Somewhere, deep in the city vaults, a plaque is gathering dust.
It commemorates an opening which never happened. A final triumph that was not to be, though hoped to spur Aberdeen voters to the polls days later.
Hundreds of pounds of public money was spent on the engraved plate, forever marking the date of Labour’s Union Terrace Gardens (UTG) triumph-turned-disaster.
Now, it lies somewhere in council storage.
More than £400 spent on ‘soft opening’ of Union Terrace Gardens
The P&J has uncovered that £265 was paid for the plaque, which apportions all of the £30 million glory for then-leader of the council Jenny Laing.
A freedom of information probe has shown that city chiefs were so confident of the April 26 date that they had it engraved.
The inscription reads: “To commemorate the official re-opening of Union Terrace Gardens by Councillor Jenny Laing, leader of Aberdeen City Council on 26 April 2022.”
Another £150 was spent on the abandoned event. It is not clear what else the money was splurged on.
But the local authority has ruled out any plush catering spread being put on for councillors after the last-ditch cancelled celebration.
Aberdeen City Council, when asked for comment, chose not to detail where the other £150 went.
Bosses also declined to tell us what purpose the plaque was being kept for.
Council counting the cost of a ‘political stunt gone badly wrong’
However, SNP co-leader of the council Alex Nicoll has his own ideas for it after the “political stunt had gone badly wrong at the cost of £265 to the public purse”.
He told us: “Union Terrace Gardens opened to the public in December, only eight months later than the apparent opening date they had proposed.
“The previous Labour-led administration, headed up by Jenny Laing, was clearly so confident of their ‘soft opening’ that they had officers purchase a plaque.
“This will clearly now sit in storage, as it has no place in Union Terrace Gardens.
“So, I would be happy to see how the council can gift it to Mrs Laing to mark her time as leader of Aberdeen City Council.”
Union Terrace Gardens opening planned as a final pre-election boost…
Plans for a ‘soft opening’ of UTG last April was meant to be a final PR boon for Labour, the Conservatives and the independents ahead of polling day.
For weeks, The P&J had been documenting the state of the gardens which were expected to open – in some limited capacity – on April 26.
But most looking down into the muddy – and very active – building site could reasonably have predicted it was no place for Joe Public.
Despite that, it was not until around 9.30am on the very day that the event was cancelled.
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar was out campaigning metres away from UTG in Rosemount Viaduct. Perhaps the call off came even too late for his trip up to the Granite City to be cancelled.
In the following days, leading councillors would double down on their belief – “up until the last minute” – that the opening was “doable”.
UTG opened – without ceremony – eight months later
Jarring with that narrative, contractors Balfour Beatty blamed “supply chain issues” for the call off.
Those troubles, caused by the war in Ukraine among other things, has pushed the price of the project up by £1.5m.
It would take another 240 days before a last-ditch opening of UTG to beat a new in-house council deadline of Christmas.
The initial opening date was meant to be “summer 2021”, but it was one that came at least 456 days late.
The festive unveiling went unmarked by the SNP and Liberal Democrat administration which took charge in May, soon after the disastrous non-opening.
Former council leader Jenny Laing cut Labour’s red ribbon to unofficially open UTG
But current Labour councillors – and past faces such as former council leader Laing – gathered soon after the gates were thrown open to claim credit for the redevelopment.
Even now, the muddy lawn area remains without turf due to the wintry timing of the gardens becoming accessible to the public.
A Labour spokesman, who was at his party’s holly jolly unofficial opening, told us the plaque was ordered after the council’s annual budget was set in March 2022.
That is when the ill-fated April 26 date was announced.
“Unfortunately, due to various factors outwith the former leader’s control, that soft opening was postponed,” he said.
“As for the plaque, rather than gifting it to Jenny Laing, we believe it could be put to better use by Councillor Nicoll, hanging it in his office to remind him of what Aberdeen Labour achieved in office.
“That includes Marischal Square, Teca, Provost Skene’s House, Aberdeen Art Gallery, the AWPR, work to build 2,000 council houses and eight new schools including one for the most vulnerable.
“There was also £150m towards the city centre and beach masterplan and, of course, the redevelopment of Union Terrace Gardens.”
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