PKC keen to get new route to employment
Businesses boost through access road
Council chiefs want to build another new road in Perth in an attempt to lure more employers to the city.
They want a committee to back their recommendation to spend £400,000 forming a route at the end of Arran Road so another 10 acres of land can be accessed and developed by businesses keen to establish a presence in Perth.
The recommendation comes just a month after the PA was able to exclusively reveal TRAC International Group had become the latest company to agree to buy land from the council at the same location in order to build bigger premises in the city.
A report scheduled to go before the council’s strategic policy and resources committee tomorrow (November 27) explains: “The council employment land at North Muirton extends to approximately 26 acres, of which 16 acres is currently serviced with utilities and roads infrastructure.
“It is divided between food and drink and general business uses on an equal basis. Of the 16 serviced acres, currently over half (8.5 acres) is either developed or under offer to businesses.
“Given the business demand and uptake of development to date, it is proposed to undertake further siteservicing infrastructure to expand the remaining 10 acres in council ownership.
“This requires a new access road with an estimated cost of £400,000.
“The intention is to retain the area currently distinctly marketed as the Food and Drink Park within the wider industrial area to provide long-term strategic support for this important industry.”
The same report goes on to reveal PKC is currently seeking an unspecified sum from the UK Government to create a new industrial facility at one of three sites being scouted for the potential development.
It says: “The council is participating in a partnership project with the Construction Scotland Innovation Centre, Scottish Enterprise and Zero Waste Scotland to use a design framework (PORTAL) to deliver a new building as a demonstrator project, leveraging money from the Innovate UK Construction Innovation fund.
“The bid is being submitted in November 2019 and the outcome should be known for a project start in April 2020.
“If we are successful in our bid, this would bring additional resources ... in 2020/21 to build a demonstrator for small to medium sized businesses with increased construction efficiency, whole life costs and lower carbon impact.
“There are currently three potential locations under consideration for the development of the new demonstrator building: site six at the Perth Food and Drink Park, site four at Kinross West and site two at Brioch Place, Crieff.
The report adds:“[The council’s commercial property investment programme] currently has limited resources to build a new building which, if omitted, leaves only a relatively small cash reserve for site servicing and potential acquisition (£1m) over the period of the current programme.
“However, if money is secured from the UK Construction Innovation fund, this would free up more resources to make a greater impact in serviced site provision.”
The committee will consider the above mentioned report at 2 High Street tomorrow morning.