Wick town centre lanes project on course to be finished by March
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Work aimed at breathing new life into lanes in Wick town centre is on course to be completed by the spring of next year.
Sustrans Scotland has partnered with Highland Council and the Royal Burgh of Wick Community Council to "re-imagine" some of the lanes connected to High Street.
The latest stage of the Wick Lanes Pocket Places project was an event in Caithness House on Wednesday at which local artists Hannah Cambridge and Aimee Lockwood hosted interactive workshops. Local people were invited to view designs that have been created based on public feedback and co-design/community outreach sessions.
Robin Burns, project lead, co-design, for Sustrans Scotland, explained that art boards will be installed in several lanes and there will also be planters and furniture to add "a splash of colour".
The designs will feature "artist-interpreted images" from the Johnston photographic collection held by the Wick Society, the voluntary-run local heritage group.
The lanes project is being seen as a starting point for the wider town centre regeneration. It is supported by funding from the Scottish Government through Sustrans Scotland’s Pocket Places programme.
Speaking towards the end of Wednesday's event, Mr Burns said: "It has been a great turnout today. We've had great feedback from local people.
"We've been really excited to showcase the progress that we've made with the project so far, and the concept ideas we've come up with as well."
An online survey will continue to run for another couple of weeks at www.wicklanes.co.uk and comments can be emailed to wicklanespocketplaces@sustrans.org.uk
Mr Burns said the feedback will help to ensure that the final designs "match the expectations of local people". These will be made public early in 2024.
"We'll also get construction started and actually get things on the ground, hopefully with completion by the end of March next year," he said.
The project is concentrating on the corner of Wares Lane (Back Bridge Street), Tolbooth Lane, John Street and the lane beside the Riverhouse bar and kitchen, formerly Wetherspoon's.
"We're looking at having at least one or two art pieces per site, and with the sites that are the main focus we're looking at having planters and furniture there too with a splash of colour," Mr Burns said.
"We've been working closely with the Wick Society. Very kindly they've let us have use of a good selection of images from the Johnston collection and we've used that as a basis for workshops with local people.
"We'll record everything that is done in these workshops, and our artists will go away and take that data and that information and basically set all that into designs."
He said: "The public today have had a chance to select their favourite images, things that they like, and colour palettes as well. All these things are informing our design decisions."
Mr Burns said the materials chosen for the art boards will ensure they are "long-lasting and stand the test of time".
He added: "We just want to make nice places for people to stop and sit and enjoy the Wick High Street.
"It's part of the wider regeneration of the street design project. We're looking to fill up the interim time until that is completed.
"We're going to be finishing in March 2024. They might be a year or two down the line, so we're hoping to kind of fill that gap for the time being and keep interest, make sure people know that things are happening.
"It'll hopefully keep the public’s faith in us as well and make sure they know that we're staying true to our word and doing what we can."
Wick Society representatives Fergus Mather and Ian Leith also attended Wednesday's event.
