Plans for a living wall in Aberdeen are expected to germinate over the summer – after years of talk about the project.
The placement of the plants up the side of a city centre building has been a perennial problem for planners in recent years.
Eyes had been set on a Flourmill Lane plot for the green venture.
Tourists and residents alike have been wowed by living walls around the world.
Some of the more eye-catching are at Madrid’s Caixa Forum Museum and the Quai Branly Museum in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
There is even one within terminal three of Singapore’s Changi Airport.
Aberdeen living wall plans muddied by building ownership
But back in the north-east, efforts by council officers to secure funding for the Aberdeen living wall – from their own Town House colleagues – have stalled.
Senior local authority figures said third-party ownership of the building had sown seeds of doubt.
Council resources director, Steve Whyte said: “If the living wall were to be on a property the council-owned, obviously that is relatively straightforward in terms of having the ability to apply.
“But where we don’t have ownership of a property, unless we have the backing or the support of the owner of the property I don’t think it would be appropriate for us to put in an application for an adjustment to a building we don’t own.
Do you support the plans for a living wall in Aberdeen? Where do you think it should be? Let us know in the comment section below.
“That is the challenge, I think. The original building it was meant to go on, the council doesn’t own that property.
“That is why it has stalled if I can call it that. We will be looking at this over the summer to try and clarify it is going forward.”
Council to work out how to pay for it over the summer
Council staff were tasked with finding an alternative way to cultivate Aberdeen’s living wall last February.
It came as councillors withdrew a £100,000 grant to get the vertical garden off the ground because the city was running out of time to use the cash.
Speaking then, council bosses said discussions around the initial site on Flourmill Lane had “not progressed in the timescale anticipated”.
No alternative site has been suggested for the Aberdeen living wall.
Work over the summer is hoped to uncover new ways of paying for it.
It comes as officials confirmed the project team had not recently applied for money from one of the council’s funds.
But new funding rounds are expected to open for applications “in due course,” officials said.
Conversation