Agenda, decisions and minutes

The persons undermentioned were admitted into the presence of the Council and passed as Burgesses of Guild in respect of their respective Acts of Admission in the Guild Burgess Book:-

Abhishek Agarwal, Associate Professor, Aberdeen

Roy Burnett, Retired Managing Director, Aberdeen

Anne Milne, Administrator, Aberdeen

Jonathan Tyler, University Lecturer, Aberdeen

William Wright, Communications Worker, Aberdeen

The Council was requested to determine that the following items of business, which contained exempt information as described in Schedule 7(A) of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973, be taken in private:-

          11.1    City Centre Masterplan Update - exempt appendix

          11.2    Beachfront Masterplan Update - exempt appendix

The Council resolved:-

in terms of Section 50A(4) of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973, to exclude the press and public from the meeting during consideration of items 11.1 and 11.2 so as to avoid disclosure of exempt information of the classes described in paragraphs 6 and 9 of Schedule 7A of the Act.

Councillor Copland advised that he had a connection in relation to agenda item 7.1 (Urgent Notice of Motion by Councillor Houghton) by virtue of his employer Jackie Dunbar MSP having signed a letter on the matter, however having applied the objective test he did not consider that he had an interest and would not be withdrawing from the meeting.

Councillor Houghton advised that he had a connection in relation to agenda item 10.3 (Notice of Motion by Councillors Cooke and Houghton) by virtue of being a veteran of the Royal Air Force, however having applied the objective test he did not consider that he had an interest and would not be withdrawing from the meeting.

Councillor Allard advised that he had a connection in relation to agenda item 7.1 by virtue of his employer Stephen Flynn MP having signed a letter on the matter, however having applied the objective test he did not consider that he had an interest and would not be withdrawing from the meeting.

Councillor Radley advised that she had a connection in relation to agenda item 7.1 by virtue of her employer Jackie Dunbar MSP having signed a letter on the matter, however having applied the objective test, she did not consider that she had an interest and would not be withdrawing from the meeting.

Councillor Nicoll advised that he had a connection in relation to agenda item 7.1 by virtue of his wife, Audrey Nicoll MSP, having signed a letter on the matter, however having applied the objective test he did not consider that he had an interest and would not be withdrawing from the meeting.

Councillor Nicoll advised that he had a connection in relation to agenda items 9.1 (Appointments to Outside Bodies and Appointment of Conveners and Vice Conveners) and 10.3 by reason of having a close family member who served in the Armed Forces, however having applied the objective test he did not consider that he had an interest and would not be withdrawing from the meeting.

Councillor Nicoll advised that he had a connection in relation to agenda item 9.8 (Piper Alpha Memorial) having been involved in the Piper Alpha Inquiry and the recovery, identification and repatriation of the victims, however having applied the objective test he did not consider that he had an interest and would not be withdrawing from the meeting.

Councillor Henrickson advised that he had a connection in relation to agenda item 9.5 (Beachfront Masterplan Update) by virtue of being a minor shareholder in Aberdeen Football Club, however having applied the objective test he did not consider that he had an interest and would not be withdrawing from the meeting.

Councillor Fairfull advised that she had a connection in relation to agenda item 7.1 by virtue of her employer Stephen Flynn MP having signed a letter on the matter, however having applied the objective test she did not consider that she had an interest and would not be withdrawing from the meeting.

Councillor McLellan advised that he  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.

1)             Mr Hussein Patwa

The action I wish the Council to take:

Reject the recommendations of officers and further investigate Option 3 to ensure disabled, elderly and vulnerable people can access the area, taking due regard of the evidence base provided as part of previous discussions with officers and consultants and attached to the written submission

2)             Mr Richard Tinto

The action I wish the Council to take:

Mandate the full pedestrianisation of the central section of Union Street

The Council was advised that deputation requests had been received from Mr Hussein Patwa and Mr Richard Tinto in relation to agenda item 9.4 (City Centre Masterplan Update).

The Council resolved:-

to hear the deputations immediately prior to consideration of the report, which would be taken as the next item of business.

In accordance with Article 3 of this minute, Councillor Grant left the meeting prior to the following item of business.

(A)      The Council received a deputation from Mr Hussein Patwa which was in the following terms:-

“My name is Hussein Patwa, a subject matter specialist appointed by the Disability Equity Partnership, a former Scottish Government appointee to the Mobility & Access Committee for Scotland (MACS) and a self-employed accessibility consultant.

I am here today to present a deputation on behalf of Katrina Michie (Acting Chair) of the Disability Equity Partnership and its external members (hereinafter referred to as ‘the parties’), and I thank you for the opportunity to do so.

This deputation covers the future of our City Centre and in particular the discrimination, exclusion, and resulting hardship which will be faced by disabled people if the recommendations in the report are accepted.  May I reiterate something which I said at a previous deputation, disabled people, those with reduced mobility and others are not against change, or the idea of progress.  We only ask that these changes, and ideas for progress are inclusive, that our needs are taken into account, that they are responded to by incorporation into the design and as part of an iterative process without unduly disenfranchising whole sections of our society, now and over the long term.

The report being presented to you today, and its numerous appendices may be within the letter of the Council instruction given in February but it isn’t in the spirit of that instruction.  Nor indeed does DEP feel that the engagement was carried out in good faith.  There have been a great many meetings, but at no time was the intention of officers made clear, DEP was kept under the impression that their concerns would be valued and addressed and that the process and options were open to change.  This was clearly never the case and the original option preferred by the previous administration was always going to be presented as the best deal for the city.  DEP would argue that this is not the case for the reasons contained in the documentation which has been provided to Council along with this deputation.

