Cemetery in the village.
The proposals also include other works including drainage engineering, fencing, structural planting and creation of hardstanding areas and documents submitted with the application also suggest an element of 'visitor orientated businesses'.
The latest application is a resubmission of a previous bid made last year, which was withdrawn for revision.
The documents add: 'The site is located on the southern side of Deanston, adjacent to Doune. The site lies to the east of the A84(T) Trunk Road and to the north of the B826.
'The site has operated as an industrial site for more than 50 years and has slowly grown over the years to accommodate
additional industrial operations.
'To the north of the site is the existing Lochill Industrial Etates to the east of the site is the Ashmill caravan storage site and Ashmill caravan site and to the south and west are small woodlands.'
The existing access road to the industrial estate would provide the main access to the development site, but changes would be made to the access road to provide a continuous six metre carriageway into the industrial estate from the end of a 7.3m wide
section.
The development site is allocated in the Stirling Council Local Development Plan (LDP) for Class 4 (business), 5 (industry), 6 (storage and distribution) and visitor orientated businesses.
Agents for the applicants added: 'The site allocation within the Local Development Plan and the site's current usage have established its location as a viable industrial site in a semi-rural location.
'The development proposals are for a total of 12 small industrial units and a communal kitchen/toilet unit at the existing
Lochill Industrial Estate, Doune, Stirling. The Lochill Industrial Estate currently has a number of businesses operating from
the Industrial Estate including RTA Building & Construction, Doune Woodyard, McTurks Yard, Safeleg, and Nicol Properties.
'In addition to these industrial businesses, the Industrial Estate also provides storage of materials for RTA
Building & Construction.
'The development proposals will provide appropriate vehicle and cycle parking provisions for the units. In addition, the
proposals also include a small extension to the existing builder's storage yard on the northern side of the development site.
'The site lies to the east of the A84(T) Trunk Road and to the north of the B8032. The site has operated as an industrial site for more than 20 years and has slowly grown over the years to accommodate additional industrial operations.
'Given the site's semi-rural location, there are some limitations in relation to access to sustainable modes of transport such as walking, wheeling, cycling and public transport facilities. While these are available in the area this is balanced out by the semi-rural nature of the site and its appropriateness for industrial use away from residential development.
'Vehicular access to the development will use the existing Industrial Estate access road which will be widened to 6m as part of the proposals. The existing junction onto the B826 will be used and with some management of the existing trees on the eastern side of the access the sightlines specified by Stirling Council can be achieved.
'The traffic generation from the proposed development is minimal and will have no impact on the safe operation of the local or Trunk Road network.'
Stirling Council planners are expected to make a recommendation on the application in due course.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
5 hours ago
- The Guardian
Queensland Productivity Commission argues construction industry ‘reset' needed to fix housing crisis and deliver Olympics
Queensland's Productivity Commission has flagged a broad construction industry 'reset' that could threaten existing enterprise bargaining agreements, arguing it may be required if the state is to build its way out of a housing crisis – and host the Olympics. The commission released an interim report on Thursday into improving productivity in the construction sector that called on the Queensland government to permanently remove so-called 'Best Practice Industry Conditions' (BPICs) from its procurement policy. Adopted under the previous Labor government in 2018, BPICs outlined construction union workers' pay and conditions for all major state projects. Union proponents claim BPICs improved safety and lifted standards and created apprenticeship opportunities for women and Indigenous workers – industry opponents complained it led to cost blowouts and worksite shutdowns. Sign up: AU Breaking News email The Liberal National party deputy premier, Jarrod Bleijie, hit pause on BPICs in November until the re-established Productivity Commission completed its building industry review. But the interim recommendations of that review go beyond a call to permanently scrap BPICs – arguing 'a broader industry reset' was required if Queensland was to 'meet the needs of its growing population, match infrastructure commitments and deliver the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games'. The report cited industry stakeholders as blaming BPICs for a 'a significant slowdown in site productivity on public construction' workplaces that had enabled similar conditions to 'creep into the private sector through the rollout of BPICs-like conditions in [EBAs)]'. 'Removing BPICs alone is unlikely to be sufficient to shift construction productivity to a growth path or improve behaviours on government construction sites,' the commission wrote. 