A row has broke out over two students’ plan to open a pub on the grounds of Aberdeen University.
Student entrepreneurs Tamas Muller and Juliusz Matraszek, who are currently studying management at the university, want to open the pub opposite near King’s College – next door to the chaplaincy.
But chaplains have objected the proposals, amid fears they could interfere with the pastoral and emotional support they offer to students.
The plans to turn the B-listed 15 High Street into a bar with outdoor seating have dividing the local community, with hundreds of letters of objection and support lodged with Aberdeen City Council.
Revs Jakub Czajka and Maximillian Martin, who live at the Roman Catholic Chaplaincy for university, are among the objectors.
It is understood that their bedroom windows overlook the proposed beer garden at the planned site, which has provisionally been named the Ivy Bar.
In a letter, they said: “Many students who attend the chaplaincy centre do so in order to find a space of peace and relative quiet, precisely because they do not wish to socialise in public houses.
“It is part of our ministry to assist students who require pastoral care and emotional support throughout their student experience, and it would be extremely unhelpful to try and conduct such sensitive ministry while being immediately adjacent to a public
house, outside of which the applicant anticipates the need to hire bouncers.”
Angus Donaldson, director of estates at the university, said: “Old Aberdeen is, in a commercial or local facilities sense, stagnating and in particular the High Street is dying as a local centre.
“This is evident by the loss of many traditional local services in recent years, namely the police station, post office and two banks.
“An open mind is now required to address this decline.
“The applicant has worked incredibly hard on this project and, as a young entrepreneur, I applaud his efforts.”
Mr Matraszek said: “Our establishment aims to better the nature of the Old Aberdeen neighbourhood.
“We would like to point out that nearly all objections blanket label students as noisy vandals, vomiting everywhere, and acting in a manner that is disrespectful.
“This is hugely discriminatory against the 14,000-strong student population.
“Not all of us are like that – it would be a shame if thousands would have to pay the price for the actions of the few.”