£450,000 boost for Wick harbour improvements from Marine Fund Scotland
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
Scottish Government funding of £450,000 for improvements to Wick harbour has been welcomed as "really good news" for the port.
It was described as "a start" for long-term plans that could see the outer harbour being brought into all-year-round use, costing an estimated £900,000.
Wick Harbour Authority is among more than 90 businesses and marine organisations that will share in £14 million worth of grants from the Marine Fund Scotland 2023/24, announced this week.
The Wick plans were in place before damage came to light after Storm Babet in October, when the harbour entrance was hit by big swells and powerful waves that caused gaps to open up in the stonework. Babet was followed by a series of other easterly storms.
A programme of emergency stabilisation work is almost complete.
Harbour master Ian Cormack said the wider scheme will involve steel piling and a very slight alignment of the pier at the harbour entrance. It is dependent on other grant applications.
He described it as “phase one of what could be a bigger scheme".
Mr Cormack explained: “We had planned this project anyway, prior to the storm. It's just that the storm has exacerbated things.
“It's basically a restructuring of the harbour entrance where the damage has been done.
“It's like a curtain of piles around the quay, about a metre or half a metre out from the existing quay. It gets backfilled with concrete then in between and that leaves you with a new wall, basically.
“We've got bigger plans for the future, hopefully being able to get the outer harbour into all-year-round use.
“This has been designed to be able to be incorporated into the next stage, if and when it goes ahead.
“This is one grant out of a series of grants that we've applied for. Although it's really good news for us that we got that, it's still dependent really on the other grants coming forward as well to fully fund the scheme.
“It's a start. We are needing others to come on board to get it to fruition. It will probably be in the order of £900,000 altogether.”
Some of the work for the bigger scheme has been incorporated into the emergency stabilisation.
Local companies Lochshell Engineering and GMR Henderson have carried out different parts of the stabilisation project.
“It is basically finished," Mr Cormack said. "We've just got to get some grouting done which is getting done next week.
“It's holding together at the moment. It's not a full repair or anything like that.
“It's enough to buy us time to hopefully get the scheme in proper."
Scrabster Seafoods also received a Marine Fund Scotland grant. The sum of £49,201 was awarded for the purchase and installation of a smoking kiln, solar panels and flake ice machine as part of a project costing £98,403.
The Marine Fund Scotland was established after Brexit, replacing support for the fishing and seafood sector previously available through the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund.
Scotland's cabinet secretary for rural affairs, land reform and islands, Mairi Gougeon, said: “The successful organisations and individuals are helping to drive innovation in the marine sector and support coastal communities and I am pleased to confirm such a wide variety of recipients.
"We are committed to maintaining the full allocation for Marine Fund Scotland but an independent Scotland, within the EU, receiving pre-Brexit levels of funding, could much better support our seafood and marine industries."
