Wick Clean-up

[badger]

It's great to see all the renovation going on in parts of Wick but please, please somebody - can something be done about Bridge Street before this great sailing event? It needs tidying up before the main tourist season anyway when you think how many people pass through Wick on their way north. It looks so sad and neglected, especially with those boarded up shopfronts. What is the legal position? Cannot the owners be forced to do something? If not, what would it cost the Council to replace the boards and perhaps get some local artists to paint murals on them? Anything to brighten it up.

[trinkie]

Badger, what a brilliant idea ! I do hope something can be done.
New boards with some interesting painting would be great ! There are enough good artists in Wick I am sure.
Some more plants and colour around the place too.

It is wonderful to see the renovation work going on, that will make a huge difference to the place.


Good luck.

[johno]

Badger, what a brilliant idea ! I do hope something can be done.
New boards with some interesting painting would be great ! There are enough good artists in Wick I am sure.
Some more plants and colour around the place too.

It is wonderful to see the renovation work going on, that will make a huge difference to the place.


Good luck.
perhaps Tesco, Homebase,Argo,s, Lidle, New Look & Carpet Wise might throw in a few pounds for just that.[lol] just jokin

[Margaret M.]

I so agree -- those boarded up windows are a total eyesore and scream neglect. It would cost so little to spruce it up.

[Torvaig]

As well as local artists, I think that work done by schoolchildren would be good; their paintings are always bright and cheerful! They could all put their names on them and create quite a gallery to brighten the town.

Mr. Budge at Hillhead School would be a good place to start as he and his staff always encourage the pupils to be community minded and I'm sure if asked, local businesses or one of the Councils would be willing to sponsor them with donations of materials.

[trinkie]

Torvaig - a great idea to involve the schools regarding painting the boards !
Johno - Yes of course contact the big stores to help in this way. I am sure they would be thrilled to be part of a community project.
Where I live most of the big shops do quite a lot to help out local events.
Asda and Tesco help a great deal with the schools. At the local school Asda men come in during the holidays and repaint and do odd repair jobs. They also provide T-shirts and soft drinks for Sports Day. Tesco do their fair share too. It's always worth asking. In any case, it's good for their image to be seen to be Doing for the Community !
I bet HomeBase has plenty of unsold paint that could be used !

[lelebo]

Hi there - all great ideas - I suppose it depends on getting permission from whoever actually owns the buildings and then the community council could canvas support from voluntary orgs, schools etc. With all the development going on round the harbour it seems like common sense to tidy up the main road through the town.

Mr Budge is fantastic (its actually the Hillhead School he's with though)

[pentlander]

How ironic and predictable is it that people are now complaining about the state of wick high street. I wonder if you are the same people who suggested that opening a Tesco/Homebase etc would be GOOD for Wick.
Remember how this would stop peole travelling to inverness and keep Wick alive.
Same scenario is about to happen to Thurso.

[Julia]

Major work starts on Bridge Street on Monday (lasting 10 weeks) to bring it up to the same standard as High Street i.e. new road surface, slate pavements etc.. not much can be done for the eyesore shops particularly the old Azad Video place which looks like it is going to collapse any minute! The owners should do something about that.

[peter macdonald]

Pentlander many of the shops have been boarded up long before Tesco arrived eg the Old Boots shop in High St- the old Coop shop/Chinese resturant in Francis St - the other half of K2 which was Mowatts draper shop etc if you want to see the real eyesores try the burned out Pavilion Cinema and Dr Leasks old surgery ...I suppose you are going to blame Tesco for those as well If the Coop and Somerfield hadnt been so complacent we would not have needed Tesco in Wick or the Thorso folks would not be wanting their ASDA
Also I spoke a local business man recently who was moaning about loyalty from the locals ..that was after he was telling how delighted he was with his cheap power deal he got from Scottish Power ..Sorry I see SSE employees up here but no Scottish Power ones It cuts 2 ways
PM

[pentlander]

Pentlander many of the shops have been boarded up long before Tesco arrived eg the Old Boots shop in High St- the old Coop shop/Chinese resturant in Francis St - the other half of K2 which was Mowatts draper shop etc if you want to see the real eyesores try the burned out Pavilion Cinema and Dr Leasks old surgery ...I suppose you are going to blame Tesco for those as well If the Coop and Somerfield hadnt been so complacent we would not have needed Tesco in Wick or the Thorso folks would not be wanting their ASDA
Also I spoke a local business man recently who was moaning about loyalty from the locals ..that was after he was telling how delighted he was with his cheap power deal he got from Scottish Power ..Sorry I see SSE employees up here but no Scottish Power ones It cuts 2 ways
PM
Your correct Peter many of the shops were closed before Tescos etc arrived.
My point not about the rights and wrongs of the big stores comming, that is inevitable and what folk want, it is more to do with complaining about the state of the street. Not many of these shops will be taken over by new business because there is noone about the town now. I fear they will stay empty or be filled with more takeaways and charity shops.
It is an economic consequence of thier arrival which we will have to get used to.

