Traders and the public have been made to wait yet again to learn the future of Aberdeen’s bus gates, as councillors ran out of time to make a decision for a second time.
After months of campaigning for change, the controversial traffic measures were expected to be made permanent today.
But a furious council meeting was adjourned at 4.30pm, with their future still up in the air.
Councillors rowed with top officials, as the civil servants tried to deny them sight of crucial legal advice used as a case for making permanent the unpopular experimental road changes.
It comes as business chiefs – inspired by success of a similar fight in Inverness – have hinted at a possible court challenge.
So what change can we expect in Aberdeen city centre?
The SNP and Lib Dem administration plans for the bus gates were revealed at the start of the meeting, with two major changes standing out.
The controversial right hand turn ban from Union Terrace onto Rosemount Viaduct is poised to be lifted, against the recommendations of council officers.
They warned last week that axing the prohibition “could have safety disbenefits for active travel users and potentially negative impacts on bus journey times and reliability in the future”.
They also revealed plans to use bus gate fines to fund the return of a night bus service, connecting the city and Aberdeenshire.
The service was cut in October 2018 but was run over the festive period last year.
Linking “key destinations across the city and into Aberdeenshire”, the late-night service could be funded by up to £200,000.
Row over key legal advice
Meanwhile, opposition councillors – who wanted change – were denied sight of crucial legal advice used to justify keeping all the controversial measures in place.
Labour group leader M Tauqeer Malik had demanded to see the basis of the advice – but was told no by the council’s interim legal chief, Alan Thomson.
Instead, he first tried to insist that a 61-word summary was enough to inform the hugely important decision.
It warned that the Scottish Government might be inclined to claim back £8 million paid for interlinked roadworks in South College Street if the bus priority measures were undone.
“As a solicitor, my role is to protect the interests of the council and, obviously, legal advice can be quite sensitive,” Mr Thomson said.
“The protection of legal privilege can be lost if you share it widely. It’s harder to argue a printed document with legal advice is still legally privileged.
“It just increases the risk that a court would order the council to share it.”
His stance was forensically dismantled by Conservative group deputy leader, and solicitor, Ryan Houghton.
Councillors will get to read Aberdeen bus gate legal advice
And eventually, it was conceded that the legal advice could be printed off and shown to the leaders of political groups – but the sheet of paper would not leave Mr Thomson’s sight.
Even that concession didn’t placate councillors, including law graduate and SNP councillor Alex Nicoll.
“I have an honours degree in law and a post-grad in legal practice…. I can’t get my head around the issue here,” he said.
“I would prefer to read the actual document myself because the devil is in the detail.”
And Labour’s Mr Malik later told The P&J: “There is absolutely zero chance of the Scottish Government asking for their grant back given Aberdeen City Council has already contributed £75m towards the AWPR Aberdeen bypass.
“The politics of the Scottish Government asking for their money back would not exactly be a vote winner for the 2026 Scottish elections, so I’m confident this is a non-starter.”
Why was Aberdeen’s bus gates decision delayed?
The bus gate decision had been the headline-grabber ahead of today’s meeting.
But councillors spent much of the six hours prior arguing over the future of Catholic schooling in Aberdeen.
The meeting began at 10.30am, but discussions ran on until 4pm on the city’s three primary school and a botched consultation on the potential for a new RC secondary.
Education convenor Martin Greig had referred the Catholic schooling debate to today’s meeting after losing an earlier vote at another meeting.
Both Labour and the Conservatives hit out at having taken six hours to discuss it all again at the full council meeting “only because the SNP and Lib Dems got beat”.
With the emotive matter taking up all of the allotted time for today’s meeting, SNP councillor Miranda Radley had wanted to bend the rules to allow it go on through the evening.
“You can propose anything you like,” Independent Barney Crockett heckled, as all opposition councillors rejected her calls.
Labour’s Ross Grant raised concerns over the meeting “going into the early hours of the morning”.
SNP and Lib Dems try to flip the bad press on Aberdeen bus gates
As the vote to suspend the council’s rules – standing orders – to allow the continuation into night was lost, there were dramatic, pantomime shrugs from the SNP benches.
And as the dusted settled, Lib Dem council co-leader Ian Yuill criticised the opposition for delaying a vote that would bring about very little change.
He said: “It is incredibly disappointing that Labour stopped the council debating important business regarding the bus priority measures in the city centre.
“We are proposing removing the ‘no right turn’ at Union Terrace – which is now further delayed by Labour.”
However, Labour and the Conservatives pointed out that the order of the agenda was set by the SNP and Lib Dems.
Had they wanted, as Lord Provost David Cameron has demonstrated previously, they could have shuffled the running order.
Mr Malik told us: “It is really sad that a matter as important as the city centre has been delayed again due to SNP incompetence on managing the meeting.
“I hope the Lord Provost holds another meeting, sooner rather than later, otherwise Labour will move force one to ensure discussion on the city centre is heard.”
Conservative group leader Richard Brooks added: “It was entirely within the hand of the Lord Provost.”
“But at least the additional time will allow members to read the legal advice, which was only agreed to be released after pressure from opposition councillors at the meeting.”
How did we get here?
It has been a long and winding road for the decision over Aberdeen’s bus gates.
It was originally expected that a decision would be made in early July. But constant delays have meant that three months on, a verdict still hasn’t been reached.
Today now marks the second time that councillors have ran out of time to vote on the future of Aberdeen’s bus gates.
What had campaigners hoped for?
Over the last several months, local businesses and organisations joined forces with The Press and Journal to put forward alternate Common Sense Compromise proposals.
These have been described as the “minimum” needed to help businesses survive.
By the time the meeting got under way, almost 12,000 had backed those plans for far-reaching changes, which would have seen the gates on Market Street and Bridge Street scrapped straight away.
The SNP and Lib Dems revealing their plans have shown they have adopted only one of the suggest compromise changes.
The Common Sense Compromise
In June, we came up with six points which they felt was needed for businesses to survive.
The group’s Common Sense Compromise called for:
- Keep the Guild Street bus gates, along with restrictions on Schoolhill and Upperkirkgate
- Remove the bus gates at the Adelphi and Market Street, allowing access in both directions through Market Street
- Remove the bus gates on Bridge Street, allowing full access in both directions
- Remove the right turn ban on Union Terrace
- Issue a warning rather than a fine to first offenders
- Use fines to help city centre businesses via transport initiatives
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