ABERDEEN’S historic Castlegate could be reopened to traffic as part of plans for a pedestrian zone outside the city council’s headquarters.
Nearly 20 years after vehicles were banned from the area, councillors agreed yesterday to look again at allowing motorists to travel from Union Street through to Justice Street.
They also backed plans to press ahead with work to close off Broad Street between Queen Street and Upperkirkgate to create a civic space to complement the proposed £107million Marischal Square development.
Officials will report back on the details of a draft traffic order within six months, but will also be asked to examine retaining Queen Street as a through road, with a left turn only access to Union Street.
The city’s Labour-Conservative-Independent administration accepted the additions at a meeting yesterday amid concerns from some opposition members about the impact that shutting off Broad Street would have on surrounding roads.
Liberal Democrat councillor Steve Delaney suggested that reopening the Castlegate could mitigate against increased congestion in the city centre caused by the pedestrianisation plan.
He said: “I would support pedestrianisation, but not at any cost – we could go ahead with this and find that we have gridlock in the city centre.
“We need to mitigate the impact of the displaced traffic, and we could be making use of a space at the Castlegate that is not being used at the moment.”
Councillors were presented with three options for Broad Street – to do nothing, close it off to all vehicles except buses and taxis, or full pedestrianisation.
A report from officials recommended that the best option was to shut the street from Upperkirkgate to Queen Street, although there was an acknowledgement that “additional traffic management measures” would be required.
Yesterday’s agreement will also mean that officials are tasked with looking at ways of “maximising” views of the 16th century Provost Skene’s House from Broad Street.
Coalition leaders accepted the additions from the opposition in what was a marked contrast to the early part of yesterday’s meeting, which was dominated by political rows over plans to ban Scottish Government ministers from council property and wrangles over the city’s funding from central government.
Council leader Barney Crockett said it was important to move forward with the proposals for Broad Street, although he added that the plans would come back before councillors again.
He said: “This marks a significant step forward in the city’s improvement.
“We have always promised that the Marischal Square development would include a modest civic square in the heart of the city centre and the report from our officers shows that pedestrianisation is the best option for achieving that.”
SNP group leader Callum McCaig had earlier suggested that the whole idea of pedestrianising Broad Street should be referred to a process of producing a “masterplan” for the city centre, for which £750,000 has already been set aside.
John Corral, the SNP group’s infrastructure spokesman, also questioned the wisdom of closing off Broad Street, when it would lead to an increase in the number of buses on Union Terrace from 37 an hour to 68.
He added: “It will lead to serious, serious, congestion problems – it would be foolhardy to go ahead with a project just to prove that you can.”