Safety is the priority in Beachfront Shoreline regeneration

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Council Co-leaders, Christian Allard and Ian Yuill have welcomed progress on the latest phase of the ambitious regeneration of the city’s beachfront shoreline which places safety and futureproofing at the forefront.

Councillors today approved report recommendations to refer the third phase to the authority’s budget setting and capital planning process and, pending the outcome of that, for the Chief Officer – Commercial and Procurement to complete and present the full business case to future committees.

Councillor Allard, said: “In addition to transforming our beachfront into a world class destination once again reconnected to the city centre, we are ensuring that we protect the area from erosion and floods for decades to come while also providing a safe swimming area for local people and visitors alike.

“We also aim to make the proposed community club house in Footdee a centre for education and awareness of water safety for swimmers and surfers.”

Co-leader Councillor Ian Yuill, said: “The effects of climate change are being felt around the globe and ensuring that we have robust coastal defences has been at the forefront of our thinking from the outset in our plans for the beachfront shoreline.”

The report highlighted the importance of coastal defences and an engineering arrangement to alter existing groynes to provide a safer opportunity for open water swimming.

Other features of the regeneration plans are a boardwalk, active travel routes, greater connectivity to the city centre via the Beach Boulevard, offering facilities for satellite facilities such as toilets, changing and shower rooms along the Esplanade and the proposed Beach Village which will also offer overnight campervan parking.

Playpark naming competition for city primary schools

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Dozens of youngsters were ‘shell-abrating’ when they helped to launch a competition for primary school classes in Aberdeen to name the new beach playpark area.

The playpark was given planning permission in December along with other amenities as part of a beach park and events park with supporting blue badge parking, as part of the City Centre and Beach Masterplan which is designed to reinvigorate the areas culturally and economically, attracting people to spend time in them.

Primary children from around the city took part in stakeholder engagement sessions last year helping to shape the new attractions and they joined together at the site at Queen’s Links beside the Beach Boulevard for the launch.

Co-Leader Councillor Christian Allard said: “It is great to see the enthusiasm today from our primary school youngsters for the new facilities at the beach and we are grateful for their input at the design stage.

“We look forward to hearing all the suggestions and officially naming the park when it is complete.”

The competition is to run from 1 February to 29 March and primary schools in the city will be directly contacted about entering. £500 worth of Collins Big Cat book vouchers donated by Hub North will be given to the class which comes up with the winning name.

This first phase of works would upgrade the green spaces which already attract visitors to the area while providing a higher quality environment and broadening the range of activities which can be enjoyed at the beach.

  • The beach park area, at the south end of the site, will focus on a variety of landscaped play and sports areas with built structures including a gateway building, a hub building, two canopies, and a play structure called The Rope Factory.
  • The car park and junction would be from Links Road and would provide dedicated blue badge parking spaces to the beach park area.
  • The events park, at the Beach Ballroom end of the site, would have several structures including a canopy and an amphitheatre building.

There will also be additional public realm and landscaping at the site which would be covered under Permitted Development.

The City Centre and Beach Masterplan is designed to capitalise on the built and natural assets of the area which is a tourism priority in its own right and will continue to be in demand as people seek safe, outdoor, wildlife, and active experiences. The beach area is also an intrinsic component of the Aberdeen Coastal Trail, and the wide variety of tourism offer that includes nature, golf, maritime history, and dolphin watching.

Details will be made public when work on the beach park, events park, and supporting blue badge parking, will begin.

Aberdeen Market Aerial View with Tennis Event Screen

Revised planning application for new Aberdeen market building approved at committee

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A revised planning application for the new Aberdeen market building which will be a destination venue featuring international-style food and drink outlets was today approved at committee.

 

The development will also improve pedestrian connectivity between Union Street and the bus and railway stations via The Green and enliven Hadden Street and Market Street with urban realm improvements in and around The Green.

 

The site is to be developed with attractive market-style floorspace to create a destination venue with marketplace elements promoting local produce and goods alongside continental-style delicatessen, cafes, and food outlets. Morrison Construction was announced as the main contractor for the site last month (October 2023).

 

Planning permission for the new venue was granted last May and revisions had been submitted, which were today approved by Aberdeen City Council’s Planning Development Management Committee.

 

Committee convener Councillor Ciaran McRae said: “It is to be welcomed the committee members agreed unanimously to the revised planning application today.

 

“The market development will create a vibrant and exciting new destination for people to visit in the city centre, as well as create an improved connection between Union Street, The Green, and the bus and train stations.”

