The Scottish Government has recognised Stirling Council's transformation of its building standards service to improve performance and relationships with their customers.

Over the past three years the Council's building standards division has undergone a digital transformation, securing faster turnaround times and increasing focus on customer service.

As a result, Minister for Local Government, Housing and Planning, Kevin Stewart, increased the verification period for Stirling Council from one to three years, recognising the hard work that has been done throughout the service.

The service is required to verify the design and construction of building work for compliance with Building Regulations and Technical Building Standards, and to satisfy the demands of the Scottish Government's performance framework.

Economic Development

The work of building standards is crucial to supporting economic development and the service is committed to enabling construction within the area through prioritising building warrant applications.

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Mr Stewart visited the Thistle Centre to look into the Council's involvement in the building standards work recently carried out there. The Minister toured the new Next retail unit, which is currently under construction and forms part of the redevelopment of the Castlegait part of the mall.

Mr Stewart discussed the building standards site process with the Thistle Centre management team, main contractor Graham, the client Next and the Council's Building Standards team.

Mr Stewart said: "I am impressed by the work of Stirling Council and its partners on redevelopment of the Thistle Centre. Not only will this help to ensure building safety standards are met, it will enhance the town centre and support local economic development.

"The Scottish Government published updated building standards last month that will ensure projects are safe and fit for purpose – as well as being great places to live, work and study. We will continue to work closely with our stakeholders to ensure Scotland's buildings meet the highest safety standards."

Convenor of the Planning and Regulations Panel, Councillor Alasdair MacPherson also said: "We are delighted that the Minister has recognised the hard work that has been done within our building standards service over the last two years.

"The current high levels of performance and digital transformation of the service has made Stirling Council one of the best performing local authorities in the country, and the award of a three year verification period is just reward for the substantial efforts that have been made to transform the service."

Building standards was also short listed for the Building Standards Community Safety Awards in May this year, where the service were praised for their efforts in making a substantial contribution to the local community to ensure the Runrig event was a success.

(MH/JG)