Miners Institute, Lochgelly, Fife HARCA

Lochgelly Miner’s Institute & War Memorial was built in 1923 by the Coal Industry Social Welfare Fund made up in part from contributions by employed locally miners. The building is Grade B listed and has strong historic and symbolic links with the town.

Keegans have been involved in this regeneration strategy for Lochgelly since 1999, and have successfully delivered of a number of regeneration projects in the town.

Keegans, working closely with Fife HARCA and Fife Council, provided the full range of Quantity Surveying, Architecture and CDM Co-ordination services and delivered the building on time and on budget, and the list of awards below, demonstrates the quality of the finished building.

A diverse range of funders was assembled by our Quantity Surveyors, and a funding package was put together which included the Heritage Building Preservation Trust, Historic Scotland, Lottery Fund, ERDF and others, which allowed the contract to be tendered and the building refurbished and restored for its new users and handed over in 2008.

This centre now offers training and support for local people to become CISCO qualified, along with computer literacy skills to advanced SVQ standard, allowing individuals to progress to full-time education. The training on offer also encompasses preliminary building trade courses for local apprentices, supporting local businesses.

The Technology Training Centre has proved an extraordinary success with many of the training courses being over-subscribed.

The building has received the following awards:

–    SURF (Scottish Urban Regeneration Forum) Commendation 2008
–    RICS (Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors) Scotland Regeneration Award 2009
–    RICS National Community Benefit Commendation 2009
–    CIH (Chartered Institute of Housing) Excellence in Regeneration Award 2010

Particular interest was the challenge to get all the funding in place.  On site the challenges of finding a live well, extensive rot work and inherent structural issues put pressure on budget.  However construction cost was within budget.