A £50million pledge from Sir Ian Wood to help regenerate Aberdeen’s city centre will be rejected at a council meeting tomorrow.
The Labour-led administration said it will vote to turn down the offer from the retired north-east businessman, just days from an end-of-year deadline set by the Wood Family Trust.
Last night, Sir Ian expressed his “sincere regret” that there was no hope of the current coalition backing a “transformative” scheme – five years after the cash was first put on the table. The Press and Journal understands that the money will now be diverted to Wood Family Trust charitable projects in Africa.
Sir Ian had originally made the offer in 2008 towards proposals to raise Union Terrace Gardens to street level, and had left the door open to council leaders for 12 months after a decision to ditch the City Garden Project (CGP) in August last year.
That deadline was extended again in August until the end of 2013.
But deputy council leader Marie Boulton, convener of a new city centre regeneration board, said current plans were not advanced enough to meet the timetable. The administration has set aside £20million for the city centre, but as yet has not settled on a specific project.
She said: “Nobody wants to turn down £50million, but if we can’t meet his criteria at this stage, then there is not much we can do. I think people want us to get the basics right before the fur coats, and right now, we can’t give the kind of guarantees that he is looking for.
“We have just agreed to a strategic infrastructure plan, we are working on a masterplan for the city centre and we are talking to Network Rail, but all of these things take time.” Mrs Boulton, leader of Independent Alliance group, insisted there were no regrets about ditching the £140million CGP in August last year.
She added: “I think that we were right to be guarded with committing to monies that we didn’t know that we were definitely going to have.”
Opposition SNP group leader Callum McCaig said it was time to move on, rather than “picking over the bones” of past decisions. However, he questioned some of the decisions taken since last May’s council elections.
Mr McCaig said: “I don’t disagree that these things can take time and we do need to get them right, but you have to question what has been done for the past 18 months, as we are still no further forward.
“In the last six months in particular, there have been some errors of judgment in terms of how to approach Sir Ian and his £50million offer.
“Had the administration engaged with Sir Ian and the Wood Family Trust earlier and more positively we could have perhaps achieved something, but it seems to have suddenly dawned upon people that it is two weeks to go until the end of the year.”
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