Doubt caused by the Aberdeen bus gates have stalled talks to fill the city’s long-vacant Debenhams, The P&J can reveal.
The department store closed during the Covid pandemic, with the plug pulled during restrictions on retail in spring 2021.
But despite the best efforts to find new tenants by the Trinity Centre’s new owner Robert Keane, the “temporary” bus gates on Bridge Street, Guild Street and Market Street are scaring suitors off.
“We must take a stand,” he told The P&J.
“We have had considerable interest from retailers in Debenhams. But all are slow to commit due to the access in the city centre.
“The truth of the matter is all potential tenants are asking what the final outcome will be.”
As we look at the response of Aberdeen city centre businesses to the bus gates, we reveal:
- It’s ‘almost impossible’ to direct guests to an Aberdeen hotel
- Furniture shop boss claims council chiefs civil ‘have already decided what is going to happen’ as she fears for her Union Street business
- From boom to bust: Schoolhill trader doesn’t know if her shop will see in the new year
- Big names beg council to get rid of the bus gates
Around the Trinity Centre, Mr Keane’s Ardent Group has brought new life to a number of empty outlets – including the ground floor of Debenhams.
But talks continued on finding tenants for the rest of the department store.
They have been stymied by the bus priority measures which are heavily impacting the Trinity Centre, and have been blamed for a 500,000-person decline in city centre footfall.
Will councillors make Aberdeen bus gates permanent?
Councillors will on Tuesday be asked to make the bus gates permanent, as well as other road changes such as the Union Terrace ban on right turns onto Rosemount Viaduct and the Schoolhill one-way system.
It was all introduced using an experimental traffic order (Etro), before the public was fully consulted.
With councillors poised to make the trial run permanent, Mr Keane is urging a total rethink – and has the backing of dozens of other city centre businesses.
They are adding their voices to the hundreds of public objections the council has received to the Etro.
In a letter sent to all city councillors, seen by The P&J, the businessman and his 40 backers claimed the bus gates were doing “serious damage”.
“You will be well aware that our city centre businesses have been struggling for some time, and with the experimental implementation of the bus gates, this has further compounded the challenges our businesses face,” they added.
LEZ could be ‘final nail in the coffin’ for Aberdeen city centre businesses
A week ago, the Aberdeen Low Emission Zone (LEZ) came into force prompting concern it could be the “final nail in the coffin” for city centre traders.
An Aberdeen and Grampian Chamber of Commerce poll of more than 200 people found 90% thought the Etro negatively impacted their usual activities in the city centre.
Mr Keane’s letter continues: “We would implore you to postpone the bus gates until the LEZ has been given a period of time for visitors and city centre residents to adjust to.
“We ask you to consider the detrimental effect the bus gates are having on businesses in the city centre and if made permanent will result in the majority of the businesses within these areas to fail.
“We have major interests in sizeable city centre businesses and are very concerned for our future.”
Customers, the group claims, say Aberdeen is a “no-go to be avoided as much as possible”.
‘We must take a stand or there will be no city centre’
Ardent’s Trinity Centre is suffering especially as its large 400-space car park has been hit badly by all the change, with only one route into it now from the west, up South College Street onto Wapping Street.
A bus gate camera guards Bridge Street, deterring traffic from Union Street and the north unless they can find their way onto Denburn Road.
Mr Keane concluded: “We as a business always want to work with the council in developing and enhancing the city – but in this case we feel we must take a stand against the direction of the bus gate implementation as without city centre businesses, there is no city centre.”
Douglas Hotel: ‘It’s almost impossible to direct customers here’
Another of the Irishman’s businesses, the Douglas Hotel, has also been badly hit.
“The bus gates on Market Street have made it so difficult to get to our hotel,” his fellow director in the business Mary Martin told the council consultation on the Etro.
“Although there are alternative routes to get here, they are very long, complicated, restrictive and confusing.
“I understand that GPS guidance now includes the bus gates, however it is still proving almost impossible to direct customers over the phone as to how to get here to drop off people or luggage.
“I understand the need to reduce vehicle emissions and to improve air quality in the city centre, however people make a city.”
The hotel’s continued “heavy investment” to turn around Shiprow is also being put at risk, Ms Martin claimed – with tradesmen “unwilling” to come to the city centre, even before the LEZ came in.
Annie Mo’s: ‘Bus gate experiment is just cruel – and we might not last the year’
Mr Keane and his 40 colleagues are not the only ones urging a rethink.
Dozens of Aberdeen city centre traders and workers have also pressed for the bus gates and other roads measures to be scrapped.
The McDonalds, who run the Union Street furniture shop Annie Mo’s, questioned the worth of the consultation in the first place.
Staff were “shocked” at the “disastrous” lull during their busiest spell of the year – some days in January having less than a dozen customers through the door.
