Well I could start by the most obvious one, the fact that there’s an Aberdeen in the Hunter Valley in New South Wales – and I’m sure I’m not alone in having stopped there and taken  a photo at the town sign (sadly in pre-digital camera days) to bring back and pin on a wall in the granite city, but that’s a bit too obvious for an MTC blog post.

What about some architectural reference? Yes of course, London’s Australia House ”the oldest Australian diplomatic mission and … the longest continuously occupied foreign mission in London” designed by our very own A. Marshall Mackenzie & Sons – yes, that’s right, the self same same folks who created the “new” front to Marischal College and of course the magnificent Union Terrace Gardens that to this day form the green heart of the granite city.

What about something more recent? Something political? Well there was the visit to Darwin by Gordon McIntosh, Aberdeen City Council’s Director of Enterprise, Planning & Infrastructure late in 2011.  Not very much has appeared in the public domain about this visit.  Not suggesting there was anything particularly shonky about this trip just that with public finances tight, there should be a clear business justification for all  council expenditure – trips from North East Scotland to Australia’s Northern Territories included.  Being up front about expenditure helps build trust with the public.  So what was the business case for this trip? If it was paid for by the public purse then the public have a right to expect that travel was at economy class – lowest price, non-flexible. If the trip was paid for by someone else then who paid? Why? Did anyone accompany Gordon?  Who was visited? What meetings were held? What was the relevance of each meeting to the Aberdeen Council Tax Payer? What expenses were incurred what hospitality (including gifts) were received – and from whom? If you’ve seen this information in the public domain then let me know. Not seen anything of note on the council website about the purpose of the trip, only thing I can find is from a website in the NT which has this interesting snippet about Gordon’s speech in November 2011 :“Gordon McIntosh noted oil and gas industries sought cities that offered safety, health facilities, fully integrated transport network (Aberdeen’s include hydrogen powered buses).”

I’m assuming that the Aberdeen in the Hunter Valley hasn’t introduced any Hydrogen buses and that this comment refers to “our” Aberdeen, well back in November 2011, Aberdeen didn’t have any hydrogen powered buses that I’m aware of.  In fact “our” Aberdeen doesn’t even have an integrated transport system let alone “fully integrated transport network” – it has a barely functional bus network run by First for private profit, not public transport.  Interesting then that on 25th January 2012, ACC made a press release about hydrogen buses saying that “The project will see the first hydrogen bus deployment in Scotland, with up to a dozen buses operating in the North-east“. That last statement appears to back up the earlier assertion that there were not any Hydrogen buses in Aberdeen in November 2011.

So what exactly did Gordon say in his briefing? Who knows. Maybe there was an error in transcription by the bloke from Darwin – but this wouldn’t happen if the full text and any accompanying material used in all presentations given by council staff on official business was posted on the Aberdeen City Council website to allow them to be subjected to public scrutiny.  If it wasn’t ”official business” then the citizens shouldn’t be paying for the council staff members trip or time. If an attempt is made to hide the material behind “oh its confidential” then a citizen has the right to ask “then why the XXXX were you presenting it to some blokes in Darwin?“

Strewth it’s late – grab a stubbie from the eskie, bung another snag on the barbie and enjoy  your Australia Day!

Was keeping two designs “in play” just a ploy to keep the competition going and let the announcement of the winner blur into the Union Terrace Gardens referendum campaign allowing the City Gardens Project to generate extra publicity for their scheme? Who knows, so lets take a final look at the two designs before we find out who the winner is.

Sterile, stale and uninspiring are just three of the words that have been used to describe the “Team 1” scheme – a cross between Tellytubby land and a ’70s skatepark with myriad opportunities for graffiti artists and multiple jumping off points for the suicidal. Contempt for heritage is shown by the fact that the historical features of the gardens are wiped away with the distinctive (and listed) granite balustrades going the same way as the mature trees.  Reckon this one is the DSR and Keppie entry.

What's wrong with this image?

While it is the demise of the balustrades that initially catch the eye, look again. The blurred lights supposedly show motion but for an illustrator it sometimes pays dividends to find out something about the context of what you are working on.  This illustration shows cars driving on the right hand side of the road – and speaking as someone who cycles along Union Terrace most days, I can categorically state that cars actually drive on the left hand side here. Of course there is always the possibility that this illustration is intended to convey the notion that by the time the scheme was finsihed, following a successful outcome in the independence referendum, Scotland may have elected to switch to left-hand drive

While on the subject of Scottish Independence, it is interesting to note that the ACGT / ACC are apparently trying to tie in the City Gardens Project with a bid to become UK City of Culture in 2017.  It will be interesting to see what the stance of the 15 SNP councillors on Aberdeen City Council is here – why would they back an attempt to become a “UK City of Culture” in 2017 when our First Minister Alex Salmond is confident of leading us towards independence with a victory in the referendum in 2014?

