Town Centre Funding to improve Caithness CCTV
20th February 2021
Members of the Caithness Committee have agreed to use Town Centre Funding to invest in the CCTV infrastructure for both Wick and Thurso.
£16,100 will be used to digitalise the existing aging analogue public space CCTV system in Wick town centre and connection of the new system into the council's CCTV monitoring office with £25,625 to do the same for Thurso town centre.
In September last year the Scottish Government announced extra funding through the Town Centre Fund as part of its national economic recovery stimulus package, particularly aimed at supporting construction activity across Scotland. The Highland Council has received an additional £1,066,000, providing an extra £56,104 for investing into Thurso and Wick.
At the meeting today members also agreed a variance to the 2019/20 Town Centre Funded public realm project being delivered by Thurso Community Development Trust. The remaining £2,379 of the 2020/21 TCF area allocation will be awarded to the Trust for this project. The wayfinding element is now on hold and in its place the Trust will now deliver their market stall initiative at a cost of £8,763. Members also agreed to invest £8,616 on the refurbishment of the Precinct clock.
Chair of the Committee, Cllr Nicola Sinclair said: ‘I'm delighted to see the proposals for enhanced CCTV go ahead. The second tranche of town centre fund money is relatively small, so it was important we found projects of an appropriate scale that could be delivered quickly. CCTV has an important role in public safety, but it also protects our other investments in the town centre environment by discouraging vandalism. In the various public consultations undertaken recently and in community council meetings, improved CCTV is a common request from the community, so I'm pleased we're now in a position to take this forward. The regeneration of both Wick and Thurso town centres is a huge project and has faced new challenges with covid but we are making progress."
All Town Centre Fund money needs to be committed by March this year and projects completed by September 2021.
Last month the committee approved £12,000 of this money to go towards additional works to complete a key site redevelopment project at 126 High Street, Wick so the Highland Housing Alliance (HHA) who acquired the derelict property with land can complete the demolition of the property before transferred the land to the Wick Development Trust for redevelopment.
Also on the agenda
Item 3: Town Centre Fund Report, 91.73 KB
Item 4: Wick and Thurso Active Travel Masterplans Report, 18.45 MB
Item 5: Housing Revenue Account: Garage Rents 2021/22 Report, 66.51 KB
See papers for the meeting at https://www.highland.gov.uk/meetings/meeting/4393/caithness_committee
Related Businesses
Related Articles
As intimated in Highland Council's budget plan, a new senior management structure is to be implemented following approval by Council 14th March. It reconfigures the senior management team into two layers, rather than three and brings Highland Council into line with other benchmarked authorities.
Today, Morrison Construction introduced some of their local apprentices who are working on the UK Governments' Levelling Up Funded refurbishment project at the Northern Meeting Park in Inverness. All these apprentices have been recruited from the Highland area.
The by-election to elect a councillor to represent Ward 19 - Inverness South on The Highland Council has been won by Duncan Cameron McDonald - Independent who was one of the eight candidates who contested the vacancy. Voters in the ward went to the poll yesterday (Thursday 11 April) and the by-election count was held this morning in The Highland Council Headquarters in Inverness.
The Technology Placement Programme offers funding to businesses in the Highland Council area to cover up to 70% of the cost of employing a student or graduate. The Technology Placement Programme offers funding to businesses in the Highland Council area to cover up to 70% of the cost of employing a student or graduate.
Following the success of its Business Digital Grant scheme launched last year, The Highland Council is delighted to announce further funding. This is to help Highland companies access digital support alongside other business growth support.
The Highland Council is delighted to confirm a highly successful second year for Public Service Obligation (PSO) flights between Wick and Aberdeen. The period from April 2023 to March 2024 has seen a substantial increase in passenger numbers, with several months seeing over 1,000 passengers using the service, and overall the service has seen year on year growth of 25%.
Members of Highland Council, who met on Thursday 14 March 2024, approved a corporate Digital Ambition, which has been designed to deliver significant organisational change across Council services, recognising the current priorities within the organisation. The Strategy, which is embedded within the wider Council Delivery Plan, has been developed to focus attention and resources on areas of change which will deliver the greatest benefit to the Council.
The Council remains committed to supporting mentoring in our schools, including the support that is currently delivered through the MCR Pathways programme. Highland Council is currently undertaking a review of Employability Support provided by a number of different council services and how these relate to the work carried out by external partners and in our schools.
Highland Council members have considered and agreed a revised draft Highland Outcome Improvement Plan. The partnership plan has been reviewed and updated by the Community Planning Partnership.
Members at today's (14 March 2024) meeting of The Highland Council agreed the local authority's new draft Community Wealth Building Strategy. They were also asked to note that a period of public engagement on the draft will now begin, with a final strategy returning to full Council for consideration in September.
