Frank Maughan

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A Vibrant, People-Friendly, Accessible City

Frank Maughan - Managing Director, ASM (Accommodation Services Management LTD)

Union Street, once generally acknowledged as one of the most imposing streets and shopping locations in the UK, needs a good clean-up, taking in everything from the buildings to the street furniture etc.  There has been a very evident lack of maintenance to the majority of the buildings, especially towards the Castlegate.  The quality of shopfront and signage design has deteriorated over the years.  If traffic could be diverted (at least in part – make it one-way, or buses only), with speed restrictions) from Union Street, then perhaps pavements could be widened and some of the pedestrian bottlenecks (eg, outside the Music Hall) removed.

Union Terrace Gardens definitely needs something to be done.  However, I am not a fan of raising it to street level. I would prefer to see some of the natural contours retained, and creating a unique, natural, City-Centre amphitheatre, allowing visibility down from all sides, with access from Union Street, Union Terrace, Rosemount/Schoolhill and Belmont Street. There should still be room for car parking below. Any development in the area needs good management as well as good initial design. The current gardens suffer greatly from lack of management, both in terms of policing (managing) to prevent it becoming a haven for down-and-outs and drug users, and in terms of providing daytime and evening entertainment. Someone said that Sir Ian Wood’s generous donation would be better spent on putting a roof over Union Street. Perhaps that is not such a bad idea!

The production of a far-sighted, feasible and integrated planning overview for the City is essential to the future.  We seem to have considered all our recent developments and proposals (including the Union Terrace / City Gardens scheme) in isolation, without considering in more detail the impact on traffic circulation etc. By way of example, the Union Square development has created major traffic problems in Market Street (and I know there were problems there when we had a fish market, but this development has done nothing to help improve the situation).  Likewise, the proposals for Union Terrace Gardens variously showed Union Terrace and Union Bridge as becoming pedestrianised, which is fine if an integrated traffic management plan can be produced; I believe that a City Centre master plan may now exist, but it should have been done prior to these developments, and, if indeed it has been produced, then it should be given much wider publiCity.  Any such plan should be reviewed perhaps every five years as economics etc change.  We had a masterplan many years ago (the Dobson Chapman plan of 1952) which is now largely forgotten, but which gave more depth than the vague generalities we now seem to have.

In terms of traffic management, we missed an obvious opportunity to provide an integrated transport hub at the station/Guild Street/Market Street, coordinating access to the railway station, bus station, north ferries (which often seem to be overlooked) and to the airport, possibly by a rail link.  Perhaps within the next twenty years or so something might be done to rectify this, as the location of the current bus station in particular is not popular with bus users, and the bus access and exit routes are certainly not popular with other road users.  I’m not a huge fan of park & ride, as unless there can be covered parking I don’t think it suits our climate.  I also think there is a case for improved traffic (private car) access into the City Centre, and improved covered parking. They manage it in other cities. In San Sebastian, northern Spain, for example, the majority of parking is underground, and is very popular.

We should encourage more people to live in the City Centre by converting the upper floors of some Union Street properties to apartments. This is now beginning to happen, but having people living in the City Centre as opposed to commuting there to work is perhaps the most effective way to maintain 24 hour life in the area, improve local amenities and prevent the decline and dilapidation of property.

There needs to be a real effort to develop and maintain a reputation as THE place to come for an education in the energy sector.  At the moment, although both RGU and University of Aberdeen offer oil-related engineering courses, the City has not built on the opportunity offered by its position as the oil/energy capital of Europe.  We may have missed out to date, but with the developing offshore/alternative energy industry, and with our current status as the home to the major subsea industry participants, we have another opportunity to develop a long-lasting reputation in technical education.

How about some creative vision from our City fathers? It’s odd that after 50 or so years of oil development in Aberdeen, there is very little to show visitors. An oil experience/landmark Centre has been discussed a couple of times but has come to nothing. We could have that, but there are other, less-expensive, options. Why not have a redundant BOP in the concourse at the station, or at the roundabout as you enter Aberdeen from the south; a massive piece of equipment like that would let people see the scale of the industry. Mind you, there aren’t too many visible memories of the fishing industry either!

Rubislaw Quarry should be developed, possibly as a tourist attraction, with improved visitor access, perhaps operating in tandem with a commercial operation (subsea diving/equipment testing establishment?).

Taking all the above into consideration, I could see Aberdeen as a vibrant, people-friendly, accessible City, proudly displaying its heritage and with a world reputation for education, dependable people and a high quality of life. But to make it happen, we need to have a City council made up of councillors with integrity and vision, dedicating that integrity and vision to the development and effective operation of our area to make it genuinely a great place to live and in which to do business, and setting party politics aside with the single priority being Aberdeen and the northeast and how to make it better.  This vision would include having dynamic and supportive officials.

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