Sir Ian Wood has declared it is “game over” on the Union Terrace Gardens debacle as he seeks to move on from the row over the future of Aberdeen city centre.
His comments were made to coincide with publication of the Wood Family Trust annual review, with £118million available for good works both at home and abroad.
This includes the £50million that had been earmarked for the transformation of Union Terrace Gardens, but which is now likely to be spent on a major project in the sub-Sahara.
He said he was unable to detail how the money would be invested, adding: “Of course we have been thinking about it. I am not in a hurry. There are one or two really big projects in Africa that we are looking at.
“Now that we are definitely in a position where it is not going to be spent on the big project that we were very positive about, I am guessing that by next year we will have something specific to say, but we are not there yet.
“There is no shortage of extraordinarily good causes in the world.”
Sir Ian had twice offered the money to revolutionise the layout of the gardens, with Aberdeen City Council knocking back the £50million in December for a second time after it failed to come up with its own alternative proposals to the ambitious overhaul that it rejected back in 2012.
He said: “It is game over. I have said it is a matter of great regret. People ask me if I feel bad, and I feel really bad for the future citizens of Aberdeen because I feel they have lost a great opportunity.
“Over the last four years I have said as much as I am going to say on the centre of Aberdeen. I really hope that the city council have got something that they can come up with.
“It just does not make sense not to have a significant change in the city centre.”
Sir Ian, who retired as the chairman of the Wood Group in late 2012, is now focussing on the work of the trust.
Its projects in Rwanda and Tanzania are helping some 40,000 tea farmers turn their smallholdings into small businesses. At home, hundreds of schoolchildren in Scotland have taken part in a development programme which has young people working alongside various charities to promote tolerance, citizenship and enterprise amongst the young.
As the programme involves, 15 school teachers from the City and Shire are to travel to Rwanda this summer to help improve the education system. On return, a global citizenship programme will unfold in local schools.
Sir Ian said: “Without being unkind, we are capable of being very parochial in Scotland and in the UK and as I keep saying to youngsters of all nationalities, ‘you don’t live in the centre of the world – there is no centre of the world’.
“It’s a global world therefore underlying it all is trying to open minds to a broader, global canvas.”