Work is continuing to progress on the Rothesay Townscape Heritage Initiative (THI).

To date, more than £2.5m has been awarded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, Historic Scotland, LEADER and Argyll and Bute Council for the scheme, which started in March 2011 and runs until March 2016.

The regeneration project will help to transform the town and make it a better place to live, work and visit by repairing the exterior of four priority buildings and enhancing a number of shop-fronts in and around Guildford Square. Currently, some 56 awards have been designated which has resulted in work being carried out to more than 17 town centre properties and sites. These include the four large-scale tenement refurbishments, six smaller comprehensive repair projects, six shop-front refurbishments and one gap site development.

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Now, repair work on the third priority building – Guildford Court Apartments on Watergate – is to commence with work to be completed by the end of summer 2014. The work will see the property benefit from slated roof works, lead work, chimney repairs, stone-works (including paint stripping), lime pointing, replacement or repair of the cast iron rainwater systems, associated timber repairs and rot works, decoration of the cast iron goods and windows and a new front door, with the reinstatement of the original canopy. It follows two projects at Montague Street which started last year. These projects will see the comprehensive structural repair of the buildings and the renewal of stonework, roofs and rainwater systems as well as the replacement of the windows with timber framed slim-line double glazed windows. The gap site between these two properties is also soon to be transferred to the developer; it needs some work to the gables either side in order to prepare it for the development of a retail unit, with two floors of flats above. This new building will also have timber sash and case double glazed windows, in line with the character and appearance of the rest of the town centre.

(JP/CD)