SAVED!

Hallelujah...Union Terrace Gardens are saved! The full Aberdeen Council in their wisdom voted on the 22nd August to throw out the plans for the City Garden Project.



I thank Sir Ian Wood for his generous offer of £50million but would like to say that in my mind it was never a "gift" to the city. A gift is given unconditionally, without stipulations of how it is used, it was up to the people to decide how the "gift" would be used.
 For those who rant that it is the end of Democracy, I say that democracy ended a long time ago in Aberdeen when the majority vote in the original public consultation was discounted and ignored.

I thank Barney Crockett and the Labour administration in Aberdeen for standing by their election pledge to throw out the City Garden Project...I voted for you because of it!




I hope with all my heart that this is an end to it (though SIW immediately withdrew his offer of £50million then next day pledged to wait a year!) and that we can move on. The Gardens do need attention, something that has been lacking for a decade. They need restoration, better access, decent toilets but despite all those issues they are still the haven in the city centre that I go to at lunch time when I need to relax and recuperate from a stressed morning at work

The lights haven't gone out in Aberdeen....they've finally been seen!!!

Don't dream it's over

Well, THEY did it, CGP won the referendum...by a 2% majority which, by the way, is less than the majority in the original consultation two years ago which those of us who wanted to save the Gardens won by 5% and were ignored. For info on the previous consultation see here
Back then, the local paper reports "You say No to Union Terrace plans but only just"

Seems that money DOES talk...


Here's the stats:
Online votes: Retain UTG 12,274, City Garden Project 16,428;  
Telephone votes: Retain UTG: 4081, City Garden Project: 5073
Postal ballot result: Retain UTG 24,820, City Garden Project 23,800 

From the start, the CWP had the unfair advantage of being able to spend endless money  because they are a private concern and were not included in the £8,000 ceiling like the campaign groups were!!! This included non-stop radio advertising on local radio, double page adverts in local papers (papers btw which peddled out totally biased opinions and reporting in favour of the CWG), their Granite Web video in prominence in the Art Gallery during a high profile exhibition (disgusting - Council buildings should not have been allowed to be used for this and should have remained neutral), free pizzas to RGU and Aberdeen University students who came along to their presentations for a chat. How could the opposing campaign groups compete with that sort of bombardment?

I'm gutted and so very disappointed that many citizens of Aberdeen who voted for the CWG didn't take the time to find out what the "Retain" groups had to offer as an alternative to the proposed vandalism before putting their cross on the paper for the CWG. So many of them have now said that they thought it was time for a change and that the only way to improve and change the area was to vote for the Web.

I heard a DJ on the radio today comment that perhaps it was time that we left our stamp on the city for future generations just like the Victorians did. Well I agree with him to a certain extent, maybe we do want to leave our mark like they did but surely we don't have to destroy their gift to the us, the people of Aberdeen, to do it! There is an ugly building in Broad Street which is crying out to be knocked down and redeveloped...why not do it there!

So...in the words of Neil Finn - Don't dream it's over!
The battle might be won... and all that!

P.S. The majestic elm trees in Union Terrace Gardens are some of the last to be found in Northern Europe, are home to scores of crows and keep pollution from car fumes down in the city centre. They will be chopped down to be used in the pathways and roof in the Granite Web design. Please sign the petition if you care at all.

Thank you

http://www.petitiononline.co.uk/petition/save-the-200-year-old-elms-in-union-terrace-gardens-aberdeen/4168

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.