Cllr John Stewart

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City Vision Aberdeen

Cllr John Stewart - Leader of Aberdeen City Council

What should a City Centre be for?  For me a place with three main functions - a place to work, a place to live and a place for leisure. Getting a balance of all three is vital to create a lively, vibrant sustainable City throughout the day and night.  It is also essential that a City Centre is easy to navigate and move around in. Cities also need to have a sense of place and identity, so open space, architecture, culture and people must come together to allow folk to know they are somewhere instantly identifiable.

I want to see a City where locals and visitors alike can enjoy themselves, from breakfasting on a cafe terrace, right through until dancing the night away in a club; where workers can relax with a welcome drink and a meal after work and be able to get home easily on an efficient public transport network; a City where visitors can walk easily from place to place, admiring an exciting blend of traditional granite and modern architecture, learn about the City’s history, enjoy a high quality show or performance and fine dining.  I want to see a City where residents can live, going about their daily tasks without needing to leave the Centre. Key areas that come together to create a successful City are, therefore, transport, environment, retail, leisure, architecture, employment and housing.

Aberdeen offers many of these features.  It is fundamentally a good City - the granite building of the City Centre mean Aberdeen is visually like no other UK City. The City is relatively clean and has a reasonable retail mix. But it needs to take a step forward to become an excellent City. Few would deny that transport remains a challenge for the City as a whole and the City Centre in particular, be that the road network, public transport or a more pleasant and safer environment for pedestrians.  

The City has some outstanding architecture but is often marred by inappropriate, uninspiring or downright bargain-basement development. It lacks high quality successful public open space. The retail mix could be better and too many major employers have moved staff out of the City Centre.  In short, the City Centre needs more people - more residents, more workers and more visitors. So what needs to change?

New and improved public open space.  The City needs more high quality space where vehicles are excluded and pedestrians have priority.  These are spaces for folk to relax in, gather to people-watch appreciate their surroundings and celebrate. The City needs a series of such spaces, linked by easy and safe walking routes.

I remain convinced that the raising of Union Terrace Gardens, to create a larger garden, with performance space, public art, water features, and cafes is a vital part of this. We should not be afraid to remove some of the worst eyesores to deliver this new space. There is the potential for new space on the St Nicholas House site when it is demolished, to improve the Castlegate. Could the St Nicholas Kirkyard be opened up more? Space could be created beside the Music Hall with the demolition of the ugly concrete block immediately to its west, or by excluding cars from Golden Square. There are also opportunities to create pedestrian priority on the many small side streets and back streets around Union Street.

New and improved public transport. There is no doubt the City is ill-served by public transport, yet Union Street spends much of the day looking like one big, long bus park. The rapid growth of commuter towns in Aberdeenshire has not been matched by improved public transport links, meaning many more car journeys into the City.

The Union Terrace Gardens development allows the opportunity to route buses onto the Denburn dual carriageway. Improved rail services, including crossrail would ease pressure on the A96 and A90 south corridors. A new rapid light transport system on the A90 north corridor from Fraserburgh should be created to bring people straight into the City Centre, with a spur from the airport to AECC. I’d love to see a monorail. And do not underestimate the importance of communications in terms of connectivity. A free wi-fi network across the City Centre is a must.

Uniqueness. Clearly Aberdeen’s architecture makes it a City like no other. However, the demands of modern living are taking their toll.  Office and retail space, as well as living space, seeks flexible, easy to use buildings with little of the character of the grand Victorian and Edwardian granite buildings.  Would it be possible to take control of,large parts of the City Centre, consolidating ownership of numerous older buildings, gutting the insides to create the flexible space desired by modern retail, while retaining the facades and features, a little like the council has achieved with Marischal College? As hinted at previously, we should not shy away from removing some of the less welcome additions to the City such as St Nicholas House, Aberdeen College and the police HQ to name a few.

Recent developments in the City appear to have focused more on functionality and cost rather than design. Part of the City Centre should be designated to allow new, modern, high-quality architecture to be developed, creating a new, identifiable skyline while complementing the old.  The harbour, so central and still busy with trade, is also a key feature of Aberdeen. The harbour needs to be better integrated with the City Centre, while respecting the need for it to operate successfully.

Aberdeen has an impressive history, its peripherality forcing the City to look outwards, promoting trade and commerce, while allowing a unique culture to develop among a population required to be self-reliant. Not enough is done to promote the history and culture of our area. Before the City needs a new contemporary arts Centre, it desperately needs a facility that tells the story of Aberdeen, its culture, people and place in the world. This would be of immense value to locals and visitors alike. With shopping now the biggest UK leisure activity,

the retail offering of a City Centre is hugely important, but so, too, is creating an environment and streetscape that allows a day’s shopping to turn from a chore into a day out.  Space to escape from the bustle, a range of coffee shops, cafes and restaurants to break up the day. We need to improve the retail offering - ensure that those high street and brand names that people expect to find are in Aberdeen and are supplemented by local retailers who can bring freshness and identity to the City Centre.

New public open space will help, especially if it can be complemented by entertainment and events. The private sector in the City needs to be engaged more in supporting the City’s festivals and events, while we need to redress the balance between a vibrant, energetic nightlife and a potentially aggressive and intimidating one. We need a greater emphasis on arts and culture, dining, socialising
and celebrating, music and dancing as the ingredients of a night in town.

In summary, I want to see a City Centre with greater pedestrian priority and improved transport links. A City Centre with new public open space and a vibrant retail, social and cultural scene. A City Centre that celebrates its history and shares its story with locals and visitors. A City Centre that is identifiably Aberdeen, appreciating existing architecture and creating new quality buildings to highlight that uniqueness. A City Centre that is safe to visit, easy to get around and which holds the interest.  A City Centre that Aberdeen can celebrate and celebrate in.

A City Centre full of, and for, people.

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