[trinkie]

If the people of Wick think that Bridge Street needs to be cleaned up then let them go about it as they wish.

Not so much "predictable" but more "as a result of" etc etc.
The Big Stores have arrived - dont be negative use this as a big plus now and GET THEM INVOLVED.

Let's encourage such good ideas.
Help each other to find out where the offending Shop Keepers are.
They must still be paying rates for example. Where is their mail being forwarded to...

Is there anyone around who could offer good constructive help with legal rights etc. Let folk know where to begin.

It's no good writing on this Message Board unless it's getting to the right body of people who can actually do something about it.

Long live Public Spirited People !!

[Lavenderblue2]

I so agree -- those boarded up windows are a total eyesore and scream neglect. It would cost so little to spruce it up.

I agree with you Margaret M. They should also clean all the grass and weeds from the roan pipes too.


How ironic and predictable is it that people are now complaining about the state of wick high street. I wonder if you are the same people who suggested that opening a Tesco/Homebase etc would be GOOD for Wick.
Remember how this would stop peole travelling to inverness and keep Wick alive.
Same scenario is about to happen to Thurso.

I don't agree with you Pentlander - Bridge Street has been looking very shabby for quite a few years now and of course it's getting worse as time goes on.
Trinkie is right - Tesco and Homebase in particular may well be willing to contribute to brightening up the façade of Bridge Street.

[badger]

Many years ago when I lived near Kew Gardens there was a hideous concrete sided pedestrian bridge over the railway. This bridge was used all the time by people just wanting to cross from one side of Kew to the other (the railway goes right through the middle), by rail passengers and, of course, tourists. Someone had the bright idea of painting a mural on the inside to brighten it up for pedestrians and it was done by schoolchildren with a local artist. It made a huge difference to crossing the bridge.

Something like that could be done on the empty buildings in Wick town centre if one only knew how to go about it and who to contact. Who owns these eyesores? Bill, are you seeing this thread?

I'm sure more visitors would stop in Wick, instead of driving straight through, if only that part looked more attractive.

[bagpuss]

Who actually owns the derelict/boarded up buildings? And as everyone is so keen to see chain stores in Caithness, why not offer those buildings to them with the same sort of low business rates on offer to those companies taking up the new builds. or why not offer those properties to the developers- instead of buidlign huge retail parks outside the town.

Incidentally I hear Wick now sports an antique shop in Bridge Street charging London prices.
How quaint

[badger]

It would be interesting to know what, if any, incentives are offered to potential new tenants/buyers of these properties. The reason many shops closed in the little town where I used to live in foreign parts (England ;) ) was not lack of trade but extortionate rates.
Are there any Wick councillors out there who can supply some answers to all of this (don't think Bill is reading this one)?

[trinkie]

Has anyone been able to contact the Council yet - or have you got their email addres?


By the way - where I live, it turned out the offending empty shop premises were owned by the Council !!

[Lavenderblue2]

Trinkie I found this e.mail address on the Highland Council web site

caithness.area@highland.gov.uk

LB

[pentlander]

How do you intended to get the council to force shopkeepers to kidy up their premises. The only way it will happen is if the coucil pay for it.

[JAWS]

Offer a reduction in Rates to those businesses who do make their premises presentable? Using the Carrot usually has far more effect than that the threat of beating something to death with the Stick!

[pentlander]

Offer a reduction in Rates to those businesses who do make their premises presentable? Using the Carrot usually has far more effect than that the threat of beating something to death with the Stick!
Who exactly will decide what is presentable. Im afraid this daft idea needs to be left in cloud cuckoo land where it belongs.

[sweetpea]

There's a graffiti artist been working with young people doing the boards round Eden Court for the very reason of tidying them up when the refurb is going on. His work is good and he fairly gets the young ones involved. It would be great to see something artistic on the boarded up shops if they have to stay that way for a while.

[Lavenderblue2]

Good to see on today’s front page of the Org that Peter Peacock has raised the issue of Wick town centre in the Scottish Parliament - here's hoping that his plea won't go unheeded. It is such a shame that Bridge Street is looking so shabby when there is such great work going on in the harbour area for instance.

LB

[johno]

Reckon Wick Stopped Short Years Ago ,when They Did High Street They Aught To Have Pulled Out All The Stops & Carried On To Bridge St, The Narrowness Of The Bridge Would Have Spoiled It Though.