 

The revisions to the original planning application were submitted to reflect feedback from potential operators. The revisions included:

  • External canopy to The Green removed to allow for a more flexible open events space and opening up the site and surrounding space more;
  • Planting and lighting totem features added to perimeter of the events space to define the edge of the area;
  • The former BHS space will become a covered link to the market with a designed glazed facade
  • A statement ‘floating roof’ which sits on top of the main building;
  • Lifts and escalators moved to the inside of the market hall to be fully weather protected;
  • Improved landscaping and accessibility to the Market Street entrance with external public space extended and access route improved.
  • Public art commissioned for the glazed external facades and entrance.

The design of the market building will feature a mixture of fixed indoor units of various sizes alongside space for temporary and pop-up facilities to allow for increased variety and would be flexible to seasonal requirements. There will also be the flexible-use outside space which could be used for music, watching major sporting events, or for further market space.

 

The planning application can be viewed at Simple Search (aberdeencity.gov.uk) using the reference number 230704/DPP. It should be emphasised that the designs may evolve during the planning process and consequently the artists’ impressions may change. The revised planning application will be dealt with in the usual planning process.

 

The City Council purchased the former Aberdeen Market and BHS building to create a destination venue featuring international-style food and drink outlets. The former BHS building had been vacant for approximately seven years and previously had planning consent for a major office development which has not proved to be deliverable.

 

The central section of Union Street and Aberdeen Market are critical components in the “Heart of the City” area of intervention identified in the approved City Centre Masterplan, which has the key objective to reinstate the central role of Union Street in the life of the city, establishing stronger linkages north and south and creating a destination not just for shopping but for many city activities.

 

The City Council is to receive £20million from the UK Levelling Up Fund which will be used towards the development of the new market building and nearby streetscaping.

A million Aberdeen bus passengers experience better journeys thanks to new city centre bus priority

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Almost 600,000 bus passengers a month are now experiencing better journeys because of the new bus priority routes in Aberdeen city centre.

Two months on from their introduction, new figures from First Aberdeen and Stagecoach show the bus gates are already delivering measurable benefits for bus passengers across the region. The priority works have been delivered by Aberdeen City Council, funded through the North East Bus Alliance bid to the Scottish Government’s Bus Partnership Fund (BPF).

Scottish Transport Minister, Fiona Hyslop, visited Aberdeen today to meet the North East Bus Alliance. The bus alliance partners, which include Nestrans, Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire Councils, First Aberdeen and Stagecoach Bluebird, took the opportunity to highlight to her the success of the new measures so far:

  • Almost 600,000 bus passengers a month across both First Bus and Stagecoach are benefitting from the bus priority measures;
  • Punctuality has improved, with First Bus seeing a 3% improvement and reaching 95% of their services using the new bus priority measures operating on time;
  • More Stagecoach services are also now running on time within the city centre, with an improvement to departures from Union Square Bus Station where many journeys to Aberdeenshire start and terminate. Services such as the popular 727 route to P&J Live and Aberdeen Airport, have also seen punctuality improve by up to 3% since the measures were introduced, to a high of over 95%;
  • First Bus has since launched a special 50% off ticket offer to complement and support the priority measures and to encourage more people to use the bus and benefit from the improvements;
  • Both major bus operators are now gathering data on these improvement in order to support future enhancements to services such as faster journey times and potential increases to services frequencies;
  • By stopping buses being held up unnecessarily in city centre traffic, bus journey times can be quicker and more predictable. This will have a significant impact on the daily lives of bus commuters and thousands of bus passengers across the north east who make journeys into Aberdeen. With this increased efficiency, operators hope to enable additional services, improving overall service frequency and reliability.

Robert Andrew, chair of the North East Bus Alliance said: “Over a million  bus passengers have experienced real benefits since the new bus priority route was implemented two months ago, endorsing this first stage of our ambitions to regenerate and transform public transport provision in the North East.

“It is great to see that the city centre bus priority is already making an impact. Looking ahead, the delivery of these early measures is key to improving public transport provision and the future success of an Aberdeen Rapid Transit system, which will connect key destinations across the region.

“Our successful bids to the Bus Partnership Fund have been instrumental in enabling these works. I am delighted that we’ve been able to welcome the transport minister and demonstrate the success so far. As an alliance, we are working closely with Transport Scotland to discuss future opportunities to maximise further investment, and improvements, through the BPF.”

Transport Minister Fiona Hyslop said: “I’m really pleased to see first-hand how the bus gates in Aberdeen City Centre are already delivering for the millions of bus passengers that travel through the city every year. I also welcome the wider work underway with the North East Bus Alliance to encourage more bus use, including the ongoing work on Aberdeen Rapid Transit (ART), the national importance of which is recognised in our National Planning Framework and second Strategic Transport Projects Review.

“ART will provide an attractive and transformative public transport offer to people in the North East, supporting the wider investment that the Scottish Government is making in the area.

