The King will buy rusty old gates from Union Terrace Gardens for £500.
Managers at Birkhall, the monarch’s Royal Deeside estate near Balmoral Castle, are on the hunt for surplus ironmongery.
And they approached Aberdeen City Council to see if they had any going spare.
Now two cast iron gates, no longer needed in the new-look UTG, are being sold for use in King Charles III’s gardens.
‘Potential sensitivity’ around sale of UTG gates spooks city officials
Town House officials were worried about the “potential sensitivity” around selling anything from the beloved city centre park.
So despite the meagre £500 price tag, they asked councillors to approve the deal. They did.
Top brass can usually sign off on the sales of council property valued at up to £10,000.
At such a bargain price, the environmentally-friendly King – or his estate workers – will have arrange pick up of the green, rusted gates for themselves.
Whoever collects them will have their work cut out, as chief planning officer David Dunne describes them as “too heavy to lift manually”.
In a report to councillors, he writes: “Given the current condition of the gates (e.g. some broken balusters and corrosion) they will need to be repaired before reuse.”
Officials have scoured the internet to come up with the valuation, looking at “similar gates in similar condition for a similar price”.
Where were the King’s new gates before?
The gates were not put back in place after UTG’s £30 million revamp as their original spot was relandscaped.
They were stacked up in a council yard for potential reuse at a later date.
But now Mr Dunne is stumped about what else to do with them.
“It is considered unlikely the Council will find a new use for the gates proposed for sale so their sale for reuse is the best course of action to see the gates be brought back into use,” he added.
In recent days, the UTG lawn has finally been turfed.
West end wine bar SugarBird has also been revealed as the final tenant to take up one of the new pavilions on the edge of the park.
The gates are thought to have been at the bottom of the stairs near their new home at the Burns pavilion.
Money raised from their sale will be donated to the Lord Provost’s Charitable Trust.
Birkhall remains King Charles’ Scottish residence, which he inherited while the Duke of Rothesay.
City officials could well be right to be wary of the “sensitivity” surrounding UTG merchandise.
