Cameras, lights and gate to be installed at former Wick library to try and deter vandalism
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CCTV cameras are to be installed at the former Carnegie library in Wick in a bid to prevent vandalism at the historic site.
An application for eight CCTV cameras, external lights and a new entrance gate was approved by Highland Council and work is expected to get underway shortly at the building which is now home to the Caithness Food Bank (ground floor) and High Life Highland offices.
Three of the cameras will be on the front elevation with the others at the sides and rear of the property in Sinclair Street. No lights will be placed on the front of the building. The entrance gate is intended to enhance security, deter vandalism and preserve the fabric of the building while the CCTV will improve the surveillance of the site, it was stated.
The application was lodged following a number of vandalism incidents at the property – with one carried out over several nights at the end of last year.
The building, originally known as Carnegie Public Library, was financed by the Scottish‐American businessman and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie and was designed by the Edinburgh architect Thomas Leadbetter with construction completed in 1898. The property was listed in 1983 as a category B building.
A statement, which accompanied the application, said: "The principal function of the building had been a library, but it also provided gallery and exhibition space and housed the Northern Highland Archive. The building ceased functioning as a library in 2016. It currently provides office space for High Life Highland and space for a food bank."
As previously reported, 10 windows at the back of the building were smashed last November in what Caithness Foodbank trustee, Pat Ramsay, condemned as "mindless vandalism."
The premises had been visited a few months before by the then Prince of Wales, who was "deeply impressed" with the work that went on there along with other community initiatives he learnt about on his tour of the facility.
The prince, who has since become King Charles III, gave a "very generous donation" to the food bank.
