New roads in Golspie

[Fran]

What is happening at Golspie just before getting near to the hospital and industrial park, heading north. There is a new extra wide road, marked double roads going up the left hill to nowhere and new roads going down to the fields to nowhere. also two new bus shelters sitting in the middle of nowhere. What is happening does anyone know? Is it for new houses, a shopping park?

[Bill Fernie]

Just above the new road layout you will see a building that is currently being rennovated. Drummuie is the site of the new council offices for East Sutherland. There will be increased traffic to that area once the new offices are opened.

Once that is completed the focus will turn to new council offices for Caithness to be based in Wick. This is a major redeveloment for Wick involving a complete new office for the council staff from almost all of its existing buildings. It is much more than just new offices for Wick but a major redevelopment of Wick town centre. This will be the biggest investment in Wick possibly in the last 50 years.

A reecent announcement gave the names of the four companies short-listed to tender for the work. The companies must submit plans not just for the building of ne offices but for the complete redevelopment of the existing council buildings in Market Square and High Street exending right back across the car park at the back. No decisons have yet been taken about what will be put in the centre of Wick but the changes will be dramatic. For many years people have said why is nothing happening in Wick. Well now it is moving. It is hoped that contracts might begin to be placed by the end of this year.

What will be in the new town centre? That has not been decided and developers have been asked to submit suggestions as to what will repace all of the buildings currently on the site. It will create possibly up to three or four years of work in construction in and around Wick. It will secure Wick as the administrative centre for the council for a long time to come. It is likely to open up commercial possibilities for the town for say new shops and office. to be clear - the council offices will move en-masse to another site in Wick and completely new things will happen in the town centre. A service point for enquiries will be part of the redevelpment to allow people to have easy access to make enquiries and pay rents etc. This has been under discussion with officials and councillors for quite some time and only recently were the four contractors short-listed for submission of outline plans. It is major development not just for Wick but for Caithness. It will create work and employment for a few years and hopefully be the impetus needed to encourage other private development in the area. Combined with the rgeneration of Pultneytown that is well underway and the potential for the harbour that is also being pushed hard it might be hard to recognise the current Wick town centre in a few years time.

Apologies for moving off topic but the Wick development is next after the Golspie one in the councils list.

[peter macdonald]

Bill ..Are the council offices to be retained in the centre of Wick?? or are they moving to an out of town site which would mean a service point having to be retained in the centre?? At the moment the council is the major employer/"householder" in the centre ,if they move what do you think or prefer to happen to the Market Square??
Also at a time when council services are under financial pressure what is the projected cost of the development??

Apologies for asking so many questions !!
PM

[emszxr]

this road is a fiddle by the council.
they wanted and had to widen the junction for their very expensive offices at drummuie and to save money, they approached the wind farm developers and said ' you can use this junction as access to the kilbraur windfarm as long as you pay for it' . so the windfarm get their access road and the council get their widened junction for nothing. that be why the council pushed for the kilbraur windfarm to get agreed development.

[Bill Fernie]

The new council offices will be in Wick but not at the sites they now occupy. Several sites are possible but the developers have been asked to look at what site might be most suitable.

In order to get somethng major done with the town centre it needed to be something major and this cannot be achieved by trying to work around the existing offices that are in any case beyond repair. The complex is a hotch potch of extension added over the years with staircases in various forms and as you are probably aware bit so fthe building with serious structural problems being kept under review. They are not fit for modern purposes.

No sites have as yet been formally suggested by the developers although there are only a few places around the town where the necessary foot print for buildings and sufficient car-parking can go. However developers may come up with further suggestions.

We cannot do nothing and the opportunities to put the necessary finance in place and use the chance to create a major new development in the town centre are something that we had to grasp or perhaps lose it for who knows how many more years. Bearing in mind the ever looming run-down of Dounreay it is well recognised that the infrastructure of the area needs investment.

Nothng has been ruled out for the developers to come forward with their plans. I hope they will all be creative in order that we can get the best for the town and the county in general. Everyone want to see this as part of an ongoing improvement and investment in the area.

Only a service point is likely be retained in the actual town centre. But as I say nothing has been ruled out.

The actual costs of the development are not yet hardened up and in any case are subject to commercial confidentiality at this stage. Having said that the amounts will be significant and make an impact on the town in the years of construction of the new offices, the redevelopment of the town centre site and of course some other offices in other partsof the town may become available for further changes and redevelopement as a result of the big one.

As to what wil go in the town centre that is yet to be decided and once again we await suggestions from the developers who of course will be investing their own capital in this partnership project. This is not case of the council merely payiong for new offices. It will be a partnership with developers contributing as well as the council. There are commercial considerations in this approach and it is certainly my hope that it will give a considerable boost to contractors/employers and local businesses generally once work begins. As we have seen with the shopping developments reccently in the town their are short-term spin offs for hotels, Bed and Breakfasts and other businesses as the influx of people into the town grows as the work progresses. There should be opportunities for people to take advantage of this over the next four or five years. Indeed I am aware that some people are already moving to do so. You may have noticed that investment in property both old and new has increased. the opportunities for renting property in the town for example will grow. As rennovations of older property are growing so is the work for all sorts of tradesmen. You get my drift.......... and as I say my impression is that some people are already getting ready for the changes that are coming.

The band wagon is to some extent rolling as can be seen from a whole variety of works that have been carried out or started in Wick over the past two years. As many folk have commented it is not for nothing that the new shops have arrived in Wick. Big businesses keep an eye on trends and if you add up the investments being made in Wick and being mentioned as coming such as town centre re-development and new offices it is likely that people might see Wick as about to expand in a number of directions creating opportunities for investment. In this the council and HIE Caithness and Sutherland have en playing their part.

I am in no doubt that Wick is about to see a transformation in its fortunes. There is a lot to be done but hopefully this major development will help kick start even more to come to Wick. In fact I know it will....watch this space.

[quirbal]

well theyve done so much work on the roads here in wick, theyre about as even as the bloomin himalayas

[peter macdonald]

Bill thanks for that.. I hope they remember sites such as Rhind House exist and their not left to fall to bits ....
Be interesting when the costs come out though!!
Again thanks
PM

[crashbandicoot1979]

Its just a shame that the good fortunes of Wick is coming at expense to Thurso. At least one council department is being moved from Thurso to Wick this year, which is a great shame because at the end of the day, its a loss of 5 job positions in Thurso.

[burstbucker]

Its not 5 new jobs for Wick as there are as many if not more managerial positions that have also been done away with to make way for the new north highland council set up.

[pentlander]

There appears to be no shortage of cash when it needs to spent spent on council administation. How much is all this costing and what will actually be achieved.
Despite our councillors, Mps, Msp, European Mps, we cannot even get a derelict eyesore of a buliding in the center of Thurso sorted.
Council taxes to rise and services cut. If government is this country was run like a busines it would have been bancrupt years ago. There are far too many politicians all having meetings about meetings

[emszxr]

the building that they are developing in golspie to bring the dornoch, brora and golspie offices together are going to be costing around the £12m mark. and i know that the contactor has been told that it doesnt matter if they find any problems during construction, just to do what they have to do and money is no problem.