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A community hub for Pulteney and beyond





Cookery and computing teacher Amalie Cormack with some members of her cooking class.
Cookery and computing teacher Amalie Cormack with some members of her cooking class.

Cookery and computing teacher Amalie Cormack with some members of her cooking class.

WORK is steadily progressing on Pulteneytown People’s Project’s latest contribution to Wick – a £3.4 million community centre in Huddart Street.

According to the group the centre will provide a truly unique, multifunctional facility that will house community services, training and small businesses.

PPP chief executive officer Katrina MacNab is keen to clear up any misconceptions about the centre ahead of its opening early next year.

“People don’t really understand what it is that we are doing here,” she said. “What we’ve tried to do is identify the gaps in the community because there is not much happening in the town but we don’t want to duplicate or take away from something that is already here.”

Put simply, the new centre will form a hub for Pulteneytown, Wick and Caithness in general, where classes can be taken for social and educational purposes, friends can be made, small businesses start-ups can take their first tentative steps and where leisure activities can be pursued.

One thing Mrs MacNab wants to make clear is that this centre will be a place where everyone is welcome.

Currently operating out of five properties on Murchison Street, the 26 members of PPP’s staff are eagerly awaiting the opening of the centre just down the road.

Being built by local firm M.M. Miller, with electrical work being carried out by G,A, Barnie, when the centre is finished it in early 2012 the group will finally have the facilities to do justice to the work they do in the community.

The community has played a massive part in the planning process as memebrs of existing groups were consulted on what they thought was needed and they will continue giev their input, said Mrs MacNab.

“We’re drawing up boards at the moment so that the community can get a say in the final design,” she explained. “We’ll put them round all our classes so our users can say what colours they would like, what carpets and things like that.

We’re just trying to make sure everyone is involved and takes part in it.”

THERE is certainly plenty of space to plan for as the sheer size of the new build means that a huge variety of specialist facilities can be contained within it.

The ground floor will host a reception, sports hall

Central to this new community hub will be a public café, which will help generate income to keep the community classes and other PPP projects going.

“The café will hopefully be a hub,” said Mrs MacNab. “It will be upmarket, but we will give concessions to users of the centre. We don’t want a cheap café with cheap food. It will be good quality food at a reasonable price.”

Another key feature will be the “drop in” crèche which will allow parents to drop their youngsters off to use the facilities on offer or even just to grab a quick cup of tea and some peace and quiet in the café.

An artists’ studio, an area for the group’s youth project and a classroom round off the facilities on the ground floor.

The upper floor of the two-storey building will house the staff offices and just a short walk along the corridor will be the social economy offices where local businesses can rent office space.

“The social economy offices are for local businesses that are maybe not big enough to have their own offices, say people working out of a spare room in their house, but they want their own premises,” said Mrs MacNab.

“This will give them an area where they can share a receptionist, have access to a photocopier and a meeting room. It should stimulate some employment without the full responsibility of a building.”

Art teacher Karyn Fraser's students display their work.
Art teacher Karyn Fraser's students display their work.

Art teacher Karyn Fraser's students display their work.

Also located on the first floor will be a fully soundproofed band practice room, two IT suites with top-of-the-range computers with internet access, and training facilities.

A training kitchen will allow the popular cookery classes to continue when the move is made from Murchison Street.

Four of the five current premises are expected to be handed back to the council when the new centre opens, with one of the converted houses, 44 Murchison Street, staying with the organisation as an informal area.

If all goes according to plan the centre will be finished and handed over to PPP by February next year.

PPP was funded for this project by: the Big Lottery, Community Energy Scotland, European Regional Development Fund, HIE, the Highland Council, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, the Robertson Trust, Score Environment, Scottish Government Wider Role and Scoial Investment Scotland.

More information as well as updates on the weekly progress of the community centre can be found at www.pulteneytownpeoplesproject.org.uk


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