Save Union Terrace Gardens
Union Terrace Gardens
I never talk about issues on here. Not really. But today I will because it’s something I really care about. Green space…no-o-o-o… please don’t go to someone else’s blog where they are talking about Confectionery of the Seventies that you Miss or Cute Stuff my Kid Has Said or Ultimate Sandwich Fillings. Stay, I’ll be brief and to the point.
THE best park in Aberdeen, the Victorian sunken garden of Union Terrace is under threat from the monster ego of someone who wants to fill it in with concrete, cut down the trees and build a civic square covering the whole valley that the gardens currently occupy. This is someone who wants to literally cement his legacy. I mean that Big Yellow Taxi song by Joni Mitchell was practically written for this purpose. That someone is Sir Ian Wood of the Aberdeen based but internationally operating company oil services company, The Wood Group. He’s like Aberdeen’s answer to Bill Gates or Rockerfeller.
Here’s a photograph of what Union Terrace Gardens looked like this Saturday:
Photo courtesy of Sezza
And here’s a view of the whole garden from the other end so that those who have never visited can appreciate its unique structure:
Here’s what oil mogul Sir Ian Wood and his chums would like to turn it into:
And here’s the Simpsons episode it reminds us all of.
Sir Ian is chucking £50 million of his personal fortune at the venture. The catch? Conservative estimates claim that it will cost in excess of £140 million to build and our city council is nigh on bankrupt. Oh and there’s another problem. The Peacock Visual Arts people already had funding and planning permission in place to build an arts centre into one of the less used sides of the gardens keeping the original structure and planting of the gardens in place and having a sympathetic (and world class) architectural design. But Sir Ian has some considerable clout in this town, and the PVA plans were put into stasis until his plans, or his “vision” as he likes to call it, for filling in the gardens with a multi-storey carpark with a civic square on top and some retail and cafe type outlets were considered. So Peacock were left out of a limb, facing the possibility of their funding opportunity lapsing in the meantime.
Who was to consider all these wonderful plans for the future with such baubles and trinkets as “moving walkways” (Monorail!) and outdoor cafe (in Aberdeen! Our town’s name is Gaelic for hypothermia!)? Well, us- the public. And very kindly Sir Ian together with the council spent over £100,000 putting together a consultation. The trouble was the consultation was heavily geared towards prompting all correspondents to supporting the Monorail proposal, I mean, the City Square project, as it is actually known. in fact, since the votes were counted I’ve heard various reports that even if you ticked the box saying you didn’t want the City Square project to go ahead, as soon as you filled in the box set aside for an additional comment, your tick disappeared and your submission counted as support for the City Square Project. Even if your comment said something like
“If this terrible City Square Project goes ahead I will lie in front of the bulldozers like Arthur Dent in The Hitchhikers’ Guide to the Galaxy!”
..which I think was my comment.
Anyway at least we had the chance to comment. Sir Ian promised that if we didn’t want it he would “walk away” taking his £50 million with him.
And then Aberdeen’s favourite daughter, Annie Lennox got involved. She HATES the idea of the gardens being touched at all and said so publicly on her website. What she hated almost as much was her image being used in one of the City Square’s pamphlets without her permission or endorsement. Those in support of the Monorail started writing into newspapers saying things like:
“She doesn’t even live here anymore and hasn’t been to the city since she was a wee girl and even when she does come back she never gives us a free concert like she bloody well should. And she lives in that there big smoke with her fancy ways hanging about with Bono and stuff”.
Real constructive stuff like that. However feisty Annie is made of sterner stuff. Whose business is it when she comes back up to the ‘Deen and how often? She’s Aberdonian and cares about her city. And she’s actually from Ellon where I went to school and Ellon folk are hard so I wouldn’t mess.
Still thinking of messing with Ms Lennox?The consultation ended and despite the skew whiff biased ballot papers reminiscent of a George W Bush presidential campaign, the clever people of Aberdeen still voted 55% against the Sir Ian Wood Monorail vision. Yay, us! That’ll be the sound of Sir Ian Wood walking away with his £50 million to go and see if Shelbyville want to share his “vision” then?
Except he didn’t walk away. He turned around and said something along the lines of (and I’m paraphrasing here) “Ignore all that, let the elected councillors decide. My money is still on the table, folks!”
The councillors vote on Wednesday. The Chief Executive of Aberdeen City Council has already urged them to support Sir Ian’s plans. We’re in desperate times. The people have spoken. The people have been promptly dismissed because they didn’t like what we said . (Sounds familiar, eh?)
Still, I have a sliver of faith in the councillors. Some of them are good people and many of them know a white elephant when they see one. How many of them will listen to the public is not known, but it is important to remind them that listening to the public is their actual job.