The bosses wrote: “I’m not even sure why I am wasting my time writing this – as it looks like the civil servants who run the council have already decided what is going to happen to this once beautiful city.
“They are intent on killing the city centre completely.
“So worrying is the decrease in footfall – I can not see our business surviving in it’s current format, for another year.
“I feel subjecting us to an ‘experiment’ after getting through what is easily described as the most difficult time for retailers is just cruel.”
They complained about the lengthy detour customers from the north of Aberdeen would have to take to reach the nearest carpark, the Shiprow NCP.
Meanwhile lawyers for the car park operator, Montagu Evans, complained of the “noticeable impact” on NCP’s business.
Schoolhill success story: ‘Highly likely we’ll need to leave Aberdeen city centre’
Style for your Shape is a success story of the Curated Aberdeen pop-up scene, striking a deal on a full-time premises at 2 Schoolhill in 2022.
“Now I have serious concerns if we will be here beyond our lease end date in January if things don’t change soon,” owner Victoria Mutch laments.
“All that work and investment from us and the Bon Accord Centre is dwindling with what has happened in the city centre with the bus gates and the communications surrounding it.
“Ultimately my business has seen continuous reductions in turnover from August 2023 and in the months previous we were growing month-on-month.
” There is no point improving bus journey times if there will not be businesses in Aberdeen city centre for passengers to come and visit.
“I’m unsure how long Style for your Shape and other business will be able to
survive – and once our lease is up in January, it’s highly likely I will need to exit the
city centre as customers aren’t travelling as frequently into town.”
Shop owners to make impassioned plea before council decision on Aberdeen bus gates
She’s due to speak to councillors on Tuesday, advocating for a number of changes to the current experimental rules at least.
Those include removing loading time restrictions on Schoolhill and right turn ban out of Union Terrace, as well as an educational warning in lieu of a fine for first time bus gate offenders.
“This would help to stop scaring the public out of coming into Aberdeen city centre,” she added.
“The damage of the implementation has already been done and we can’t roll that back, but we can help to improve it.”
Round the houses: What are other Aberdeen traders saying about the bus gates?
The discontent is rife among the business voices who responded.
There was no support for the Etro staying in place – unlike the glimmers of positivity scarcely laced through the public input.
An email from Finnies the Jeweller begged: “Please get rid of the bus gates, they are assisting in destroying our city centre.”
Louise Witter, director of a legal consultancy on Rosebank Place, questioned the council’s use of the experimental road rules – allowing implementation before public consultation.
“I have concerns that Aberdeen City Council is using a legal framework which expends taxpayer funds on ‘acting now, checking it is ok later’,” she told.
Meanwhile branch manager at Slater Menswear in Aberdeen, Billy McAulay, said customers were every day telling staff how “detrimental” the road restrictions are.
He added: “Our customers are reiterating their unwillingness to shop in town because of restrictions.
“While I appreciate these are to increase reliance on public transport, it just doesn’t work for a city with so many rural towns around as the bus network is not extensive or reliable enough to convince people to use it.”
Harbourside, Aberdeen Tile Distributors owner Eric Meston moaned at the idea his customers were expected to lug heavy tiles onto a bus, after a walk from his premises on Virginia Street.
Pedestrianisation champion: ‘I’d actually prefer the cars back on Union Street than this’
Even those who backed the pedestrianised Union Street can’t stomach the deserted city centre.
The council’s consultation anonymised all its correspondence but clues point to a damning indictment from CBRE Aberdeen chief, and McGinty’s pub group director, Derren McRae.
An CBRE headed email tells the council: “While I appreciate the desire to improve bus reliability, the reality is that Aberdeen is a very car-reliant city and sadly I don’t know of anyone who has said that this experiment has led to them leaving their car at home and jumping on a bus into town.
“Instead they have either just continued to drive in to town, or alternatively have just decided to do their shopping or go to lunch somewhere that is easier to get to or park.
“I was very vocal in support of the previously proposed part pedestrianisation of Union Street, which I am still in favour of.
“As there are still buses going up and down streets, the city centre just looks the same but is even more eerily quiet than before.
“I would actually prefer it to be opened up again to cars as opposed to having a couple of temporary planters at either end.”
Crunch vote on Aberdeen city centre bus gates on Tuesday
Councillors are being recommended to vote on Tuesday to make the bus gates and Etro permanent.
Making the case for maintaining the current Aberdeen city centre layout, operations chief Mark Reilly said: “What has been apparent in many communications is a level of perception where some consider the change to be akin to ‘pulling the drawbridges up in the city centre’.
“The contrast though is with an appreciation of the limited extent of the restrictions, and the alternative routes available, there is not a significant detriment.”
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