The “Team 2” design – The Maggot – bears the hallmarks of a Foster design but while the Gherkin towers erect over the London skyline, this Maggot flaccidly flops over the Denburn.  It is interesting to note the lengths to which Norrie’s loons have gone to try and generate the illusion that their design retains the existing gardens.  On the Team 2 submission board under the tagline “Protecting the gardens, transforming the setting” there is an image which shows this grotesque maggot blended into an oblique aerial shot of Union Terrace Gardens giving the false impression that much of the park is retained as is.  Closer inspection reveals that the geometries presented do not equate to what is shown in the aforementioned image.  Of course, the illustrations also conveninetly fail to include  Stewartie Milne’s Triple Kirks development which has a large visual impact and in fact occupies some areas Team 2 have marked as gardens. The mature trees, Kelly’s Cats and the views of Union Bridge and the Denburn Viaduct would all disapear in the Team 2 scheme and the destruction of the mature trees (by either Team 1 or 2 scheme) has led one commentator to write about Union Treeless Gardens.

The lack of attention to detail shown by Team 2 is perhaps best illustrated by examination of their snowy shot ( second page of Team 2 submission board proposal linked above ) – lets home in on their representation of the arches under Union Terrace :

Detail of arches on Team 2 submission

The casual observer – or one in Switzerland - may not immediately notice anything wrong here – but to anyone with a passing knowledge of Aberdeen’s architecture there is a glaring error which conveys a lack of concern for detail.

The arches form a lasting homage to the Bow Brig

The Union Terrace arches have a definitive signature – and that signature is based on the auld Bow Brig – the stones from which form one of the arches and the motif from which is echoed in each of the arches …

“In due course the stones of the old Bow Brig were put to new and important use, being incorporated into one of the arches of the arcade constructed on the upper part of the terrace of Union Terrace Gardens. Indeed the dressed ashlar band around the archway, which was a feature of John Jean’s little bridge became the template for all the subsequent arches along the entire terrace, creating a very impressive open arcade.” (writes David Miller in  Aberdeen A Heritage Remembered).

If Team 2 cant get simple details like this correct – how can we trust their costings etc. ?

In the City Square Gardens design competition, there is only one winner – Malcolm Reading Consultants who have made a tidy sum from running the competition.

On 1st March, the citizens of Aberdeen will have their chance to vote to decide whether they want to retain their public park or allow the developers to move in with their bulldozers and chainsaws.

Anyway, the proceedings were broadcast live for all to see and the judges will make their decision known in due course.

So, with Aberdeen’s big day in court not worthy of a headline or even a mention in the P&J, what was the big story ( )?  Geothermal energy from granite.  An interesting topic but as we have come to expect from the P&J it was a weak feature lacking in detail, effectively just churned PR puff that serves to reinforce the Energetica? Pathetica! tag that has become synonymous with ACSEF greenwash.

I’m not going to bore you with details about the potential or otherwise of geothermal energy but would like to focus on an image on the front page of the paper that highlights the weakness of the journalists and most critically, the editorial staff at the once respected Press & Journal.

Image on P&J front page 10/11/2011

“A volcano in Australia is testament to geothermal power” Really? There are no active volcanoes in Australia – assuming that we are not counting a few active volcanoes on the remote and unpopulated Heard / McDonald Islands which are something like 4000 km from the Australian mainland – and thus not much good for geothermal energy.

Aberdeen currently has two Park & Ride sites, at Bridge of Don (600 spaces) and Kingswells (950 spaces) with a bus service – First Aberdeen No. 40 – running between both via the city centre. These schemes are designed to reduce traffic congestion in the city centre and improve air quality by reducing the number of vehicles travelling all the way to the city centre. Initially, the service cost something like £1.40 return for up to five occupants of a car, representing a good incentive for car sharing.  The fares rose then the ticketing was changed to operate on a per person basis with £2.20 return fare in operation until July 2011 when First Aberdeen imposed an inflation-busting 27% fare increase bringing the fare to its current level of £2.80 per adult passenger.

This brutal fare rise prompted Aberdeen Central MSP Kevin Stewart (then also chairman of NESTRANS) to write to First Aberdeen : “I am extremely disappointed by the fare increases that First Aberdeen have decided to implement, and I find some of the pricing bizarre and perverse. For example: to raise the cost of a Park & Ride Day Return by a whopping 27.2% and a four-weekly Park & Ride pass by 6.8% seems daft at a time when we should all be actively trying to encourage people out of their cars and on to public transport. I realise that patronage of the service has been falling, but it seems that First’s solution is to drive even more customers away, and one wonders whether they want to continue with it or intend to go cap-in-hand to the Council to try and get a subsidy. This coupled with a 14.3% increase on a student four-weekly and a 16.6% hike on an academic term ticket is absolutely galling.”

