What a week it has been for Aberdeen.
While the beach masterplan is now closer to fruition, any chance we had at pedestrianisation of Union Street has been kicked into the long grass. And I’m not going to lie, I’m still struggling to process it.
Almost 140 senior business figures wrote to the council ahead of the big vote. They hoped the project would kickstart regeneration, pleading with the local authority to “transform the heart and fortunes of our city”.
The signatories stressed: “We cannot afford to miss this opportunity to half the further decline of Union Street”, with the risk of more retail exits to come. But their pleas fell on deaf ears.
These business leaders were, predominantly, figureheads of firms that have operated out of Aberdeen for decades. And, in the recent past, chartered surveyors banded together to explain how a traffic ban could help fill up our many empty units.
Yet, when it came to the vote, their voices were largely ignored by the administration.
This was not the first time the council had been begged to see reason by business chiefs on the matter.
Pedestrianisation has been dismissed prematurely
The option of pedestrianisation was supported by council officers. They proposed ensuring bus access to each end of Union Street, therefore complying with rules on there not being 400 metres between stops.
There would also have been taxi access to Back Wynd, and disabled access via the new market from The Green to Union Street – complete with escalators and lifts. Taxis were going to be afforded capacity along Union Terrace, Trinity Mall and Correction Wynd.
We are talking about a 300-metre stretch here, not the whole Granite Mile
Despite this, there were still concerns from disability campaigners.
Addressing the council chamber, Hussein Patwa said he did not believe the options before council chiefs represented the proper findings from consultation with them. But he did not ask for pedestrianisation to be taken off the table.
Instead, he asked that the council instructed officers to provide complete, unredacted copies of all consultation meeting notes before a final decision could be taken in August.
This, however, was not considered necessary by the administration. They felt it was more important to ensure that the city centre was accessible to all, developing the mantra: “We want to be inclusive, not exclusive”.
While I absolutely agree that no one should be cut off from accessing our city centre, can they honestly say they have explored all options that would make pedestrianisation accessible? And I mean every single last one? The whole thing just felt so dismissive.
Were it not for their open concerns about how the bus companies felt about the potential of being closed off from Union Street, I would have been tempted to question whether our new SNP and Lib Dem-led administration should be dubbed “anti-business”.
We are talking about a 300-metre stretch here, not the whole Granite Mile.
Déjà vu while standing still
In 2012, when the council was set to vote on reinventing Union Terrace Gardens, business leaders at the time warned that to scrap the plans “would deter future and private investment in our city”.
Their letter continued: “Aberdeen needs its own ambitious, transformational, civic and cultural project that will help set us apart…” That was 10 years ago.
The vision was rejected and, while a different regeneration of Union Terrace Gardens is currently under way, that warning feels somewhat like a premonition. A decade later, we are still without that transformational civic and cultural project which we so longed for then.
Would things have been different if we had been bolder, or if the council (Labour-led at that point) had listened to businesses?
There are hopes for a new continental food market to be built in place of the old BHS building.
Initially, it was believed Union Street pedestrianisation would help cement this as the food and drink hub of the city, making way for cafe culture to sprawl out from it. But, with this no longer possible, I struggle to see how the market can be any more transformational than another new building.
And, now pedestrianisation is no longer on the table, it is well documented that the £20 million levelling up funding being promised from the UK Government could be at risk. The SNP usually jump at the chance to bemoan the lack of cash that is sent our way from Westminster, so it’s beyond me how they were so quick to make a decision which could lose us millions.
In a move branded a “fudge” by opponents, the leading group asked that the two-lane option approved be built in such a way it could leave the door open to pedestrianisation in the future.
With that seemingly reliant on a new administration being elected in 2027, will there be anything left of Union Street to save by then?
Rebecca Buchan is City and Shire Team Leader for The Press & Journal and Evening Express
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