Voting Closed - Union Terrace Gardens

Trainey Park

 That's it, no more voting...we'll find out tomorrow what the fate of the Union Terrace Gardens is going to be. Over a 50% turnout for the referendum is amazing when the usual for elections is only 23%. Here's hoping that most people of Aberdeen have seen through the PR and voted to retain and improve!
Aberdeen has been enjoying unusually warm weather for this time of year and for the 3rd time in a week, I spent my lunch hour in the Gardens. It was so nice just to sit there basking in the sun and chilling out. There were loads of other people there today - schoolkids, grannies, students, workers, babies, parents -  doing the same. It was hard to remember that it's only the 1st of March and that this time last year, we were knee deep in snow!

WHY I LOVE UTG

I've been using UTG since I began working in the Rosemount area in the late 1990s. When the weather's good there is nowhere better to spend my lunch hour - eating my sandwich, reading the paper or a book - away from the bustle of the city. I can enjoy the peace, the quiet, the beauty of the gardens and surrounding area... just relax and rejuvenate before going back to work especially if I've had a stressful morning.

Each season brings a change to the Gardens and even if I'm just passing by at street level I often stop for a few minutes to look down and enjoy the view or take a photo if I have my camera with me. The display of colour on the leaves of the trees in Autumn is simply stunning, the floral displays in Summer are beautiful and a tribute to the gardeners who work on them.

I walk past the Gardens at various times of the day...anytime between early morning and 8pm all year round...and if there is a large amount of misuse and gatherings by  "undesirables" (as some would have us believe!) then I can honestly say that I've never witnessed it .

Summer in UTG

On warm days in the Gardens, I see groups of youths playing football, students gathered on the grass socialising or studying, parents with their children running about safely and far from the road, older people sitting on the benches enjoying the sun and people like myself taking an hour out of their busy day to eat their lunch..





The Victorian toilets were closed in 2000. Since then, the Gardens have been allowed to become rundown. What they need is sympathetic restoration not annihilation. Many towns and cities would love to have what we have in our city - a beautiful sunken garden, right in the heart of it. It is Common Good land. This is Aberdeen's heritage and some people want to throw it away, cover it over!

Street level design will hide the Belmont Street buildings

The City Garden Project people seem determined to make us believe that the fate of our city hinges on a park!
   
I JUST DON'T BELIEVE IT!!!




                                     10 reasons to vote Retain Union Terrace Gardens 
                                                               

I wrote this poem about 2 years ago and I haven't changed my mind in the slightest. Union Terrace Gardens are the centrepiece of  the beautiful city that I'm proud to live in and blend in wonderfully with the surrounding buildings as they were supposed to. To replace them with concrete walkways more suited to a motorway and to kill healthy 200 year old elm trees in order to do this is quite simply outrageous - a crime against nature.
Restoration is what's needed - they've been neglected for far too long. With a few additions such as a cafe, play park for children, better access and toilets (already there but have been closed for about a decade) the Gardens can be a place to be proud of once again and it won't cost millions.

I ♥ Union Terrace Gardens

We're told that it's a vision
a sight we need to see
But clearly what THEY'RE seeing
is not the same as me

I see a place of beauty
lost for ever more
Filled by vile concrete
a car park at its core?

I see the mighty elm trees
home to nesting crows
Chopped down, murdered, discarded
to solve the city's woes?

I see the lovely flower beds
designed with different blooms
Destroyed so they can raise them up
amongst the noise and fumes?

I see the happy trainey park
to generations past
How many more will use them
are we to be the last?

Restore to former glory
it's  plain enough to me
that this is what the people want
and what THEY need to see

Union Terrace Gardens

I know what I like and I DON'T like what is being proposed for Union Terrace Gardens. 

I'm not stupid, I'm not militant, I'm not a hippie, I'm not a dinosaur and stuck in the dark ages. I really resent being called all of those by supporters of the City Garden Project just because I happen to love UTG. I want the Gardens retained and improved and our heritage preserved for future generations.
I'm all for progress where it's needed but to state that an oasis will be created when one already exists is just ludicrous. I'd much prefer any money to be spent on areas where it is needed.
Is this for real? -1 - It'll create 6,500 jobs - 2 - we'll put in an ice rink - 3 - we'll create a forest. Practically every day since the winning design was announced there have been statements like these in the paper. Are they just making it up as they go along to tempt us? Why haven't we been told about these plans before now?
1. Where's the proof that 6,500 jobs will be created? 
2. An Ice Rink - been tried before and found to be too costly, will we be charged an arm and a leg to use it?.  
3. Create a forest?- by murdering the existing trees and using them to build the pathways? I couldn't ever bring myself to walk on them if that happens. Who wants to walk through a forest once it's dark? Might as well put a sign on your forehead saying "Mug me" if you do. I did however, rather like the photo of the bird watcher in amongst the pine trees which was in the paper the other day!  Except...what birds will there be to spot? If they bulldoze the existing trees where are the crows going to go? I'd imagine that it would take years for the new trees to be big enough for birds to want to nest in them! Also, what happened to the vast open space that we were getting?
 I've passed the Gardens almost daily on my way to and from work for about 14 years now and on warm days I like to spend my lunch hour there (only if I can get a seat... my bones can't take sitting on the grass nowadays!) God only knows where the idea of it being a dark and dingy place comes from. Only from someone who has never actually sat there I guess. What about the people, young and old, who go there to sunbathe, picnic or just enjoy the fresh air? Should we tell the Council to stop planting their amazing floral displays because flowers surely can't be growing there in the dark?
...and why pick on it because it's not being used much at the moment - who in their right mind goes to a park in the winter? I don't! Mind you, I could be persuaded if there was a wee cafe down there under the arches. Parents might be too if there was a small swing park there for the kids, proper access and decent toilets instead of a portaloo which looks as if it would topple over at any moment.
No way do I want to sit up at street level and be blasted by the wind from all directions...if you've ever stood at the corner of Union Terrace and Rosemount Viaduct on a windy day you'll know what I'm talking about...or inhale traffic fumes while I'm eating my lunchtime sandwich. Maybe I'm one of the few but I actually like watching the trains from the Gardens...and let's face it, there aren't that many going past it in a day anyway. I also love to admire the beautiful buildings on Belmont Street...these will practically disappear if the Project goes ahead and the railway lines and road are covered.

.

So, NO, I don't want the Gardens destroyed...their uniqueness is right there in front of our eyes already. I'm voting to retain the Gardens and, whatever temptations are thrown at us, nothing will make me change my mind.