“Experiment: A test done to learn something or discover if something works or is true.”
This is a nifty definition of the word – and concept – courtesy of the Cambridge Dictionary.
And it’s something which our esteemed Aberdeen City councillors must keep in the forefront of their minds when they discuss the future of the experimental traffic order that created the city centre bus gates.
This was both an experiment and a consultation exercise rolled into one, we were told when it was imposed – a sort of “suck it and see” approach, we were promised.
So here we are at the end of that experimental period and what have we discovered?
Footfall is down dramatically, 81% of businesses have fewer customers, many fear for their survival, and 90% of people asked in a survey said bus gates had a “negative impact” on their usual activities in the city centre.
Now, what do you think this experiment proves? That bus gates are doing damage and something needs to give, surely.
Of course, there is the argument the issue is one of perception. That the narrative was allowed to take hold that the city centre was closed because you couldn’t so much as set a tyre on a city centre road without getting smacked with a £60 fine, which isn’t really the case.
But city centre traders are not labouring under a misconception of falling business and lost revenue – it is their lived reality.
It isn’t a vague notion fewer people are coming into the city centre, it is a hard fact backed up by an independent and recognised monitoring system.
So it’s hardly a surprise that city centre traders and business organisations have flocked to the Common Sense Compromise banner raised by the P&J.
On the table for councillors to consider are alternatives to the current set-up. These proposals are, well, common sense, striving to strike a balance between the council’s traffic management ambitions and the need to support local businesses and regenerate our city centre.
It’s not just businesses that see the sense in this. Thousands of ordinary people have signed an online petition backing the compromise and sharing their own stories of being put off venturing into the heart of Aberdeen.
What we have here is a truly extraordinary thing – the people of Aberdeen united in taking a stand against something they believe is killing the heart of the Granite City.
Faced with such a unified front, surely the council must listen. It must do more than listen. It must act.
To do anything else runs the risk of them being branded as arrogant, removed from reality, ignoring the people who elect them … more dedicated to dogma than democracy.
That is not a good look and one that can be avoided. Listen to what the city is telling you. Compromise.
Back our Common Sense Compromise on the Aberdeen bus gates
The Press and Journal is standing side by side with Aberdeen businesses and business organisations in an appeal to reach a Common Sense Compromise.
But we can’t do it alone – we need your help.
If you would like to back our Aberdeen bus gate campaign, add your name to the petition launched by Aberdeen and Grampian Chamber of Commerce HERE.
Other ways to show your support and have your voice heard can be found HERE.
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