Thurso and Wick improvement works ‘will make towns safer and more enjoyable’
Active travel projects in Thurso and improvements to Wick town centre were welcomed by Caithness councillors who received a progress report this week.
They heard that Highland Council’s active travel team is delivering a number of schemes in Thurso, including at Ormlie Road and Janet Street.
The works at Ormlie Road will provide junction upgrades between Castlegreen Road and Juniper Drive, with new drop kerbs and tactile paving and some surface repairs. At Janet Street, work is taking place at the Mall, where the footpath will be widened and resurfaced, with vegetation trimmed and the A9 park entrance relocated to the corner of Janet Street.
The path towards the bridge will have surface repairs and abutment repairs will be made to the bridge leading to the Boating Pond.
These works, paid for by the council’s place based initiative fund, are expected to start imminently and will be completed by April.
Community-led active travel projects in the Thurso, which have been allocated £20,000 from the fund, will see improvement works at Victoria Walk as a priority. The scheme involves replacing sections of timber fencing on the cliff edge with pedestrian guardrail and repairs to the stone dyke fence on the landward side of the path.
The contractor has been appointed for this job and works are due to start shortly. It is expected to be completed this financial year.
In Wick, a project to improve the Riverside area is part of a programme of infrastructure repair and improvement works to enhance the appeal of the town centre aimed at boosting the numbers visiting and the economy.
The project was awarded £18,000 of the £25,000 place based initiative funding allocated to Wick town centre regeneration, to match fund £50,000 from the council’s community regeneration fund.
Measures include resurfacing St Fergus Road with traffic calming measures, resurfacing pathways at the Riverside area with level access kerbing, and demarcation of taxi ranks and other parking such as coach parking bays.
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Lining works on these measures will be completed once winter maintenance has finished and there is less salt on the surfaces.
The remaining £7000 from the Wick fund was used for works around the Town Hall, including repairs and repainting of railings and stonework, and small-scale projects throughout the town centre carried out by the criminal justice unpaid work team, with support from the place based funding for materials.
Further work continues to be carried out by the criminal justice unpaid work team using the remaining balance (£523) along with an underspend of £1556 from the already completed Bus Shelter replacement project.
Councillors agreed to use this underspend on the Wick town centre works.
Councillor Ron Gunn, chairman of the Caithness committee, said: “It was good to have the opportunity to look at the stage the outstanding projects are at and to see progress being made. These works will make walking around our towns a lot safer and more enjoyable.”