New dawn in sight for Wick council offices
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With two new primaries and a high school on the way, as well as ongoing town centre regeneration, the local authority is at the heart of the bid to bring the town into the 21st century.
Local council staff, however, are overseeing these developments from a decrepit building where small offices, winding corridors and uneven floors are said to hamper a creative working environment.
But this summer signals the beginning of the end for the current council offices as a demolition team will raze most of the properties to the ground, with the exception of the curved section on the High Street – Stafford Place – a category “C”-listed building.
Ward manager David Sutherland is project manager for the ambitious scheme to provide an update to one of the cornerstones of life in the town centre.
“People don’t seem to understand the conditions inside the offices,” he said. “There’s a lot of empty corridors and wasted space. I don’t think that anybody that sees inside it would be in any doubt as to the need for a new building.”
Mr Sutherland explained a few temporary props in the basement are keeping up one of the main walls in the building which houses the service point. “The big central wall is sinking into the ground on the old river bed and it’s pulling everything with it,” he said.
“That’s why we have uneven floors and doors that don’t fit frames. It’s beyond repair.”
He added: “There are no big rooms as such, it’s all twisting corridors and small spaces.”
This will all change over the next two years as open-plan offices are built.
Plans for the new building show an open lobby, where the public can meet council staff, a series of interview rooms and a council archive where documents can be kept – putting an end to multiple copies and wasteful paper use. Other concepts incorporated into the new design include an outside store for market traders using the square and a wood-chip-fired biomass boiler.
“It’s going to be a lot different from what we’ve got,” said the ward manager. “And of course when we go up to Girnigoe Street for around two years then we’ll be in an open-plan office so staff will get used to that then for the move back here.”
Mr Sutherland said the move to the former DSS building in Girnigoe Street will not be an easy task.
“The shift is going to be crazy,” he said. “It’s July or August we are supposed to be moving out and it should be done over a week.”
He added: “Moving the service point will be the crucial part as we need to keep an open link to the public – they’ll be either first or last to Girnigoe Street.”
The council’s plan to knock down and start again, although not the cheapest option, means the Highland Council will be keeping a historic link to the town centre.
“With this option we should be here for a long time,” he said. “Hopefully it will do the town justice.”
