Aberdeen councillors throw out city gardens project

Wednesday 22 August 2012

Aberdeen councillors have voted against controversial plans to transform a city centre park.

An artist's impression of the rejected revamp

The case for the £140m City Garden Project was rejected at a meeting of the full council.

Councillors voted 22-20 against the project and instead backed a proposal by the Independent Alliance Group, led by councillor Marie Boulton, to regenerate Union Street, the Arts Centre, the Music Hall, the Lemon Tree and the Mither Kirk.

Businessman Sir Ian Wood had committed £50m towards the scheme to redevelop Union Terrace Gardens, while an anonymous £5m pledge had also been made. A group of seven north-east businessman, including Stewart Milne and Aberdeen Asset Management chief executive Martin Gilbert, had vowed to raise another £15m towards the project. The remaining cost was to be covered by a £92m Tax Incremental Financing loan from the Scottish Futures Trust. The money would also have been used to fund the redevelopment of St Nicholas House, Aberdeen Art Gallery and the North Denburn Valley as well as creating the City Circle pedestrian route project. A business reprot to the council said the alternative plans, which were backed, had the potential to unlock 6560 full-time jobs and an average of £115.1m per annum of economic growth over 25 years. More than 85,000 people voted in a public referendum on the contentious project in March with 52% voting in favour of the project. However the plan faced an uncertain future when Labour, who had campaigned against the proposal, won the most seats at the council elections in May. Sir Ian Wood said after the decision: "Along with the majority of Aberdeen citizens who voted for the ambitious regeneration programme of our city centre, I am obviously very disappointed and dismayed by this outcome. "The key losers are Aberdeen's present and future citizens, and I honestly believe future generations, looking back on Aberdeen's oil era, will wonder why on earth, after years of under-investment in our city centre - parts of which are clearly in decline - our City Council failed to grasp the opportunity to do something really transformational and enhance their legacy. “It’s frankly hard to believe that, following the positive referendum, our council have turned down an investment of £182m not available for other projects, with no impact on Aberdeen City Council's budget and with no impact on the Council tax payer. "Labour Councillor Willie Young earlier this week suggested ‘big business is trying to call the shots and the ordinary citizens of Aberdeen are being sidelined’. That's exactly what the Labour Party and the council have done today – effectively sidelined the views of the ordinary citizens of Aberdeen, and I sincerely regret that our City Council have let them down so badly. “We should also be very concerned about the message this sends outside Aberdeen nationally and internationally about our lack of vision and confidence to invest for the future. We have a great city in many respects, but today we've turned our back on the opportunity to greatly improve a significant infrastructure weakness, and, by the way, lost the opportunity to be a serious contender for the City of Culture 2017 which would have been a fantastic accolade for Aberdeen. “Wood Family Trust have now no alternative but to withdraw its offer to significantly support the project (in which it has already invested more than £1m), but I wish to do the courtesy of formally meeting and discussing this with Valerie Watts, Aberdeen City Council's chief executive, with whom Wood Family Trust's formal dealings have been conducted. I have arranged to meet her tomorrow morning.”

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Aberdeen councillors throw out city gardens project

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