BBC article on it: Here
And they’ve launched a website for it: Here
Artists impression of the proposed City Square Project
I particularly like the snappy slogan that they’ve come up with to go alongside the campaign to pour concrete over the Union Terrace Gardens – This Time. This Place. This Generation. – a gift to internet wags everywhere who have already begun adding their own extra This…
One key feature of the proposed City Square Project (I hope they didn’t pay someone a lot of money to come up with this imaginative name), is the green space they are proposing for the heart of the city. You can quite clearly see some patches of green there, just in the corners of the huge patch of concrete.
Honestly, I know I don’t mix with the great and good of Aberdeen business, but not one single person I’ve spoken to thinks that this is a good idea. We don’t need more shops in the city centre, nor do we need a huge flat concrete space. As I stated in a previous blog, we’d be far better supporting the approved Peacocks Art development and also looking at regenerating the Green and Castlegate areas of the City rather than wasting £140 million on one millionaires ego project.
These are our gardens, not just ACSEF and Sir Ian Woods, we need to make sure they’re still there for people to enjoy for generations to come. Taking a huge green space out of the city centre is short sighted, criminal and pretty damned ridiculous when it costs £90 million pounds of public money at a time when the council is facing a third year of budget cuts running into the millions.
Speak up, write letters to Aberdeen Journals publications: Here and your representatives on the council: Here. Join the I Heart UTG campaign: Here
Most importantly, get out and visit Union Terrace Gardens and encourage your friends to do the same. Start conversations about the gardens, make people think about what they mean to them and get people to realise why we should save them. It’s important to encourage development in Aberdeen but not blindly, and not at the cost of our cherished green spaces. It’s not too late! This Time. This Place. This Generation. This Ends Now.
I totally agree that this new City Square is a total waste of the public’s money. OK, so Iain Wood is funding part of it, but why should the Aberdeen public be put under more pressure with rising council fees for various things to fund this ugly space. Won’t the trees look stupid poking through the holes left for them, and how will they get the sunshine/rain on their roots to ensure they survive?.
It is so nice even looking along the gardens from both ends to see the magnificent trees and green space right in the city centre.
Its better to be forgotten.
I totally agree with your comments, especially the part about it being our gardens. I think that fact has been forgotten (by all parties) and the sooner this is remembered the better. My main objection to the ‘wood plaza’ scheme is the assertion they have that there is something wrong with an area of ground not being swamped with people; their assurances that the gardens are ‘underused’ is very strange and somehow the same argument never seems to be raised with regard to any other park. Or perhaps our other green spaces don’t offer the same potential for retail.
The Costa Nostra has an old saying – if you want to know the motive then follow the money.
Sir Ian Wood’s proposals have nothing to do with improving the city. It’s all about making money. Let’s have a look at some of the saints who make up ACSEF:
The ACSEF Board members, the majority of whom are from the private sector, are as follows:
Tom Smith: Chairman of ACSEF – Managing Director, Nessco Ltd
Dave Blackwood – Non Executive Director, Valiant Petroleum
Melfort Campbell – Managing Director, Imes Group
Michael Clark – Chairman, International Fish Canners (Scotland) Ltd
Colin Crosby – President, Aberdeen & Grampian Chamber of Commerce
Professor Stephen D Logan – Senior Vice Principal, University of Aberdeen
John Michie – Partner, Michies the Chemist
Stewart Milne – Chairman & Chief Executive, Stewart Milne Group
Councillor Anne Robertson – Leader, Aberdeenshire Council
Mike Salter – Non-Executive Chairman, ASCo Group Ltd
Stewart Spence – Owner, Marcliffe at Pitfodels
Councillor John Stewart – Leader, Aberdeen City Council
Andy Willox – Owner, Goldstar Cleaning Services
OH LOOK – there’s Stewart Milne. What a surprise. Wonder what his end of this could possibly be.
What’s at stake here is not what goes on top of the concrete slap. It’s what goes underneath… All that lovely lucrative real estate that will be created right in the heart of the city centre. Must be worth £MILLIONS. And what about the contract to build it. Who better to undertake this mission than someone with no scruples about etching architectural monstrosities onto the face of our city. Stewart.
“But” you cry “Sir Ian Wood is putting up £50M of his own money”. Nope, not quite. ACSEF is putting up £50M of investment capital. That’s the money used to make more lubbly jubbly money. See how it works is this. ACSEF put up £50M which is just under half the cost of the project. The project being half the cost of the gigantic concrete slab. The tax payer funds the other half of the gigantic concrete slab. Then project complete… oh wait… now all we have is a gigantic concrete slab, so the tax payer will then have to fund everything else. I conservatively estimate everything else to cost somewhere in the region of £250M even up to £500M. In the meantime, in exchange for their £50M (potentially a whopping 10% of the final bill), ACSEF will receive all that lovely prime real estate to be located underneath the gigantic concrete slab. Which is probably worth around £1Bn. If it were possible to rush out ad by shares in ACSEF (it’s not) then I’d certainly rate it a STRONG BUY. Especially since they have two city councillors in the mix.
WAKE UP ABERDEEN IT’S ALL ABOUT GREED.
Hello, good post.