New experimental rules banning private vehicles from key roads in Aberdeen city centre are to be rolled out early next year – without the public having a say.
Council officials have mapped out bus priority routes in Market Street, Guild Street and Bridge Street.
City traders have railed against the planned upheaval, which could be in place for a full 18 months while roads boffins test it out.
The experimental traffic regulation order (ETRO) is planned to come into force “in the New Year”.
And it will affect other areas of the city centre too.
It would bring about a long-spoken-about ban on private vehicles turning right from Union Terrace into Rosemount Viaduct.
There, the road has already been repainted to do away with the right-turn lane, as part of the Union Terrace Gardens revamp.
And it would formally pedestrianise Schoolhill, between Back Wynd and Flourmill Lane, and Belmont Street during the day.
Upperkirkgate, Flourmill Lane and Netherkirkgate are also to be marked as local access only.
The P&J can reveal – now that a select few organisations have had their say – Aberdeen City Council plans to launch the roads experiment with no further public consultation.
It will only be once the changes are in place that all road users – and the businesses impacted by the huge shift – will be allowed a say.
Council: ‘Public engagement once Aberdeen roads experiment is in operation’
A council spokeswoman told us: “Public engagement will commence once the scheme has been brought into operation.”
The local authority has already sought input from the emergency services, the bus and taxi firms, cycling and disability groups and haulage chiefs.
Initial meetings with some distressed city centre traders have taken place too.
But because the traffic order is “experimental”, the council is able to put the changes in place before asking the public.
However, Transport Scotland claims the ETRO process is “very rarely used” as councils consider them to offer “little benefit”.
“The procedure does not provide for a proper way to consult and modify along the way,” the roads quango states.
Only two years ago, the council faced significant backlash for a lack of consultation on emergency roads measures public health chiefs said were needed during the coronavirus pandemic.
The central stretch of Union Street was this year closed to all but buses and taxis too.
Guild Street ‘gyratory’ in Aberdeen and new bus gates
The main change brought about in Aberdeen by the experimental traffic regulation order will be bus prioritisation around Guild Street.
It’s a key route, parallel to Union Street, serving the bus and railway stations.
The upper part of Market Street, Guild Street between Market Street and Carmelite Street, the top of Bridge Street will all be reduced to local access only.
Roads bosses say the new layout is an attempt to “minimise” general traffic on the roads by ending their use as through-routes.
Planners have previously spoken about aspirations the area could be a “welcome mat” for visitors to Aberdeen.
Under the new bus-first system, bikes, goods vehicles, taxis and private hire cars will still be allowed Market Street, Guild Street and Bridge Street too.
Local access to the Trinity Centre car park and roads near the Green will remain open for all.
Wapping Street, Carmelite Street, Guild Street between Carmelite Street and College Street, and Bridge Street from Guild Street to Wapping Street will remain open to all traffic.
Funding for other roadworks in the city, at South College Street, is dependent on the new circular route – known as a gyratory.
New Aberdeen bus gates and return of the much-troubled Adelphi location
But new bus gates are to be installed at the top of Market Street, in Guild Street east of Wapping Street, and halfway up Bridge Street.
The existing bus gate at the east side of Union Street could be shifted back to its previous spot at the Adelphi as well.
For Mary Martin, who runs the Douglas Hotel in Market Street, it poses serious questions.
Firstly, how will brides get dropped by the wedding car at their front door ahead of the dozens of weddings held in their grand ballroom every year?
Most days, coach-loads of people are dropped – luggage and all – at the front of the hotel, there since 1848, having come from the nearby harbour.
Aberdeen hotel boss on new Market Street bus gate: ‘People still need to get to us’
Ms Martin met with roads planners last week and claims they noted several of her concerns.
Some, she says, they did not seem to have considered before.
“Bear in mind, I want people to come to Aberdeen city centre – and to stay the night,” she said.
“People are not going to walk in conditions like we have had recently, maybe this would work if parking were more substantial nearby.
“The thing is, people still need to get to us. I don’t think it has been thought through with the businesses in Aberdeen city centre in mind.
“That has now started but only because of our reaction.
“I am really for city centre change, I realise we have to do something but I don’t think it’s this.
“This is not going to affect us once a month – this will be every day.”
Aberdeen roads experiment will ‘undoubtedly disrupt’ city centre businesses
Rosemary Michie, of Charles Michies Pharmacy in Union Street, said such major changes to the roads should come “at the right time and for the right reasons”.
Trading with Country Ways in Holburn Street too, she predicted the ETRO will “undoubtedly disrupt” access to the Bon Accord Centre car parks, His Majesty’s Theatre, and the art gallery from the south and the west.
Ms Michie added: “I believe these changes are being implemented as a potentially significantly lengthy trial.
“The public and businesses affected will have to sit it out to see the effects – be they good or bad.
“It’s very disappointing that an in-depth consultation hasn’t been conducted with the public, businesses and other key stakeholders beforehand.
“We have to make sure the city centre is as welcoming and as accessible for everyone as possible.
“But I’m not convinced that these proposals are sending out that message.”
Scores of city traders met earlier this month to discuss how to turn Aberdeen city centre around.
Conversation