March 7 2008

A look at some of the top stories in this week's Scottish press:

Eighteen firms are in the running to take on the multi million pound contracts worth over £200 million to maintain tens of thousands of Glasgow House Association social sector homes. (The Herald).

Banking giant HBOS is in talks with Scottish & Newcastle to buy the former Fountain Brewery site in Fountainbridge for its massive new global headquarters in Edinburgh city centre (The Scotsman).

Work is expected to start next month on the £28 million extension to the maternity unit at the Southern General Hospital in Glasgow after the council granted the project planning approval (The Herald).

Scottish Widows Investment Partnership (Swip) is to launch a commercial property fund in China over the next two years in the hopes of exploring commercial property potential in the Far East (The Scotsman).

The A-listed former home of art collector William Burrell, designed by Alexander “Greek” Thomson, is going on sale this month and looks likely to cost in excess of £3 million to buy and renovate (The Herald).

The Point hotel in Edinburgh has been sold to a Jersey-based private company EBH, in a £20 million deal (The Scotsman).

Councillors have agreed to postpone the final decision on Go Ape’s controversial plans to build an adventure playground in Pollock Country Park (The Herald).

Businessman Donald MacDonald, the man behind the controversial plans to expand the Aviemore Highland resort, has attacked on Scotland’s “political back-biting” and sluggish planning system in a letter to The Scotsman newspaper.

Homeowners will be allowed to install solar panels and other small-scale renewable energy technology in their homes without planning permission under new proposals from the Scottish Government (The Herald).

Leith Docks has been earmarked for a multi-million complex in the same vein as The Millennium Centre in Cardiff after consultants from London-based Communication Group were brought in to help shape the current plans for regenerating the area (The Scotsman).

Further delays have hit the redevelopment of the Usher Hall in Edinburgh, currently undergoing a £30 million revamp. The concert hall now looks unlikely to open for its winter season later on this year (The Herald).

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