“Investing in our public transport and infrastructure is crucial to achieving our world leading commitment to reduce car kilometres by 20% by 2030. I look forward to seeing similar transformational investment right across the country through our Bus Partnership Fund.”

Enabling sustainable and active travel is one of the goals of the City Centre and Beach Front Masterplan.

Aberdeen City Council Co Leader Councillor Ian Yuill said: “The new road layout is designed to both help improve bus service reliability and reduce travel times for buses in the city centre. This will be a boost to bus passengers travelling within the city and from further afield.”

Aberdeen City Council Co Leader Councillor Christian Allard said: “The new road layouts will help to reduce travel times for buses in the city centre which will in turn encourage more people to use buses or walk, cycle or wheel to their destinations.

“As part of Aberdeen City Council’s Roads Hierarchy which is changing access to and around the city after the bypass (AWPR) was built, the new road layouts will have an important role in providing a key route to the city centre as well as facilitating the nearby bus priority measures.”

 

Left to right in photo are:

Graeme Macfarlan, Commercial Director for First Bus in Scotland,

Aberdeen City Council Co-Leader Councillor Ian Yuill,

Greig Mackay, Bus User UK

Transport Minister Fiona Hyslop,

Rab Dickson, Director at Nestrans

Aberdeen City Council Co-Leader Councillor Christian Allard,

Daniel Spencer, Project manager Transport Scotland,

David Beaton, managing director of Stagecoach Bluebird.

News Article image

Preferred operator for new market site announced

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Preferred operator for new market site announced

A local award-winning hospitality group was today announced as the preferred operator for the new multi-million-pound Aberdeen market development.

Aberdeen City Council has agreed heads of terms with The McGinty’s Group, which is behind some of the Granite City’s most loved venues such as The Silver Darling, The Grill and Under The Hammer, for the site which is to be a destination venue featuring international-style food, drink, and a retail market.

The local company – which was chosen after an open selection process – plans to work alongside some of the region’s best up-and-coming producers in order to deliver a world-class attraction for the North East.

The development will also improve pedestrian connectivity between Union Street and the bus and railway stations via The Green and enliven Hadden Street and Market Street with urban realm improvements in and around The Green.

The site is to be developed with attractive market-style floorspace to create a destination venue with marketplace elements promoting local produce and goods alongside continental-style delicatessen, cafes, and food outlets.

The design will feature a mixture of small retail units alongside space for temporary and pop-up facilities to allow for increased variety and would be flexible to seasonal requirements. There would also be a flexible-use outside space on the Green which could be used for events or pop-up market space.

Cllr Alex McLellan, Convener of the Finance and Resources Committee at Aberdeen City Council, said: “The market development will create a vibrant and exciting new destination for people to visit in the city centre, as well as create an improved connection between Union Street and the bus and train stations.

“I am pleased we have secured a local operator who has expertise in the hospitality industry, who will deliver a range of food and drink outlets, providing a boost to the local economy.”

Cllr Ian Yuill, Co-leader of Aberdeen City Council, said: “It is great to see a local business taking on the operating of the new market. The new market will be a real attraction for our city centre as well as improving pedestrian links between Union Street, the Green and beyond.

“The McGinty Group runs some of the city’s most well-known hospitality venues. I look forward to seeing the detailed designs for the interior of the market.”

Allan Henderson, of The McGinty’s Group, said: “We are delighted to be working with Aberdeen City Council on what is  a key development for the city centre. As a long-term advocate for the City Centre Masterplan, I am thrilled to see this project come to fruition. We have proven throughout the bidding process that our passion for the city and expertise in the hospitality industry is unmatched.

“The key purpose of the market is to drive economic activity and footfall in the city centre. It is likely that the new market will employ up to 200 people. As a proud Aberdonian, I am very excited The McGinty’s Group will play its part in this project that will transform the city.

Martin Widerlechner, of The McGinty’s Group, said: “We will offer our local experience and provide springboard opportunities to small businesses. Whether it is food operators, traders or creatives , we hope to showcase the best North East has to offer while offering affordable spaces and mentorship.”

Demolition work has taken place on the former BHS building and legal work is continuing in preparation for the next stage of the works. A revised planning application for the new market has been submitted. The former BHS building had been vacant for approximately seven years before it was bought by the City Council.

The central section of Union Street and Aberdeen market building are critical components in the Heart of the City area of intervention identified in the City Centre Masterplan, which has the key objective to reinstate the central role of Union Street in the life of the city, establishing stronger linkages north and south and creating a destination not just for shopping but for many city activities.

The City Council is to receive £20million from the UK Levelling Up Fund which will be used towards the development of the new market building and nearby streetscaping.

 

L-R Allan Henderson, director of The McGinty’s Group, Councillor Ian Yuill, Councillor Alex McLellan, Martin Widerlechner, Marketing & Sales Manager.