Councillor calls for Covid testing centre to be moved out of Wick riverside car park
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Efforts are being stepped up to get Wick's Covid-19 testing centre moved out of the main car park in the middle of the town.
The centre has been in place in the riverside car park since early January and is taking up 12 bays intended for campervans and motorhomes.
With staycations on the rise following the easing of coronavirus restrictions, and with Wick being a popular stopping-off point for North Coast 500 tourists, calls are intensifying for the riverside spaces to be freed up for their intended purpose.
Highland councillor Raymond Bremner is pursuing the issue. He says he fully accepts there is a continuing need for a Covid testing site in Wick but wants it to be relocated elsewhere in the town.
The redesign of the car park is among a number of measures aimed at regenerating the town centre. Resurfacing work was completed in March last year at a cost of around £120,000.
“There is a reason for the parking bays to be there and a reason for the car park to be in the centre of Wick," Councillor Bremner said. "There is also a reason for the NHS testing centre, but we need to understand what would be the best location for it because of the fact that it is now conflicting with the parking for motorhomes and caravanettes."
He is pushing for a small number of waste disposal units to be installed alongside the 12 bays.
“With the pressure being on us to provide the proper accommodation for motorhomes and caravanettes, I'd like to see if we can provide for waste disposal," he said. "And that, of course, is going to be the most obvious place to put it – where we have provided for the parking. But at the moment we can't use it."
Councillor Bremner has been in touch with Highland Council’s executive chief officer for communities and place and an NHS resilience adviser, insisting that a relocation is needed "as soon as possible".
Speaking in the car park on Tuesday, he said: “We are just at the May bank holiday and it's pretty busy, but I can't imagine what this is going to look like in June and July if that [the testing centre] is still there.
“I mentioned it two months ago and I was told there was a need for it to be here. I said okay, but let's review it, and in two months I have no idea what that review has shown.
“What we do know is that they still need it. I absolutely appreciate that, for the peace of mind and the security of our local community in terms of Covid, because it hasn't gone away.
“But at the same time, the tourists went away for a while but they are now coming back so we need to provide for them.
“The less that we provide for tourists, the more problems we're going to have.
"The fact is we spent money providing for the tourists when we started redoing the car park, because it was horrific. We even put a stop to the roads capital plan two years ago to try and get this car park sorted.”
He stressed: "I’m very supportive of the need to have the testing centre. However, it’s about getting the balance right.
"I’m hopeful that we can find a satisfactory solution that allows us to provide for both a location for the testing centre and the full amenity that the car park was intended to provide."
Councillor Bremner gave an update at a Zoom meeting of the Royal Burgh of Wick Community Council on Monday night.
He told community councillors: “We’re already seeing increased capacity of tourists and we need that car park right in the centre of the town to be the maximum car-parking availability possible.
“I'm not condemning the NHS or anything like that – I want them to look at what they can actually do to be able to relocate so that there is still access for the size of the centre they need in terms of its use. At the moment I don't believe that it is heavily used at all.”
The Covid centre in Wick opened on January 7 and is part of a network of local and regional testing sites across Scotland operated on behalf of the UK government by private firm Mitie.
