An Aberdeen planning chief has been accused of making up his mind to push ahead with controversial pedestrianisation plans before even seeing the designs.
Three designs outlining the proposed future of Broad Street will go before councillors on Wednesday – full pedestrianisation, public transport and bicycles only, or retaining full access.
New designs have been drafted up, but last week it emerged councillors would only see the proposals for the first time just an hour before they are asked to vote on putting them out to public consultation.
Opposition councillors and other city representatives claimed on Friday that 60 minutes was not long enough to scrutinise the proposals, but infrastructure committee convener Neil Cooney insisted it was not “too difficult a decision”.
And last night, the SNP’s transport spokesman Graham Dickson claimed Mr Cooney’s comments suggested he had “clearly made up his mind” about pushing ahead with the consultation.
He said: “Having read Councillor Cooney’s comments in the P&J describing getting only 60 minutes notice of the three options to close or change Broad Street as “plenty of time” makes me think that he has already decided exactly what he is going to do no matter the designs, but we still do not have the required traffic modelling to show if pedestrianisation might work.
“We are being told that a final design must be put in place by July or we will lose £1.2million from Muse, however if it is money that is going to cripple our transport system then it might not be worth it.
“This is such a key decision for the city so we need to ensure that we get it right.”
But last night Mr Cooney said he was “open minded” about the plans and had not made a decision.
He said: “I haven’t even seen the plans so I can’t have an opinion on them yet.
“I will see them on Wednesday like everyone else and make a decision then.”