Wick £750,000

[concerned resident]

7-5 million funding investment, to ten business parks, and Wick got £750.000.
Could not find anything for Thurso. Probably realized our councillers do not care what is best for Thurso, so why should they bother. I am sure theres an empty bit of land at Pennyland.

[tenabowla]

There does seem to be a bit of an imbalance in the investment between east and west, admitedly Wick may have needed some development but It seems a logical time for councillers/CASE or whoever have some influence over these decisions glanced west.

[Tristan]

Is this not the park with only one let?

[DarkAngel]

I think its good seeing wick getting all these shops..Make a change as Thurso seemed to be getting everything for a while. Like Bowling and cinema:)

[tenabowla]

I think "bowling and cinema" are bit out of date and barely of interest to anyone and hardly going to bring bodies rushing west.

[Royster1911]

For many years people from my town of Thurso had always said that there was nothing in Wick worth going through for. Boy, how the boot is on the other foot now. Well done Wick on getting all that you have but remember, there will always be people from this side waiting for you to fail. Let it not happen:D

[Bill Fernie]

I would like to knock on the head the parochialism of which town gets what.

As far as I am concerned it is what Caithness needs that should be uppermost in all of our minds. We are after all in total only a population of 28,000. Wick and Thurso are only 20 miles apart that takes just over 20 minutes to travel. It can take an hour to travel from one side of Edinburgh or Glasgow to the other.

Wick has been in decline for at least 20 years and I am sure we can all draw a long list of places that have closed both businesses and entertainment and numbers of jobs gone for a variety of reasons. Wick has areas with amongst the highest unemployment in Highland and has three entries on the Scottish Index of Multiple deprivation. Thurso has not got these probelms with very low unemployment and does not appear on the Index of Multiple Deprivation.

The problems associated with decline take a long time to reverse and it has been recognised for some years that something required to be done for Wick. Howver it should be recognised that improvements for Wick are improvements for Caithness. Similarly the sports development at Halkirk is likely to be as much a whole county asset as it is for just Halkirk. Improvements at both Wick and Thurso High schools on the sports front should hopefully make for better facilities for all of our young people througout the county.

As a county we all face the problems of decommisssioning at Dounreay. This is not a Thurso problem and it cannot be left to that side of the county to tackle it. It is a county problem and indeed a Highland one that requires the attention of everyone at a political and econimic level. Hence we have groups like the Caithness Partnership, the highland Council and the Dounreay Stakeholders Group as well as the NDA and indeed the Scottish Executive looking at this probelm and trying to find a means to tackle what will be a problem that needs to find an answer. The answer may not and probably will not be in the form of one big answer but more likely many smaller events. Part of that might be capitalising on the assets in the area. Wick has many assets and few towns have an airport, railhead and harbour on their doorstep.

We want more things happening in the county if we are to tackle a potential falling population. I for one will be asking for much more for Caithness and if things can go to thurso and fit well with what is going on then I for one will vote for it. If something is best in Lybster or Halkirk then lets get it there and the more the better.

We need to be united if we want to compete with other counties for investment.

Lets do it.

[concerned resident]

Bill Fernie, i agree with what you are saying, and you can be proud as a Wick counciller, I just get peved haveing to drive to Wick every week, to get my shopping and fuel, as i want to get best value for my money. Thurso is dieing, and our (Thurso) councillers and all these committee's, are just jobs for the boys, and a complete waste of time.Its action we need, not a lot of talk, and Dounreay needs to put its hand in its pocket. We are stuck in a time warp, and as soon as all the traders etc, have sucked every penny they can out of this side of the county, they will disappear. At this time, the future for Thurso is,
to be inhabited by people from the south, on Benifits and excluded on ASBO's, or pedophiles, i am sure many will disagree, and i hope i am wrong. the word that discribes this side of the county is ( Apathy )

[the nomad]

A very concise and true statement, Thurso councilors own personal wants and needs seem to shadow those of the people they represent.

I have said this many times, the area of land to west of Thurso, marked for development, would in any other part of the country, not be classed as a green field site anymore. It has a mixture of housing and commercail developments on all four sides.

I also think that many of the residents in Pennyland are snobs and are doing everything to stop works progressing. Let's face it they are all incomers, if they don't like advancement,why don't they just head back home.

I left Caithness last year, with a degree of some sadness due to the way things were going. I have never returned.

[jaykay]

The present Thurso councillors are a complete waste of space and do nothing for the town. On the other hand the Wick councillors have to be admired on what they are achieving for the Wick side. Because of this I am sure Wick will continue to thrive at the expense of Thurso.

[pat]

Well if you do not like what your councillors are doing 'get off your butt', stand for election yourself and see what differences you will make, new blood can do lots of things, would make 'old councillors' work harder to ensure they retain their 'automatic' seats - no I have nothing to do with councillors, MSPs, MPs - just fed up of people moaning about councillors doing nothing, whilst their own individual inaction to remedy situation, so all concerned do your bit for your community and have your say - get elected.

[tenabowla]

I agree that the only way to gain control of our destiny is to have the correct people in place, but unfortunately some of our representatives may not match up to their pre election performances.

[webmannie]

The problems associated with decline take a long time to reverse and it has been recognised for some years that something required to be done for Wick..

It is also important to ensure that we do not end up with Thurso in decline, Wick has caught up, now it is time to strike the right balance.


I for one will be asking for much more for Caithness and if things can go to thurso and fit well with what is going on then I for one will vote for it. If something is best in Lybster or Halkirk then lets get it there and the more the better...

Can you elaborate on 'fit well with what is going on' ??

[clash67]

Well if you do not like what your councillors are doing 'get off your butt', stand for election yourself and see what differences you will make, new blood can do lots of things, would make 'old councillors' work harder to ensure they retain their 'automatic' seats - no I have nothing to do with councillors, MSPs, MPs - just fed up of people moaning about councillors doing nothing, whilst their own individual inaction to remedy situation, so all concerned do your bit for your community and have your say - get elected.
Isn't paying our taxes doing "our bit"?