The Park & Ride sites feature heated waiting rooms with toilets but in May 2010 Aberdeen City Council made all Park & Ride site staff redundant and the waiting rooms were soon shut. At Bridge of Don this meant there was no shelter at all for waiting passengers – and it sometimes rains in Aberdeen.

The waiting room eventually reopened in 2011, to the relief of the long-suffering passengers, though the service remained plagued by late running and operated by a rag-tag fleet of buses which didn’t do much to inspire confidence in the service.

The NESTRANS Park & Ride Operations Study (available here – large pdf download) highlights many of the challenges P&R faces in Aberdeen and presents traffic statistics up to 2008, which show that from peak patronage of just under 300,000 in 2000, passenger figures at Bridge of Don had plunged by 45% by 2008.  Interestingly they state “no clear reason for this has been identified” – they evidently didn’t look too hard – poor service reliability coupled with soaring costs surely play a part.

Aberdeen City Council even considered stopping the entire Park & Ride operation in 2010 (EPI_PSD06 makes interesting reading) but “This Option was rejected at the Corporate Roundtable as non-viable. Kingswells site could not be sold as anything other than a P&R, under terms of original compulsory purchase order. If the Park & Rides at AECC (Bridge of Don (BOD)) and Kingswells stopped operating it would also halt the delivery of future A96, A90 sites & the replacement of the AECC Park and Ride development, with associated decapitalisation of costs already incurred. This option would also include stopping any temporary Park & Rides for specific events“.

Interesting to note the perceived risks of canning the service - “Acceptance of this option would mean that the ACSEF would be unable to deliver on its Economic Manifesto including the Enegetica initiative. The Local and Regional transport strategies, Air Quality Action Plan, Climate Change requirements; Structure plan, Local Plan would also be unable to be delivered. There would also be a risk of a challenge to be able to gain a capiltal receipt for Kingswells as it was procured under CP. This option also makes ther AWPR; 3rd Don Crossing; Haudagain and Park& Ride new sites undeliverable.”

So, the whole Park & Ride concept is pretty much on its knees – certainly from the North of the City – and after all why would the avaricious Grabbit City Council want people to park on the edge of the city and take a bus to town when those self-same cars could be parking in council owned car parks and raising revenue for the struggling council (and remember this is the same Council that annexed the Royal British Legion’s Charity Car Park in Golden Square in 2010).

Offshore Europe 2011

Every two years, Aberdeen’s already creaking transport infrastructure grinds to a complete halt when the Offshore Europe trade show takes place at the Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre.  So it was a surprise to see STV News report on the 22nd August under the headline “Park-and-ride to shut for oil week“  – “Customers will not be able to leave their cars at the Bridge of Don park-and-ride site from September 5-10 as the area is being used as an overspill car park for the events taking place at the AECC. Service 40 will instead operate from Ellon Road (The Parkway). Alternative car parking will be available at Seaton Park for the week and customers will have to walk to King Street to connect with service 40. To aid this connection, an alternative stop will be provided outside Lidl for journeys to the city”.

What a kick in the teeth for the long-suffering commuters who endure Service 40 for the other 51 weeks of the year! There’s a three-day exhibition on so you can’t use the site … the bus is still running, just no parking available … kind of makes a mockery of Park & Ride … but not to worry First Bus suggest some alternatives …

“Alternative Car Parking will be available at Seaton Park for the week” – OK, that would mean rather than reaching the Park & Ride via the dedicated access lane of the A90, drivers would have to travel south and across the already congested Bridge of Don, turn right across the flow of traffic heading for the AECC and park at Seaton Park.  Seaton Park has about 50 car parking spaces (Bridge of Don has 600) and these are actually used by visitors to the park.  Will there be additional parking on the grass? After the rain we’ve had it could be rather boggy. I doubt very many folk will bother going to Seaton Park then walk back to the main road, cross the road then catch the bus. If successful, this option will surely just generate additional traffic through the Bridge of Don chokepoint and further hinder traffic flow to and from the exhibition at the AECC.

Another great suggestion from First is that customers might be “able to arrange other options such as drop-offs at Ellon Road” – OK, so do First not get what a Park & Ride is? Someone drives to a site, parks their car then gets on the bus to town … so how many can get a drop-off at Ellon Road?

Then we see the greatest gem of all – “For those customers in possession of a 4-week Park and Ride season ticket, we will allow travel on services 1 and 2 for the duration of this week to provide a further option for customers to make the trip to and from the city centre“. So First sold people Park & Ride tickets with 4-week validity which cover this period when they decide to remove the service for a week and now they make the great concession of letting the passengers use the normal service buses, on Routes 1 & 2! What a joke, First should extend the 4-weekly tickets by a week to cover the period when they aren’t providing the service.

