Plans to bring back Wick public toilets 'virtually ready to go'
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Plans to restore public toilets to Wick town centre are "virtually ready to go", with final designs expected by the end of this month.
Highland councillor Raymond Bremner says the price tag for bringing the conveniences at Whitechapel Road and the Camps back into use will be around £350,000. He is hopeful some match funding can be sourced to reduce the cost to the local authority.
“This project could never be, and never will be, just turning the key and turning a tap on," he told a meeting of the Royal Burgh of Wick Community Council this week. "This now has to be properly thought through, properly costed and properly delivered.”
There has been frustration over the long-term lack of available public toilets in Wick, with community council chairperson Joanna Coghill declaring during the summer: "For the size of this town, this is no longer acceptable."
Councillor Bremner, who represents Wick and East Caithness on Highland Council, told this week's meeting: “It's a really important point that we're at now with this project.
“I need to go and make sure that I can find the money, now that we've got the design concepts finalised.
“Highland Council is not going to turn round and give me £350,000 for those two buildings – that is simply not going to happen. I've got to argue my case, the same as 73 other councillors have to argue their case.”
Councillor Bremner told community councillors of potential funding sources that could reduce the cost to the local authority by around £140,000.
“I feel that this is very much desired by the public so I'm going to be making the case to use some of the developer contributions," he went on. "That will take the case for council capital funding right down – and the more I can bring it down by, the more successful it will be.
“By the end of this month we should have not only the final designs but the artist's impressions and a good idea in terms of the capital funding and also the match funding going forward.
“If you don't start tackling the capital budget now, you've not a chance of getting it over the line, as far as I'm concerned, at March next year's budget.
“This is a project that is virtually ready to go. We've been working hard on it for the past four months.”
Councillor Bremner added: “I'm looking for letters of support from various organisations – the local community council, the chamber of commerce, tourism organisations – to boost the case why we need this.
“It can't just be the case that we moan about it. We've got to make a positive case saying that this is a legitimate requirement for the town.”
The Whitechapel Road conveniences were closed early in 2020 after being targeted in a series of acts of vandalism.
