Funding for £250,000 revamped public toilets in Wick in place
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Funding has been secured to refurbish public toilets in Wick town centre.
The town’s community council was told this week that plans for the £250,000 upgrade of the public conveniences at Whitechapel Road are now in place.
Highland councillor Raymond Bremner (Wick and East Caithness ward) had told the Royal Burgh of Wick Community Council (RBWCC) previously that he was working on bringing in the cash to complete the project.
He said: “The report stated that I was now looking to confirm full funding for the project to get it delivered.
“I can confirm that the meetings to try and secure funding have been held and they were successful.”
Cllr Bremner said the project will be “fully funded” through a mix of tourism infrastructure funding from Highland Council, the Scottish Government’s Place Based Investment Fund, the Coastal Communities Fund and a Highland Council Loan Fund.
Planning permission and other administrative processes still need to be finalised but it is hoped that a contractor will be appointed by mid-summer, with the project being delivered by the end of the year.
Progress on the Camps toilets will be considered as a second phase given the “design and funding challenges” faced for taking that project forward.
The councillor said there was still a strong commitment for the redesign and redevelopment of the whole area but for the moment “we now need to concentrate on delivering the first phase at Whitechapel Road”.
He added that obtaining the necessary funding was always going to be a challenge and that the Camps site needs extensive restructuring, with a pitched roof put in place, before it can be put back into use as a public convenience.
The revamped facility at Whitechapel Road will include a new communal entrance, charging gate, internal CCTV, disabled toilet, upgraded showering facilities and a full internal refurbishment.
The current roof will be replaced with a new pitched roof, external walls will be a re-rendered and lockers installed for travellers and town centre users.
Councillor Bremner added: “I’m really grateful for the commitment of the Highland Council team working on this. We have tried to make sure that the community council have been informed at every stage of getting the project delivered because we know how important it is to the local community.
"The quarter-of-a-million pound project is not in any way over-specified. Nor could it have been delivered any quicker, indeed we had little guarantee that we would ever see this project delivered at all. The whole building has had to be transformed to mitigate safety and security given the target it was for anti-social behaviour.
"The state of the building also meant that a full refurbishment had to take place. This was never going to be a 'magic wand' fix but steadily we are getting there. It’s a big relief to know that the funding is secured. That means we now have confidence that the project will finally be delivered. I’m hopeful that we can administrate the process to construction and completion within this calendar year as quickly as possible.”
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