It all looks like a mess and a recipe for disaster … and it wont help generate much confidence in the Park & Ride service.

Lets go back and consider what Kevin Stewart MSP said on his website about the July fare hikes :

“I suppose First feel that they can do what they like, as they have very little competition. How I wish that would change. ...

… When the management buy-out of Grampian Regional Transport led to the creation of the First Group, the bosses proclaimed to Aberdonians that “We Bought It For You”. However, in my opinion, there will be very few citizens of this city nowadays who would believe that’s the case.“

For those who aren’t familiar with them these bike here schemes involve placing bikes at bike stations from where members of the scheme (who pay an annual membership) can hire them and then ride them to another station and leave them there.  Journeys under 30 minutes are typically free, with a hire charge for periods beyond that.

Getabout state that the bike hire scheme in London has “been a brilliant success” – well it certainly looks like its been a brilliant success for private outsourcing company SERCO who will trouser £140 Million for running the scheme for 6 years. Not all been plain trousering for SERCO though as Transport for London recently withheld £5 Million payments after it emerged that 15,000 users had been overcharged.  It does appear to be getting a lot of people cycling in London though, which is great.

In Paris, Dublin and Brisbane, JCDecaux – perhaps better know as purveyors of advertising laden street furniture – also run bike hire schemes.  We were impressed by the facilities of the Brisbane CityCycle scheme and were going to blog about it back in January 2011 but then the rains came down and the river rose and the floods came to the capital of the Sunshine State, so we let that one go … here’s a pre-flood shot of CityCycle Station 92 at the Thornton Street Ferry with bikes ready for action :

Note the bikeway right next to these bikes – Brisbane already had a good network of well used bikeways in place prior to the CityCycle Scheme getting off the ground and plans to have 150 cycle stations. As with everything there is political controversy around such schemes but perhaps the ultimate success metric for a bike hire scheme is not in the revenue but the number of people it gets cycling.  Someone who hires a bike a few times may well like it and decide to buy their own bike or resurrect an old one that’s been lying forlorn in the shed for years. We note with interest the figure of AU$8.2 Million for CityCycle budget for 4 years which seems good value compared to the cost of the scheme in London, although we believe that JCDecaux get rights to street advertising in Brisbane as part of their deal there.  [We will try and dig out more info on the relative costs for schemes on a per bike / bike station basis].

A recent article in The Guardian (4th Aug 2011) reports that the bike hire scheme in Dublin has 58,000 subscribers and has had 2.2 million bike hires which is very impressive. The 10 Euro membership fee for the Dublin scheme seems very reasonable.

Back to Aberdeen … would a bike hire scheme work in the Granite City? Possibly. The city is certainly compact enough for cycling to be a viable mode of transport – as to whether people would pay to hire bikes rather than buy their own, not sure.  For real mass cycling to take off, there would need to be some strategic investment in infrastructure to encourage cyclists to saddle up and a lot of driver education to make those inside the little metal boxes realise that the folks on the bikes are all someone’s  daughter / son / mother / father / wife / husband / friend / relative and they live, breathe,  bruise and break just like everyone else. Give them space, give them respect, give them time.

Aberdeen City Council aren’t exactly falling over themselves in making the city centre cycle friendly. For example consider the current plan to make Justice Mill Lane – currently a quiet alternative to Union Street for cyclists – a one-way street without contraflow cycle access.  The Aberdeen Cycle Forum comment that “the proposed changes are yet another example of the council ignoring the “transport hierarchy” of Pedestrians, Cyclists, Public Transport, Private Vehicles defined in the Scottish Government planning policy“, yet the council apparently plough on regardless. Perhaps if Aberdeen’s Lord Provost left the civic car in the garage and followed the example of London’s Lord Mayor Boris and got on his bike things would start to change

Transformational schemes such as the Woonerf proposed by Other Aberdeen could unlock the true potential of existing infrastructure and facilitate new connectivity within the city paving the way for a new more cycle-friendly – no, lets make that more human-friendly  – city centre for the 21st Century.

On reading the City Square PR Article “Designers in line to draw new future for gardens” in the Evening Express of 15th August 2011, we felt moved to comment about some of the things that the EE isn’t telling readers.  We will let others discuss the timetable slippage revealed in the piece and will instead focus on the competition teams and some of what the EE terms their “triumphs“.  We will use the team names sensu EE here (rather than the full team names) and discuss them from the top and then from the right as they appear in the printed article.

So here are some observations on the dreary half-dozen …

WEST 8

The West 8 proposal is given pride of place, yet it is strange to see this presented as a solo effort especially as Archial is involved and have a completed local reference project in the shape of the Aberdeen Harbour Marine Operations Centre.  Perhaps it’s not the done thing to draw attention to any local projects given that the competition jury were scheduled to visit completed projects in August and why visit Fittie when you can be away somewhere else – all expenses paid?

