Almost £2m to be spent upgrading smoke detectors to new standards

Nearly £2 million will be spent upgrading smoke detectors in thousands of council homes across Perth and Kinross.

The improvement scheme is to ensure safety devices meet with stricter Scottish Government legislation expected next year.

The new standard will require all homes to have interlinked smoke and carbon monoxide alarms.

Perth and Kinross Council has now struck a deal with Glasgow firm BRB Electrical Ltd to replace detectors at nearly 3,400 properties over the next year.

A spokesman said: “Through our ongoing commitment to provide our tenants with good quality homes we plan to invest more than £1.82m during the next 12 months to ensure all of our properties comply with the Scottish Government’s new enhanced standards for

smoke and systems.

“We have been installing smoke and heat alarms that meet the new building regulations since 2016 and, as a result, there are already in excess of 3,000 properties which currently meet these standards.”

The new devices will be mains-powered with a battery back-up and fire detection

alarms will be interlinked by radio frequency.

Smoke detectors will be fitted in halls, living rooms and dining rooms. There will also be a heat detector installed in kitchens.

The new rules, which currently apply to private rented property and newbuilds, will be extended to all homes early next year.

A man has been jailed for two years after he stabbed a fellow resident at a Dunfermline homeless hostel.

Keiran Burns, 23, admitted the assault when he appeared via a video link at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court.

The court heard a row broke out with another hostel resident, Stuart Duncan, who was left with puncture marks on his thigh.

Sheriff Keith O’mahoney said it was “sheer luck” that Mr Duncan had not been more seriously injured.

Depute fiscal Claire Bremner said the pair had gone into a secluded area off a stairwell at the hostel when Mr Duncan noticed Burns had a knife.

“On seeing the accused with the lock knife, the complainer opened the door leading to the stairwell, knowing there was CCTV,” she said.

A struggle ensued and Burns repeatedly stabbed Mr Duncan on the left upper thigh then left the building.

Staff members at the hostel saw the altercation on CCTV.

Ms Bremner said Mr Duncan was left with “two superficial puncture wounds to the upper thigh”.

When police caught up with Burns he did not have the knife.

“At this time he had only a mobile phone and a set of keys in his possession,” said Ms Bremner.

Burns, whose address was given in court as c/o Perth Prison, admitted assaulting Mr Duncan and repeatedly stabbing him on the leg on December 11 2020, at the hostel in James Street, Dunfermline.

Defence solicitor Chris Sneddon said his client had experienced a difficult childhood and had left home at 16, after which “a drug habit ensued”.

Smoke detectors will have to link with other alarms.