If anyone reading this is from Aberdeen and wants to write to the councillors to let them know your views then let me know. I happen to have a handy list of their email addresses. Just email me: gillianamartin (at) hotmail.com
Meanwhile, you can read this excellent, well written and informed blog from Fraser Denholm who says all of this is a far more mature and factually irreproachable way here. His whole blog is a mine of information on the whole experience but I think it’s best to start with this entry in which he lays out THE FACTS. Hi Fraser, I’m Misssy M long time reader first time caller, loving your work.
I would say that I’m putting my soap box away, but to be honest I’m leaving it out til at least Thursday.
And here’s Joni because I’m nothing if not obvious:
STOP PRESS: Sadly it’s very bad news from the City Chambers tonight. Click here to see BBC report. Now for them to find that other £90million (at least). Think I’ll move back to Glasgow…
Don’t ever miss a Misssive, subscribe! 
Chas replied:
Good blog…Business and council leaders surely dont see Aberdeen as a place for tourists…They have come to the conclusion that their is naff all to do in Aberdeen for folk when the weather is dire, so why not build a place that makes people spend money…People generally spend when they are very bored (see air travel)…They will get their way, despite Annie Lennox!Some years ago, the council had plans to knock down St Nicholas House and build (you guessed it) another shopping centre…
May 17, 2010 at 5:26 pm. Permalink.
Andrew replied:
Great blog Gillian.It will be a disgrace if this gets the go ahead. It looks more and more likely that the council are going to agree to some fudge type compromise which is going to be what neither the Peacockers or the Woodies want and the city will be left with something hideous.
May 17, 2010 at 6:20 pm. Permalink.
Alex X replied:
Councillors. That job always attracts the sort of people who should be banned from holding public office. Fingers crossed you get the result you want.
May 17, 2010 at 7:48 pm. Permalink.
Mr Farty replied:
Is this the same Aberdeen Council who sacked the chair of their own planning committee when he vetoed Donald Trump's golf course? No, I know it's not, but it doesn't inspire confidence.Good luck, Misssy!
May 17, 2010 at 10:34 pm. Permalink.
RandomPinkness replied:
I no longer live in Aberdeen but I swear to G-d they go ahead and I'll be with you in front of them bulldozers. It's a total disgrace. Wonder if someone could organise a march or summat?
May 18, 2010 at 8:14 am. Permalink.
chrissy replied:
I really love the premise of the city square project.The gardens are teensy and invisible from Union street, swamped by the eyesore dual carriageway and train tracks.Everyone's entitled to their own personal preferences, especially those who actually live and work in the city. 55%(and I've not checked your stats, just assuming for now that they're correct) may be a majority BUT that would still leave 45% of the city unhappy.Surely there is a compromise somewhere?People asked for green space in the consultation – so wouldn't you be happy then, if MORE green space was included in this plan? (I've already read somewhere that a min 110% green space was set out from the beginning).I think an art centre/museum/gallery would be far more accessible to more people if set in such a large tourist-y spot too. The space could be used for so many things and create a decent public performance space and pedestrian area. It is NOT as most of the oppositions propoganda would have everyone believe JUST A CARPARK.ANYWAY – I won't go on. I don't want to upset anyone as it's obvious how strongly some of you feel BUT just wanted to point out that before people go all guns blazing at the council, the votes were close. Almost half of the city DID want these plans so a compromise somewhere would be far fairer.
May 18, 2010 at 9:17 am. Permalink.
Petey replied:
If they thought about doing this to Princes Street gardens in Edinburgh people would be going ape shit! This is unbelievable.
May 18, 2010 at 11:38 am. Permalink.
Misssy M replied:
Thanks for all your comments- I'm not going to comment individually as i pretty much make every point I want in the post, but it has been interesting to see your points of view. I have my fingers crossed for a sensible resolution tomorrow.
May 18, 2010 at 1:37 pm. Permalink.
Chas replied:
Mr Farty…Not being a pedant, honest, but I think it was the brave Chairman of Planning at the 'shire council who got his marching orders regarding Trump…no thanks to the Aberdeen Evening News who branded the folk on the planning committee 'muppets', ran a hate campaign and also published their pics on their front page (classy)…He was a LibDem…so they can make the right choice at times ha haIn those pics, USG actually looks much bigger than I remember it
May 18, 2010 at 3:37 pm. Permalink.
Anonymous replied:
Regardless of how people feel about UTG, I'm getting a bit sick of people comparing it to Princes Street Gardens in Edinburgh! They're very different sizes, in very different positions and currently have very different functions within their respective cities!UTG are nice but lets not get ahead of ourselves here, they're not anywhere near as good as Edinburgh's so I can sort of understand why some people just don't care as much about them.
May 18, 2010 at 10:37 pm. Permalink.
Anonymous replied:
So let's fill them in then?