MECANOO

Mecanoo are perhaps best known for the Birmingham City Library.  The following quotes from the Birmingham Mail of 19th Dec 2009 make interesting reading :

“Birmingham’s new city library could cost hard-pressed council tax payers a staggering £590 million, it emerged today. The figure is three times the £193 million that the city council has been quoting for two years.“

“The figures were discussed secretly by the cabinet this week, with officials claiming details were commercially sensitive and should remain confidential.“

“The council will borrow £135 million, with interest repayments at £7.5 million a year for 40 years – making a total of £300 million.

But on top of that has to be added £15 million for repaying additional loans taken out by the council plus the £15 million cost of the library project team. The estimates assume that the final cost can be cut by raising £34 million in sponsorship and public subscriptions, although none of this has yet been identified. Failure to raise all of the sponsorship money would bring the final library bill to £412 million.

The council will set aside £3 million a year for maintaining the new building over 60 years, a total of £180 million – making a final sum of £592 million”.

Definitely worth keeping an eye on that one.

DILLIER SCOFIDIO AND RENFRO

Dillier Scofidio and Renfro. While the expected stuff about the High Line in New York comes up, the EE conveniently omits to mention that the High Line owes its existence to the Friends of The High Line, a community based grass roots group that got involved with the disused railway line long before the architects. Keppie gets a wee mention here – you’ll remember them from the Oakbank Business Park development perhaps?

SNØHETTA AND HOSKINS

Where do we start with this team? Ironic that the image shown is from their failed entry in the V&A Design Competition in London – we sort of expected that this might be re-hashed for City Square, but trust this is the last we see of designs that have been rejected elsewhere resurfacing in Aberdeen.

Snøhetta were famously involved in the Turner Contemporary project in Kent, and the following quotes are from Museum Insider :

“The original design, which was commissioned in 2001, was to be situated in the sea next to Margate pier. But the project was cancelled in 2006 amid serious technical difficulties and the cost spiralling from £30 million to £50 million. Building Design revealed in 2006 that Kent County Council spent £6 million on the original proposal, including £2.5 million in design fees, before scrapping the plans. The local authority then decided to sue the Snøhetta-led design team.

The case is now resolved, with Norwegian architect Snøhetta and collaborators Ramboll UK and Davis Langdon agreeing to pay Kent County Council £6 million in an out-of-court settlement over the abandoned design“

GUSTAFSON PORTER

Amongst their “Triumphs“, the EE list “Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fountain”.

“The memorial’s U.S. creator, Kathryn Gustafson, said the design had aimed to reflect aspects of Diana’s personality. Her design was picked for the project ahead of 57 other entries.”

Daily Mail, 23rd July 2004 : “Diana Fountain shut after visitors injured in falls“

The Financial Times of 21st March 2006 reports that MPs on the Commons Public Accounts Committee considered this fountain “ill-conceived and ill-executed” …

“The Commons Public Accounts Committee said on Tuesday it was unfair that the Royal Parks had been “saddled” with paying an estimated £250,000 a year for the upkeep of the memorial, which has had to be closed several times since it was opened in July 2004. The cost of the 210m circular fountain rose from the original budget of £3m to £5.2m.

“This so-called water feature will literally be a drain on the resources of the Royal Parks agency for years to come,” said Edward Leigh, the Committee’s Conservative chairman.

“This is a typical example of the great and good airily embarking on a prestige project which will take away money badly needed for the upkeep of national recreational facilities enjoyed by millions.”

FOSTER & PARTNERS

Again, as with Gustafson Porter, one “Triumph” stands out. Wembley Stadium. “Wembley Stadium Costs Soar Towards £1 Billion“. Massively overbudget, finished late.

So there you have it, a wee look at some of the folks on the short-list and there’s lots, lots more where this came from.

Advertising sign, Wallace Triangle

We feel that a more discreet and sympathetic placement of the “sponsor” sign would have been possible – and more appropriate – here.

Now lets look a little closer at the environs of the Wallace Triangle.  Tiled street signs are a distinctive feature of the City Centre and their heritage and tourist value has been rightly highlighted in the Aberdeen City Centre Development Framework ( ACCDF, a big pdf ). These encaustic tiled signs have been getting repaired / replaced by plastic sham “replica” signs, as highlighted by the OtherAberdeen blog and documented by the dedicated work of the members of the Run Down Aberdeen group (if you haven’t seen Fraser Denholm’s 2011 Run Down Aberdeen documentary, you can watch it for free online here).

So we find the “Union Terrace” sign and if we look a little closer we can see that it is starting to decay, the hand is cracked and some of the tiles are looking shoddy.

