Broad Street improvement plans go on show today

Proposed improvements to the Broad Street area of Kirkwall go on show today, Saturday, in the Kirkwall Town Hall.

Today, the design team will be on hand from 1pm to 6pm to discuss the designs displayed at the exhibition.

They will begin the exhibition with a presentation at 1pm, which will describe the project to date and explain how comments received through earlier consultations have fed into the design process. The presentation will be repeated at 5pm.

The OIC is encouraging feedback from visitors, with comment sheets and a questionnaire available. In addition, OIC staff will be present each day between 12 noon and 2pm for discussions with the public.

Gavin Barr, the OIC’s executive director of development and infrastructure, said: “The exhibition provides people with an opportunity to view and comment on a range of outline proposals prepared by the team for the Broad Street area.

“It follows two events staged in April where the public, and representatives of a wide range of groups, organisations and businesses, had the opportunity to meet the team and discuss views, ideas, and suggestions with them.

“These events were well attended and the comments received fed directly into the design process. The further feedback we receive during the exhibition will be reported to Elected Members before final decisions are taken on the Broad Street improvements project.”

The exhibition runs until Saturday, June 13.

The council’s development and infrastructure committee will meet on Friday, June 26, to consider the designs and public response. The committee will make recommendations to a meeting of the full council, on July 7, on whether to proceed to construction of the potential improvements.

The OIC has succeeded in attracting £1.5 million in funding commitments from the national transport charity Sustrans and the Kirkwall Townscape Heritage Initiative (THI), which could be used to undertake the work if there is a decision to proceed in July.