May 18, 2010 at 10:48 pm. Permalink.
Misssy M replied:
Not sure if both Anons are the same person or not? Don't think so…(Don't be an anon, give yourself a name even a fake one!) But in response to folk not caring- I think you'll find that folk care very much.
May 18, 2010 at 10:54 pm. Permalink.
XUP replied:
I've never even been to Aberdeen, but I feel your pain. Knocking down trees and bulldozing greenspace to make room for more parking lots, suburbs and big box stores is pretty much a national past-time in both North American countries.And our rich loudmouths aren't even knighted. Good luck Aberdeenians. I hope you get to keep your park
May 19, 2010 at 12:16 pm. Permalink.
Chrissy replied:
@XUP – My issue with saving the gardens is that it is not a 'good' park. Aberdeen has many very beautiful and well used parks and gardens and reserves (Duthie, Seaton and Hazelhead to name some of my favourite) and I'd be standing in front of bulldozers myself if any of them were under threat!These particular gardens though, are miniscule in comparison and only occupy a small space of the valley which is otherwise overpowered by an ugly dual carriageway.The plans are not to build a carpark. There aren't any 'definite' plans yet but the idea is to cover over the dual carriageway and create a public civic square with input from the local community on what features they would like to see there.If the city square project goes through, in any shape or form, I'll be sad to say goodbye to UTG but much more excited about what the new plans could bring to the city.
May 19, 2010 at 1:05 pm. Permalink.
derry replied:
i was sitting in utg yesterday having my lunch, like so many others do in the spring and summer. why do we do that? i think because it affords us the opportunity to step outside of what is an extremely urban environment and just for a moment enjoy the peace and beauty of a mature wooded area away from the bussle of the endless traffic, both motorsised and pedestrian. natural breathing space is what the gardens provide, a place to collect our thoughts before stepping into the breach again. why would they take that away from us and replace it with more urbanisation? sure we've been promised grassland areas, but it's not just about the grass per square foot is it? i hopr the council sees sense today and goes with the peacocks proposal.
May 19, 2010 at 1:34 pm. Permalink.
Chrissy replied:
@derry – I couldn't deny it's a great 'get-away' spot in the city centre but I really wonder how many people in the city get use of that compared to how many would feel the benefit from the CS project.
May 19, 2010 at 2:14 pm. Permalink.
derry replied:
hi chrissy, thanks for replying.i suppose it's a moot point really as we won't really know until they do rip out the gardens. my own feeling is that noone will really benefit except the shops and buisnesess in the vacinity. the thing about the gardens imo is they provide a welcome contrast to the surrounding uniform gray of the buildings. i appreciate they haven't been utilized to there full potential in the recent past, but i personally feel that it's not because of the location of the gardens rather the way they've been overlooked as a possible location for social events. my fear is that if planning and building projects in say the past 20 years are anything to go by, the whole space will turn into the same type of concrete fiasco that is the top of the st nicholas center which is now only occupied by seagulls and pigeons. only on a bigger scale. my own wish list would be to see the gardens left with the peacocks project going ahead. (ok no surprises there) but at the belmont street side of the valley, build up the bank then sloped so it covered the dualer and the railway, (which admittedly is brutally ugly. that would creat a symetry in the gardens while increasing there size . the problem is that it is an incredibly complex space.
May 19, 2010 at 3:43 pm. Permalink.
the tomahawk kid replied:
Oh dear, oh dear.Here comes a huge expanse of concrete with a few planters dotted around it. All tastefully surrounded by the generic retail outlets that we have elsewhere in the city no doubt.Oh, and this is a crying shame.
May 21, 2010 at 11:21 am. Permalink.
Misssy M replied:
Tomahawk – I know I read it too- I really feel for her and the Peacock gang. It's the end of their long held plans. Something must be done about this. Not quite sure what can be done though.
May 21, 2010 at 3:45 pm. Permalink.
Jaggy replied:
Although I've been to Aberdeen on a couple of occasions, I don't think I've been sober enough to register whether I've stumbled through the UTG or not. Regardless, I wish so called feckin selebs would keep their nebs out of things like this. If it's not bloody Bonio going on about the trees it's Madonna going on about Africa.Best of luck with your wishes Misssy, more power to the common person and all that, but I fear, as always, big money will win the day. It might not be morally right, but somewhere along the line, it keeps most of us in a job.
May 23, 2010 at 1:11 am. Permalink.
Binman replied:
If the folk of Aberdeen really do care then they need to stand up and be counted. It seems to me that the majority couldn't give a stuff-not really- and that's the real problem here- the council know they can do what they want and only a few folk will be arsed to do anything about it. Age old story…makes you sad.
May 24, 2010 at 2:58 pm. Permalink.
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June 3, 2010 at 12:25 pm. Permalink.