Decaying tiled street sign

… but then we look at the “Rosemount Viaduct” sign and see that it is in a terrible state.  This is the sign that citizens and visitors alike see as they wait at the lights to cross from His Majesty’s Theatre / St. Mark’s / Central Library back to Union Terrace.  It’s hardly a grand advert for Aberdeen. I suppose that with a chauffeur driven civic car funded from the common good at his disposal, the Lord Provost doesn’t spend much time waiting at pedestrian crossings to notice things like this .

Rosemount Viaduct - although if you didn't know the street name you'd struggle to work it out!

Perhaps the council expect the public won’t notice either, perhaps they expect the public to be looking the other way, distracted by some tinsel show while the very fabric of the city is left to rot – or civic assets are quietly transferred into private hands with minimum fuss and scrutiny .

We would dearly love to see the tiled street signs maintained throughout the  city but accept that following decades of poor financial management by successive administrations the city probably doesn’t have the funds to do this.  We do not think that the “Alford Place” approach involving fake signs – and poorly executed fakes at that – is the solution.  We would hope that those signs that are in prominent locations in the centre could be maintained to help forge an identity for the city and in cases like the ones shown here, why not make the “sponsors” pay for new encaustic tiles? … you get to stick your advert in the public park … you pay for the upkeep of the street signage round the park.

Box - think its a telephone one - Rennie's Wynd, Aberdeen (June 2011).

Could things be different ?

Of course they could.

We appreciate that these boxes may nominally be “owned” by different entities, but they all form part of the public realm which is ultimately owned by the people and perhaps the people should have an input on how they look.

We have always admired the painted traffic signal boxes in Brisbane which have not only brightened up the streets and helped create greater community identity and pride but have also resulted in actual cost savings (through reduced graffiti cleaning – see detailed report here).  If you want a quick overview, have a look at this youtube video that shows the background to the project.

Anyway, here are a couple that caught our eye on visits to Brisbane.

Regatta Hotel (pre-2011 flood)

Kookaburra

On visiting Inverurie town centre last weekend we were delighted to see that a traffic signal box here has been painted up with a suitably “rural Aberdeenshire” theme!  It’s a real cracker too.

A cheeky surprise on top ...

Some research turned up an article in The Inverurie Herald of 23rd June 2011 “Street art mooves to town” which gives the story of how this one came to be.  In summary, it is the work of local artist Mike Jenkins and was commissioned by Ron Reid (who manages the town farmer’s market) after he had seen painted street furniture in Nova Scotia.

We really like this new feature of Inverurie and we would like to think that it might be something that happens in other communities in the North East and will keep our fingers crossed that we see more popping up elsewhere in Aberdeenshire.

Ideally, we would like to see a scheme like Brisbane’s art force which grows from the grass roots up and features artworks that the community themselves choose to create to tell their story.  The true success of such a scheme is not merely the production of the artwork to decorate the box but the community spirit that it fosters.

Hopefully a scheme in Aberdeenshire might then inspire the city of Aberdeen to embark upon a similar project and help replace grubby grey or green boxes with vibrant pieces of street art.

If you like the idea, why not contact your councillors?

You will find no attempts to glorify the battle or lionise those who fought and fell on this blog, but we think that Harlaw was a major event which deserves to be commemorated. We were indeed pleased to learn that both Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire Councils were planning a series of special events to mark the 600th anniversary and were particularly pleased to learn that the six “missing plaques” would be created and affixed to the monument almost 100 years after it was initially erected.

Monument with Bennachie behind (yes, those are the new plaques you can see!)

It came as a shock to find that the public appear to be being excluded from the actual ceremony and wreath-laying at the Harlaw Monument on the 600th anniversary as, according to the Aberdeen Council website :

“The official ceremony and the reception are private and for invited guests only. The site of the Battle of Harlaw monument will open to the public at 3pm so they will be able to view the new interpretation panel.”

We can accept that the reception (in Inverurie, not at the monument) isn’t open to the general public ( although it may well be funded by them ), but on what grounds are the public being excluded from paying their respects to the fallen at the wreath-laying?

Who drew up the list of invited guests? Who was on that list and why were they there?

The Harlaw Monument is just that - a monument at the side of a minor road with a short layby in front of it nothing much else. Now there’s not much parking room but surely the council could just have said “No parking will be available on site, please walk or cycle to the monument?” You’ve guessed it … one, two, three … This is Aberdeen so they apparently simply decide to exclude the public.

On 24th July 1411 Aberdeen Provost Davidson was in need of the citizens of Aberdeen and they came and they died on the field of Harlaw.

On 24th July 2011 Aberdeen Lord Provost Stephen does not want to be troubled by the presence of citizens.

