Orkney Islands Council has announced major road closures in Kirkwall from next week (beginning 01 April) as part of the ongoing works in Broad Street.

Works will be moving to the top of Castle Street and the middle of Broad Street, including finishing touches installed at key crossing points which will include raised textured stone features.

This will lead to the closure of the junction of Broad Street, Castle Street and Albert Street to all traffic for up to five weeks - and therefore the full closure of Broad Street and Albert Street for the duration.

The works are part of the Kirkwall Townscape Heritage Initiative’s (KTHI) Places and Spaces project.

The key aspects of the Place and Spaces project are to:

• Improve the area at the bottom of the Strynd and top of Castle Street.

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• Provide a new path to the War Memorial to enhance it as a place to stop and reflect on the significance of the monument.

• Improve the head of Victoria Street to encourage people into this part of the town.

This initial phase of the project is due for completion early May after which works will be suspended for the main summer season. Work will move to the entrance to Victoria Street in the autumn, with work being suspended again in December for Christmas shopping season.

The Places and Spaces initiative was developed alongside community groups such as the Kirkwall and St Ola Community Council and the Kirkwall BID who identified key areas of the town where it was felt improvements could be made. Proposed improvements were the positively received by the Orkney community during a two day consultation period, where 68% of those who attended said they supported the proposals, 18% were against and the rest were undecided.

The Kirkwall Townscape Heritage Initiative is a five year heritage-based grant scheme which seeks to deliver sustainable improvements to the built heritage of the Kirkwall Conservation Area, in an effort to regenerate the centre of Kirkwall for the benefit of local communities and businesses, as well as to attract visitors. The scheme has been running since July 2014 and will conclude in June. It's primarily funded by Heritage Lottery Fund, Historic Environment Scotland and Orkney Islands Council. The streetscape improvements have also received additional funding from Transport Scotland, through Sustrans Scotland's Community Links Fund.