'Given that BPIC-like conditions now seem to be embedded in industry practice, including in enterprise bargaining agreements that are not due to be re-negotiated until mid-2027, it is likely that a broader industry reset is required.' Asked at a press conference after the release of the interim report if the LNP would permanently scrap BPICs, the treasurer, David Janetzki, said he would wait for the final report before making any announcements. However, the treasurer said that declining productivity 'cannot be tolerated'. The Queensland Council of Unions denies that BPICs affected worksite productivity. In May it released a report it commissioned from University of Queensland emeritus professor of economics John Mangan that found post-Covid cost increases were primarily driven by global supply chain constraints and material shortages – not labour agreements or public procurement standards. The QCU general secretary, Jacqueline King, said at the time that BPICs 'did not drive up costs or damage productivity' but improved safety, lifted standards and created real opportunities for apprentices, women and Indigenous workers. King said the commission's interim report 'missed the boat on the most important thing of all: people'. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion The union secretary said 'any serious conversation about lifting productivity' in the construction industry had to start with fixing what she said was a 'crisis in building and retaining a Queensland workforce'. 'There's no shortage of Queenslanders willing to work in construction but this is an industry stuck in the 1970s, with 55-hour weeks, inflexible work arrangements and poor workplace cultures driving people away,' King said. 'If we are serious about addressing the skills shortage and building the housing and infrastructure we need for our ever growing population in the lead-up to 2032 and beyond, we need to focus on how to attract a homegrown labour force instead of migrant workers.' The peak national body for construction and infrastructure contracting companies backed the interim report as supporting 'many of the reforms the industry has long been calling for', including scrapping BPICs. 'Queensland has a once-in-a-generation infrastructure task ahead,' the Australian Constructors Association chief executive, Jon Davies, said. 'This report confirms the need for urgent reform and gives us a clear roadmap to get started'. The LNP is also pushing legislation to override more than a dozen planning laws – including heritage and environment protection laws – to build a swathe of venues for the 2032 Brisbane Olympic and Paralympic Games.
The Independent
21 hours ago
- The Independent
Tech adoption in a construction world: how the change is fuelling productivity
The construction industry has earned its reputation as a slow adopter of technology. But today's organisations – especially those working in capital construction – recognise the growing evidence that tech adoptions deliver significant productivity gains. The construction technology market is keeping pace with the shift: in 2024, contech investors closed 604 deals – an 8.24 per cent increase over 2023, with the average cost of each deal falling by 22 per cent compared with the year before. Leading firms are turning to technology to stay ahead in the face of a clear trend: increasing project complexity. Last year, the United States averaged four megaprojects per month, coupled with a constant trend in declining productivity for the industry overall. Advanced software tools continue to deliver a solution for maintaining communication and consistency across stakeholders and teams, improving resource visibility, augmenting performance and sustaining performance in a complex capital construction market. But even the most forward-looking technology investments fall short without scalable strategic planning. Companies that adopt tech successfully say these four approaches represent the future of construction management and are table stakes for any team aiming to take full advantage of its technology investments. Process standardisation Fragmented processes prime an organisation for errors, inefficiency and missed opportunities. By standardising processes, organisations bring long-overdue stability and consistency to their teams and enable accurate and higher-quality project information. The key to making the most of a standardisation initiative is sweeping, strategic change. Companies can't just standardise their time-management platform and expect to generate results. Effective standardisation may start with tools and technologies, but it should also be supported by training processes and leadership support to ensure each department and project follows a similar playbook from one opportunity to the next. Beyond its practical benefits, a cultural approach to standardisation helps promote buy-in and commitment across the board. Teams succeed when they understand what the company stands for and what the future holds on the other side of the standardisation initiative. With a unified approach, teams reduce errors, boost productivity and ensure quality throughout the build cycle. A centralised platform provides a foundation for standardisation across projects and teams. By standardising project data, organisations can realise the benefits of becoming a proactive, data-driven organisation. Stay ahead with real-time insights Standardisation leads to another key benefit: high quality data, better resource management and greater project success. When information stagnates in spreadsheets and siloed systems, organisations struggle to share insights from project to project and team to team. By standardising data structures, organisations create more useful insights they can reference for future estimates, schedules and more. Better data gives construction project managers and project controls teams the means to identify at-risk items early and take action to solve those challenges before they escalate into obstacles. Similarly, real-time data can help teams identify strengths and weaknesses based on the collective experience of dozens of projects and thousands of working hours. Leaders can analyse specific cost and component details and use accurate reports to share findings with stakeholders. When real-time insights draw from the latest analytics, it becomes possible to ensure