Well not unless they are his invited guests that is - a wee bit like the buffet he wants to spend £4,000 of Aberdeen’s Common Good Fund on for the unveiling of the portrait of himself for which an additional £10,000 of the Aberdeen Common Good fund was allocated.

Now this raises another important question.  Despite being in Aberdeenshire,  the Harlaw Monument (and its site) is listed as Aberdeen Common Good Land (As revealed by Freedom of Information request ENQ7571 ). Can Aberdeen City Council arbitrarily exclude citizens from their own common good like this?

A citizen informed us that she had contacted the Aberdeen City Council Events team to enquire about attending the wreath-laying ceremony – at the time of writing she had received no response. As the ceremony is tomorrow any response she receives will be too little, too late.

Sniffing about a bit, we started to uncover some interesting facts … initially we came across this blog post from 16th July 2011 which contains some gems. In a section discussing musical provision at the event, we find a letter apparently from the headie at Inverurie Academy :

“The real action is at 1.00pm when transport leaves Inverurie Academy to go to the harlaw monument for the commemoration at 1.15pm. If you could be playing to welcome them as they arrive that would be great, and then a lament at the end as they leave.”

A lament would indeed be most appropriate given the shoddy way in which the general public appear to have been treated.

Before we go on, note that the headie appears to have failed to capitalise the proper noun harlaw – you know Harlaw – the event 600 years ago that we are discussing

We go on to read

“Although the road will be closed it would be ok for you to take your car up to get there before others – I would suggest that if you were there for 1.00pm that would be fine. There is parking available.”

So our earlier concerns about parking were apparently unfounded … the lay-by isn’t very big but tonight we noted that a corner of a park ( that’s what we call fields up here ) opposite the monument – has already been cut and has two gates open – perhaps the council have arranged for the farmer to provide a convenient parking location?

Mention of the road closure is interesting though this in itself shoud not stop the public from walking or cycling to the monument. On further investigation we find no mentions of a road closure in the list of closures posted on Aberdeenshire Council’s website.

We then came across the some documents from the Battle of Harlaw Action Group and in an action note from their 9th May 2011 meeting we see the following recorded :

“In relation to the road closures, Provost Howatson advised that (1) the Garioch Area Manager had dealt with this and had arranged for the necessary road to be closed from 9am – 4pm, however this may be reduced to a smaller period of time, and (2) they would arrange for the necessary amount of Stewards to be on duty on the day.”

Assuming the road in question is the one past the Harlaw Monument … why has notice of the road closure not been posted on the Aberdeenshire Council website ?

The action notes from the 23rd June 2011 Battle of Harlaw Action Group Meeting show that “Two buses had been booked by Aberdeen City Council, to hold a total of 100 people.” but we are sure that the Common Good funded Aberdeen Civic Car will be out for a run too. We also see that “It was suggested that there may be no requirement for Aberdeenshire Council to book additional buses” … we would love to think that this was because the Aberdeenshire attendees have opted to walk from Inverurie to the monument

One final gem from the 23rd June 2011 Action Note :

“Stella Evans (Corporate Communications Team) advised that she was still progressing the idea of taking a photograph of the Lord Provost beside the grave of Provost Davidson (who died during the Battle of Harlaw) …”

Oh, in the name of the wee man. We don’t know what’s worse here – the perceived cheesy photo opportunity or the fact that the BATTLE OF HARLAW ACTION GROUP find it necessary to put “who died during the Battle of Harlaw” after Provost Davidson’s name.

One of the six new plaques fitted to the monument, this is the Davidson shield

It is sad that the council(s) have seen fit to try and exclude members of the general public from the wreath-laying ceremony. The public may not sport hand-made brown brogues but this is their history too and they have as much right to participate in the commemoration as any  ”civic dignatory” or “clan chief“.

BLUNDERGATE

Having initially succeeded in keeping lots of information about the City Square Project (re-branded City Garden Project after a humiliating – and no doubt expensive – PR faux pas in 2010) out of the public eye a series of FoI requests appear to have forced the council into belatedly making some details of the meetings of the City Garden Project Monitoring Group (CGPMG) public.  Minutes and related documents for the March, April and May 2011 meetings duly appeared on the Council website in a redacted form … well a supposedly redacted form anyway (more of which later).

Now most city administrations should have been able to pull off pulling the wool over the public’s eyes without raising a fuss but … yes, you’ve guessed it … THIS IS ABERDEEN and things don’t always happen as expected.

With the redacted minutes on the website, questions were being asked and the Press & Journal of 6th July carried a piece titled New Leader asks: Why blank out members’ names in minutes? in which Councillor Callum McCaig is quoted as saying “It’s most unusual to see council minutes with information blacked out in this regard” …. “I have absolutely no idea why this is the case and have no recollection of such a decision being taken” … “As such I have written to the chief executive asking why this has been done and when the decision was taken“.

