Rivals go head to head over gardens
By Morag Lindsay and Joanna Skailes
Published: 19/02/2010
A crowd of about 300 people packed Aberdeen’s Citadel last night as the two groups behind opposing plans for the city’s Union Terrace Gardens faced one another in a public debate for the first time.
Businessman Sir Ian Wood was booed by some in the audience as he defended his proposal to build over the Victorian park with a £140million city square, using £50million of his personal fortune.
His critics included some of the 6,000-plus residents who have signed a petition calling for the gardens to be left as they are and supporters of the rival bid by Peacock Contemporary Arts to build a new centre in the natural slope of the gardens.
The Wood Group chairman enjoyed backing from other business leaders who insisted the scheme, currently the subject of a two-month consultation steered by Aberdeen City and Shire Economic Future (Acsef), was essential to encourage companies to invest in the north-east when North Sea oil and gas runs dry.
Sir Ian told the audience the project was essential to safeguard the future prosperity of the city.
“If we don’t act now, in 20 years’ time we will be having this gathering again but the agenda will be about what we intend to do to tackle unemployment,” he said.
Sharing a platform with Sir Ian and Acsef chairman Tom Smith was Elly Rothnie, from Peacock Visual Arts, who said she was still hopeful some kind of compromise could be reached between the two sides.
Peacock had planning permission and three-quarters of its £13million funding in place when Sir Ian unveiled his plan. The arts group risks losing the lynchpin of its funding – a £4.3million grant from the Scottish Arts Council – when the body ceases to exist next month, throwing its entire future into jeopardy.
Acsef has said there is space for a contemporary arts centre within its square, but the two sides have been unable to reach a deal.
“What we would all like to see is some sort of win-win situation,” said Ms Rothnie.
“Our aims are so aligned that we have to find some way of making sure the city benefits and both projects can be achieved.”
Artist Jacki Sinclair, 53, of Whitehouse Street, Aberdeen, said Union Terrace Gardens were important to city dwellers like herself, bringing up families in blocks of flats with no green space of their own. She said she was initially opposed to the Peacock scheme but had been won round when she saw the designs and now believed it was the best way to breathe new life into the park.
Alasdair Johnston, 48, of Grampian Place, Aberdeen, received a round of applause when he said the Peacock Visual Arts design was “aesthetic and practical” and suggested Sir Iain invest his £50million in a facelift for St Nicholas House instead.
Neil Rothnie, of Schoolhill, Aberdeen, said the oil industry had contributed nothing to the cultural life of the city and could not be trusted to do so now. “In 35 years we have no rep theatre, no orchestra, not one single building produced by the oil industry that will last a year after they go. All of the money that has flowed from the North Sea is secreted under the mattresses of Bieldside.”
The meeting was organised by the city’s Labour MPs Frank Doran and Anne Begg and MSP Lewis Macdonald.
Mr Doran said he and his colleagues called the talks in an effort to find “peace in our time”. He said: “Our concern was that the debate had become polarised, and seemed to be turning into a debate by press release. Both of these projects have the potential to make too big an impact for the city to be handled in that way, and we felt it was time to bring people together to try to get some facts out.”
There has been anger that people are not being consulted on the Peacock scheme as part of the Acsef consultation and complaints about members of the public being denied access to focus groups and meetings organised in association with community councils.
Edgar Gonzalez, whose London firm of architects won a design competition with its plan for the Peacock scheme, spent yesterday afternoon in meetings with Sir Ian, talking over a range of potential compromises for the site.
He said he shared the concerns of Sir Ian, Tom Smith and many Aberdonians that Union Street was past its best, but the answer lay in tackling the street itself, not destroying Union Terrace Gardens.
“If I have a headache I don’t get a foot massage,” he said, to loud cheers from the audience.
“Aberdeen has some very, very nice urban architecture and natural characteristics. With a little bit of dusting off and a lot of marketing to point out its benefits you would be very surprised by how much this granite city will shine in the sun again.”
Also on the panel was David McClean, head of the city’s Scott Sutherland school of architecture and the built environment at Gray’s School of Art. He said Union Terrace Gardens was “perhaps the most important feature of the city” and that the real problems with Union Street lay on the land to the south of Union Bridge.
The last word went to fellow panellist Allan Garvie, former head of planning, policy and environment with Aberdeenshire Council, who urged all sides to come together to find a solution.
“There are no camps in this city, just good citizens who want the best for Aberdeen,” he said.