The Glasgow office of Lovell has given a major boost to the fundraising drive to build the UK’s first sporting centre of excellence for disabled people.

The company, based in Scotland at the Glasgow Business Park, Baillieston, has presented Bellshill-based recycling project Yooz with a bumper donation of surplus building materials – worth several thousand pounds - to sell to raise funds.

The money will go to Yooz’s Active4All charity fund which aims to build a £10 million Scottish sporting centre of excellence for disabled people. Lovell has made the donation as part of a series of community initiatives to mark the company’s tenth anniversary in Scotland.

“Much of the surplus material is stock that we inherited when we acquired some of the former Connaught maintenance business in 2010,” said Lovell regional director Alan Taylor. “Rather than re-use it or recycle it for cash, we decided to donate the material to Yooz to help its campaign to build sports facilities that can be used by disabled and able-bodied people.”


The material donated by Lovell includes kitchen worktops and units and tiles.

Yooz chief executive Ian Strachan said: “This is the biggest single donation of materials we’ve received this year and is much appreciated. It is of excellent quality, much of it brand-new and will be of significant help to us. Our fundraising campaign is continuing to make progress, despite these tough economic situation, thanks to the support of organisations such as Lovell.”

Set up in 2009, social enterprise Yooz is a re-use and recycling project for building materials. The organisation collects unwanted materials from construction companies, local authorities and the public as well as offering low-cost collection and clearance services for householders and businesses. Profits from the sale of materials go to the Active4All charity fund to build a £10 million Scottish sporting centre of excellence for disabled people.

Lovell is currently working on a number of construction schemes for North Lanarkshire Council including a £2 million project to provide rainscreen overcladding and ancillary works to a multi-storey block of flats at Brandon Court, Motherwell. The company also recently began building 40 new homes on the site of the former St Gabriel's and Burnhead Primary Schools and Hozier Children's Nursery in Laburnum Road, Viewpark, Uddingston, as part of the council’s Building for the Future programme.

In addition, Lovell is working with South Lanarkshire Council on a £3.5 million scheme to refurbish five blocks of flats at Greenhill Court, Rutherglen, carrying out upgrades to the external wall, roof, security, ventilation and heating systems.

(GK)