THE rest of Scotland thinks the poll in Aberdeen next week is about the independence debate and the credibility of the First Minister.

But for locals in the Donside constituency it's mainly about a local road junction. The nation's future versus a roundabout. It has come to this.

The real point about the decision made by the voters is that it will tell us about the extent to which the late Brian Adam changed the politics of this part of the north-east.

When he became a councillor in 1988 he was the first Nationalist presence in the city.

By the time Mr Adam reached the peak of his influence he had helped build a political organisation that had taken over the entire North-east region by the time of the SNP triumph in 2011.

"He was my mentor," says SNP candidate Mark McDonald.

Mr Adam bequeathed not just a welcome on many doorsteps but a ruthlessly well-organised party machine on the ground, which produced ever more impressive results.

McDonald makes the point well. When Brian Adam first became a councillor in 1988 he was the first SNP councillor in the city.

But from this foot-hold he helped build a level of political control which few could have envisaged resulting in him winning more than 50% of the popular vote in 2011.

Mark McDonald was a beneficiary of that process, becoming a young councillor, then a regional list MSP and now, having resigned that position, standing or falling as candidate in the Aberdeen Donside contest.

He says of his main contestant, Labour's Willie Young: "He has a tendency to play the man rather than the ball, but we are confident that every time he speaks we win votes."

Mr Young makes precisely the opposite case, and the day we speak he has made a bold move in Aberdeen Council, using his finance convenership to push through an accelerated plan top demolish houses to create the new approach road to improve the Haudagain roundabout.

It has put him all over the local morning paper but with highly critical comments about mass evictions, it's a mixed message.

That is often the way with Mr Young, who, as a wealthy property developer, is not a typical Labour candidate.

When asked about the contradictions in his own record, he says simply: "let them look at my record and at Mark McDonald's record and make a judgment on that and I will settle for that," he says.

There are other issues too – school closures, the council tax, and the treatment of Aberdeen in council funding terms.

Both of the main contenders have questions to answer on these, but Mr Young in particular has found himself under scrutiny, given his party's previous campaigns in Glasgow attacking Aberdeen's supposedly generous funding.

On the doorsteps in Bridge of Don, deputy Labour leader Harriet Harman was the star act yesterday.

However, it is shadow scots secretary Margaret Curran who is pushing the relentless message: "It's a two-horse race.

"If you want to stop Salmond and independence, you have to vote for Willie Young."

Councillor Young himself is confident.

It is a word he uses often, as befits a power in the land who a week before the poll has used his position as finance convener of Aberdeen City Council to fast-track plans for a roads revamp.

But his SNP opponent counters: "As far as we are concerned, every time Willie Young says anything it costs him votes.

"He seems to forget that people here in Aberdeen have access to Google, where they fan see that on everything he proclaims now, he said the opposite in the past.

Christine Jardine, the Liberal Democrat candidate, is a highly experienced former special adviser to the UK Government and is critical of both front-runners: Mr McDonald for his record as foot soldier of the SNP Government, and Mr Young for his freewheeling roll on the council.

She insists the contest is wide open.

However, she must know it's a two-horse race and that at best she is locked in a tussle at best for third place with the Conservatives' candidate Ross Thomson.

He, in turn, will have an eye open for the performance of Ukip, given that party's advances south of the Border.

But for the rest of us the issues will be clear, and they will not be about the Haudagain Roundabout.

They will be about the SNP versus Labour vote, Alex Salmond's waning authority, and the implications for the independence referendum next year.