alignment from the field to the owner through shared per cent-complete tracking, trend analysis and performance reporting. Empower innovation with useful tech Helping teams understand – and experience – the benefits of change proves time and again to be the lynchpin for successful tech adoption. For construction teams, integration (the ability to move data seamlessly between workflows) and automation (the ability to remove repeatable tasks from someone's workday) consistently prove to be the driving forces behind success. Once redundant tasks are out of the way, teams have the time and resources required for more mentally taxing work, including innovation and problem-solving. Meanwhile, integrated technologies sync data sources from the field to the office to remove bias, improve collaboration and flag risk before they evolve into rework. At their core, improved construction management tools such as InEight help contributors reduce the time needed to solve problems and find resources by placing critical details front-and-centre and providing a clear path to access anything deeper. 'As a senior leader in a company, you can go from one project to the next, and talking the same language has a huge benefit,' says Justin Terminella, VP of Kiewit Industrial. 'Previously, it was common to look at something like a visualisation of an earned value report and not be able to easily understand what green versus red meant – every single time you went to a project, it was a debate on what the right one should be. Now that we've standardised through InEight, that isn't a problem anymore.' 'As a senior leader in a company, you can go from one project to the next, and talking the same language has a huge benefit. Previously, it was common to look at something like a visualisation of an earned value report and not be able to easily understand what green versus red meant – every single time you went to a project, it was a debate on what the right one should be. Now that we've standardised through InEight, that isn't a problem anymore.' – Justin Terminella, VP, Kiewit Industrial Do more with your data As organisations push themselves towards a more insights-driven future, the quality of their efforts is defined by the size and health of their data assets. Design files, schedules, change orders, environmental sensors, emails and compliance reports provide limited immediate value on their own. But when they're combined with similar assets across projects and regions and over thousands of working hours, consolidated data delivers predictability, cause and effect and risk identification that organisations can apply to the next generation of construction management. Most organisations face a significant challenge when consolidating data. Platforms such as InEight specialise in bringing structure to data and helping teams transform their resources into actionable insights. 'The increased sharing of information helps us work dynamically and efficiently,' says Aidhean Camson, VP, Global Program Controls AECOM. 'My inspector can work from a tablet to verify the quantities claimed by the contractor, verify the percentage completion and share that information against the schedule of values and activities. When we consolidate that information at the end of the month, there's no debate.' 'The increased sharing of information helps us work dynamically and efficiently. My inspector can work from a tablet to verify the quantities claimed by the contractor, verify the percentage completion and share that information against the schedule of values and activities. When we consolidate that information at the end of the month, there's no debate.' – Aidhean Camson, VP, Global Program Controls, AECOM The contech transition is here. The organisations staying ahead of change ask themselves how to optimise their technology dollars and find the ideal platform for improving their existing workflows and maximising their investment. Learn more about how InEight's field-tested construction project controls platform is guiding teams into a new era of productivity at .
BBC News
2 days ago
- BBC News
Work to begin on Mepal crematorium and pet cemetery next month
Work on a new crematorium in a village will begin next month after a contractor was appointed to deliver the Construction will build the bereavement centre in Mepal, East Cambridgeshire, which will include a graveyard, remembrance garden, function room, memorial walkway and pet Cambridgeshire District Council said the crematorium near Ely will run on electricity, meaning it can be operated on a green energy Conservative administration has, though, faced opposition to the plans from Liberal Democrat councillors who called the £13m project a "white elephant" and launched a petition opposing it. Party leader Lorna Dupré said she was "not convinced that it is the role of a council to build and run commercial facilities in order to compete with established private providers in a challenging market".A nearby crematorium on Knights End Road in March is already "well-established" and can "easily afford to respond to the price war that the council is proposing to launch against them," she leader Anna Bailey said the project will provide "social value" to the district through "the creation of local jobs through the build phase, volunteering and using local suppliers and supply chains".She previously said that "being able to say goodbye to a loved one in such a beautiful and tranquil lakeside setting that not only protects, but enhances, wildlife, is something this council is very proud to be able to deliver".The new crematorium will be built on the site of the former Mepal Outdoor Centre, which closed in 2017 after a fire, with access from the A142 north of the documents suggest the new crematorium will have the capacity for 108 visitors, while there will be parking on site for 123 vehicles. Follow Cambridgeshire news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
