Issue - meetings

(i)       to note that the review of the City Centre Masterplan 2015 is not an exercise to replace or supersede the CCMP, but rather look at a number of priority intervention areas, within scope;

(ii)       to approve the City Centre Masterplan 2015 Review and project recommendations as detailed in Appendix A Section 3 and acknowledge the projects that have been completed since the approval of the CCMP in 2015, that a number of others are well underway, and that others are not within the control of Aberdeen City Council at this time and require partnership working with other stakeholders;

(iii)      to note the high level of response to the recent public engagement exercise on the future of the City Centre, the priority projects which scored the highest as part of this exercise, and the responses received on what it would take to attract people back into the City Centre in the short-term (Appendix A Section 2) and instruct the Director of Resources to publish the results online;

(iv)      to note the indicative visioning exercise for current City Centre interventions areas on Union Street, the West End, Castlegate, and Schoolhill/Upperkirkgate and instruct the Director of Resources to develop these indicative works to detailed design stage including costing, delivery timelines and consultation with key stakeholders, residents and traders in the area for:

(1)    Redesign of Union Street Central streetscape, complete with consideration of the associated changes to the surrounding transport network to facilitate the project as envisaged in Appendix A section12;

(2)    Union Street West and West End as envisaged in Appendix A section 12;

(3)    Union Street East and Castlegate (linked to accessibility studies and design work for the Beach Masterplan) as envisaged in Appendix A section 12;

(4)    Schoolhill and Upperkirkgate as envisaged in Appendix A section 12; and

(5)    Undertake key stakeholder engagement to inform the design for each of the above projects, and report progress to the City Growth and Resources Committee on 3 November 2021;

(v)      to agree that George Street be subject to its own public engagement exercise, and instruct the Director of Commissioning to report back progress to the City Growth and Resources Committee in November 2021;

(vi)      Agrees that in light of the instruction to proceed with detailed design for the redesign of Union Street Central streetscape, to support businesses as we emerge out of the pandemic and noting correspondence from the Scottish Government (dated 15 July 2021) in respect of continuation of special measures to enable the erection of temporary buildings by the hospitality sector, and that guidance on such has been extended to 31 March 2022, instruct the Chief Officers of Capital and Operations and Protective Services to:

(1)    Maintain current arrangements for the approval of temporary outdoor trading proposals until 23:59 on 24 January 2022;

(2)    Reopen Bon Accord Street after the current extension of outdoor seating lapses at the end of January 2022, subject to ongoing considerations regarding the programme of works surrounding South College Street which require earlier reopening;  ...  view the full decision text for item 14

With reference to article 15 of the minute of meeting of 15 May 2021, the Committee had before it a report by the Director of Resources which presented an update on progress of the 2015 City Centre Masterplan (CCMP) review and provided recommendations on what could be prioritised in the short term to support initial economic recovery within the City.

The report recommended:-

that the Committee –

(a)      note that the review of the City Centre Masterplan 2015 is not an exercise to replace or supersede the CCMP, but rather look at a number of priority intervention areas, within scope;

(b)      approve the City Centre Masterplan 2015 Review and project recommendations as detailed in Appendix A Section 3 and acknowledge the projects that have been completed since the approval of the CCMP in 2015, that a number of others are well underway, and that others are not within the control of Aberdeen City Council at this time and require partnership working with other stakeholders;

(c)      note the high level of response to the recent public engagement exercise on the future of the City Centre, the priority projects which scored the highest aspart of this exercise, and the responses received on what it would take toattract people back into the City Centre in the short-term (Appendix A Section 2) and instruct the Director of Resources to publish the results online;

(d)      note the indicative visioning exercise for current City Centre interventions areas on Union Street, the West End, Castlegate, and Schoolhill/Upperkirkgate and instruct the Director of Resources to develop these indicative works to detailed design stage including costing, delivery timelines and consultation with key stakeholders, residents and traders in the area for:

(1)    Redesign of Union Street Central streetscape, complete with consideration of the associated changes to the surrounding transport network to facilitate the project as envisaged in Appendix A section12;

(2)    Union Street West and West End as envisaged in Appendix A section 12;

(3)    Union Street East and Castlegate (linked to accessibility studies and design work for the Beach Masterplan) as envisaged in Appendix A section 12;

(4)    Schoolhill and Upperkirkgate as envisaged in Appendix A section 12;

(5)    Undertake key stakeholder engagement to inform the design for each of the above projects and report progress to the City Growth and Resources Committee on 3 November 2021;

(e)      agree that George Street be subject to its own public engagement exercise, and instruct the Director of Commissioning to report back progress to the City Growth and Resources Committee in November 2021;

(f)       in light of the instruction to proceed with detailed design for the redesign of Union Street Central streetscape, to support businesses as we emerge out of the pandemic and noting correspondence from the Scottish Government (dated 15 July 2021) in respect of continuation of special measures to enable the erection of temporary buildings by the hospitality sector, and that guidance on such has been extended to 31 March 2022, instruct the Chief Officers of Capital and Operations and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 14