Sir, – Has anyone from Aberdeen City Council asked bus users if they support pedestrianisation of Union Street?
The detour along heavily congested Bridge Street, Guild Street and Market Street is exasperating. Aberdeen Inspired say businesses support the plan. They fail to qualify that by stating they represent the businesses in Union Square – of course they will support the plan.
The way the current system works is that all buses lead to Union Square. Aberdeen city centre simply does not have the infrastructure to close off Union Street.
Why not have the same system in place that exists for buses only on Broad Street? Limit the speed but be sure to include the speed of cyclists too.
Ms P Sutherland, Stronsay Place, Aberdeen.
Transition action – not reaction, please
Sir, – Michael Tholen of OGUK shows the North Sea oil and gas industry in a very poor light when he reacts to Ed Davey with words like “complete misunderstanding”, “alarm bells”, “ill-informed”, “unhelpful”, “wrong”, “undermine” and so on.
Mr Davey called for an end to new exploration licences to clearly signal that the energy transition has begun. Or does Mr Tholen expect every last barrel of North Sea oil to be extracted before transition begins? One suspects this is the case.
Mr Tholen defends his industry by suggesting they are committed to net zero.
Commitment there might be, but action there has been none. He talks about accelerating hydrogen and carbon capture. But only if HM Government stumps up billions in taxpayers’ money to pay for it.
Jeff Rogers, The Island, Waters of Feugh, Banchory, Aberdeenshire.
Pittodrie dreams are a nightmare
Sir, – Here we go again! Aberdeen Football Club want away from Pittodrie, but rather than finance the move themselves, they want the already hard-pressed council tax payers of Aberdeen to pay for it.
Whatever happened to all the grandiose but ill-thought-out plans for a complex at Westhill that were never going to work despite all their promises and protestations and riding roughshod over the concerns of the citizens of Westhill?
The current Pittodrie Stadium is more than adequate for the number of ever hopeful but usually disappointed Dons fans who show up for games, and with a lot less cost than a new stadium could easily be brought up to standard.
There is no evidence whatsoever to show that the new training facilities have improved the Dons performance one iota and neither will a new stadium.
Millions could have been saved and no environmental damage caused if the Dons had used the next door training facilities on King Street which is partly funded by council tax payers.
Aberdeen City Council needs to focus on delivering on their statutory duties and collecting the millions of pounds owed to them in unpaid council tax and bus lanes before investing in a commercial enterprise which only has its own selfish needs in mind.
Claiming that a new stadium will regenerate Aberdeen is fanciful at best and will not encourage a single extra person to frequent an already dead and dying city centre.
Time for the city council to wake up and see that they are being conned yet again.
Alastair Willett, Aberdeen.