On the face of it a positive start for Cllr. McCaig – although as council leader he should surely have been “in the loop” on this project beforehand, no? Strange that after this initial piece the P&J don’t seem to have covered this at all.  No time to ponder questions like this though as things started to go downhill rapidly and the ever vigilant OtherAberdeen blog led the way with Bizarre Opaque Transparency from Aberdeen City Council a stunning expose of just how much of a blunder this had been.

Those involved with the City Garden Project possibly thought things would blow over but they were wrong as on 7th July a real hammer blow came when STV Aberdeen broke the story big time revealing the bungled attempts to hide information from the public in  Council fails to conceal minutes from Union Terrace Gardens meetings.

The 8th July issue of the Aberdeen Voice featured a superb  Cloak And Dagger Special  which covers the whole sordid affair.

Without fanfare or apology, the unredacted minutes of the meetings finally appeared on the council website and are now available for the public to read. Public dissection of these documents will continue and there are already growing calls for greater public scrutiny of all aspects of the City Garden Project.

It is interesting that the minutes of  20th May carry an apology from ‘Councillor’ Scott Cassie. In April 2011, facing court proceedings on embezzlement charges, Scott Cassie resigned from the council before pleading guilty to the charges on 28th April.  In fact on 19th May 2011, the very day before the CGPMG meeting from which his apology for absence is minuted, Mr. Cassie was in Aberdeen Sheriff Court where he was sentenced to a year in jail for embezzlement.  The BBC report that after handing down his sentence, Sheriff Edward Savage said “the public expected the highest degree of honesty and probity in elected representatives – You betrayed that trust. It was a serious breach of trust, and the public interest must be protected.“

Nothing to see here, no need to mention this in AOCB, no need to propose a replacement. That’s all OK then

BOILERGATE

While the above was happening, there was trouble with a dodgy boiler as the P&J of 6th July informed the public that ‘An Aberdeen councillor and self-employed plumber who is not allowed to work with gas was “involved” in fitting a new boiler at an MSP’s flat … Councillor Hunter was at the centre of an inquiry into allegations that he used falsified documents to show he was qualified to work with gas‘.  Gas fitting regulations exist for public safety and in Aberdeen, the self-styled “energy capital of Europe“, of all places health and safety should be taken seriously at work and at home.

BRIEFGATE

The CGPMG documents show that it was always the intention to present a design brief for approval by Aberdeen City Council on 29th June 2011.  This was apparently not done, so the full Council have not had the opportunity to approve any such design brief, giving the impression that the Council have lost control of the whole process and are mere passengers. These issues are eloquently presented in an Open Letter to Councillors from Mike Shepherd which appeared in the Aberdeen Voice and, in edited form as “Losing Control” in the letters pages of The Scotsman on 8th July.

Here, we will simply present some quotes from the CGPMG documents, in which we highlight choice content.

CGPMG Minutes 22nd March 2011

“Mr. Brough confirmed that;

The Competition Brief will be approved by the Project Management Board, then submitted to Council for approval, before being issued.  It is anticipated that this approval will be sought at the Council’s 29th June meeting.”

CGPMG Monthly Report April 2011  :

“The Design Brief will be submitted to the Aberdeen City Council meeting on 29th June 2011, for endorsement, before it is issued to the short-listed companies“.

CGPMG Monthly Report May 2011 :

“Schedule of key meetings and competition deadlines below;

29th June     Council Meeting      Brief sign-off “

BUFFETGATE

On 8th July it emerged that the Lord Provost wanted to spend £4,000 from the Common Good Fund on a buffet for his chums attending the unveiling of a portrait of himself for which £10,000 had already been allocated from the Common Good.  Now we all know that the LP likes a bit of bling – you’ve seen the gold chain and fur collar – and he billed the taxpayers for £10,000 worth of clothes and we’ve noted in the past how the civic car is funded from Common Good. The LP is quoted in the Evening Express of 8th July as saying “the buffet was a way to repay city backers during his five years in post … numerous people have given their loyalty and support and it is a way of saying thank you … these are citizens and companies who do much for our city, and it all feeds in“.

It will be interesting to see who is on the guest list next June.

No doubt we will hear much about how this is all fine and that the Common Good fund is being used to “uphold the civic dignity“.  We are Moved to Comment that perhaps civic dignity is not measured by the  size of your limousine, by how shiny your brogues are or by how much you spend on a buffet or portrait of the civic leader.  Perhaps better metrics of civic dignity are how a city looks after its citizens in time of need – perhaps citizens should consider whether the earnings from their Common Good should be used to lavish luxury on a political elite or actually used to give a helping hand to the citizens who need it most when times are tough.

So there you have it - Blundergate, Boilergate, Briefgate and Buffetgate - wonder what the next scandal to emerge for the corridors of power in the Granite City will be?

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