From the “sifted” options, options 1 and 4 were never going to be viable options as one was no change with a bit of a tidy up and the other would make the usability for all worse than doing nothing, which begs the question why were they presented to us for discussion?  All that remained was option 2 which is incorrectly being called pedestrianisation and option 3 which has buses, taxis and private hire vehicles operating in the central section.

As stated in the report, option 3 is the only option which is acceptable to DEP and NESS as it is the only one which affords anything close to equality of access to the city centre for disabled  and elderly people.  Option 3 causes no material harm to the general public, unlike option 2 which causes great harm to our most vulnerable and marginalised citizens.

There are overarching themes which must be  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

The Council had before it the minute of meeting of Aberdeen City Council of 28 February 2022.

The Council resolved:-

to approve the minute.

The Council had before it the minute of meeting of Aberdeen City Council of 7 March 2022.

The Council resolved:-

to approve the minute.

The Council had before it the minute of meeting of Aberdeen City Council of 18 May 2022.

The Council resolved:-

to approve the minute.

With reference to Article 2 of the minute of meeting of the City Growth and Resources Committee of 21 June 2022, the Council had before it the following urgent notice of motion by Councillor Houghton which had been referred to it for consideration:-

“That the Committee -

1.    Notes the announcement of the Eurovision Broadcasting Union that the organisation is considering the United Kingdom as the host of Eurovision 2023 should Ukraine be unable to host the competition due to the unacceptable Russian aggression against Ukraine. 

2.    Notes the awarding decision will be made by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) should Ukraine be unable to host the competition. 

3.    Agrees the Event Complex Aberdeen opened in 2019 is the largest capacity venue in Scotland and is well suited to host the event. 

4.    Notes Aberdeen’s success in hosting previous significant cultural events such as the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Awards. 

5.    Notes the significant interest shown by politicians of all political parties in hosting this event in Scotland, agreeing that Aberdeen is without doubt the best place to hold such a European event given Aberdeen remains the Energy Capital of Europe. 

6.    Instructs the Chief Officer - City Growth to engage with all relevant stakeholders including the BBC, UK government, the devolved Scottish Government and others to ensure a bid from Aberdeen is advanced quickly and efficiently should it become clear Ukraine are unable to host the competition. 

7.    Agrees to allocate £30,000 from contingencies to support a bid from Aberdeen and instruct the Chief Executive to write to both the UK and Scottish Government notifying them of Aberdeen’s intention and asking for their support. 

8.    Instructs the Chief Officer - City Growth to bring a report back on progress to the next meeting of this Committee.”

The Council received a verbal update from the Chief Officer - City Growth in terms of the latest situation and the likely process that would follow.

The Council resolved:-

(i)             to note the announcement of the Eurovision Broadcasting Union that the organisation was considering the United Kingdom as the host of Eurovision 2023 should Ukraine be unable to host the competition due to the unacceptable Russian aggression against Ukraine;

(ii)           to note the awarding decision would be made by the BBC should Ukraine be unable to host the competition;

(iii)          to agree The Event Complex Aberdeen opened in 2019 was the largest capacity venue in Scotland and was well suited to host the event;

(iv)          to note Aberdeen’s success in hosting previous significant cultural events such as the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Awards;

(v)           to note the significant interest shown by politicians of all political parties in hosting this event in Scotland, agreeing that Aberdeen was without doubt the best place to hold such a European event given Aberdeen remained the Energy Capital of Europe;

(vi)          to agree that the Chief Officer - City Growth continue discussions with the relevant venue operator and government agencies; and

(vii)        to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.

The Council had before it the business planner as prepared by the Chief Officer - Governance.

The Council resolved:-

to note the business planner.

The Council had before it a report by the Chief Officer - Governance which sought appointments or nominations to various outside bodies; sought appointments for Convener and Vice Convener of the Urgent Business Committee; and noted the appointments of the Convener and Vice Convener of the Audit, Risk and Scrutiny Committee.

The report recommended:-

that the Council -

(a)           appoint a Convener and Vice Convener of the Urgent Business Committee;

(b)           note the appointment of Councillors Macdonald and Houghton as Convener and Vice Convener respectively of the Audit, Risk and Scrutiny Committee, and agree that their remuneration as Senior Councillors be backdated to 18 May 2022;

(c)           consider the appointment or nomination (as appropriate) of members to the outside bodies listed in Appendix A, and appoint or nominate members on the basis that names can be provided to the Chief Officer - Governance after the meeting and that he be authorised to finalise the appointments, nominations and memberships where required; and

(d)           note that Robert Gordon’s College Board of Governors and Enterprise North East Trust Limited (trading as Elevator) no longer require elected member representation from Aberdeen City Council.

Councillor Yuill moved, seconded by Councillor Allard:-

          That the Council -

(i)         agree to appoint Councillors Yuill and Nicoll as Convener and Vice Convener respectively of the Urgent Business Committee;

(ii)        note the appointment of Councillors Macdonald and Houghton as Convener and Vice Convener respectively of the Audit, Risk and Scrutiny Committee, and agree that their remuneration as Senior Councillors be backdated to 18 May 2022;

(iii)       agree the appointments and nominations listed in Appendix A and invite groups to provide names to the Chief Officer - Governance after the meeting and that he be authorised to finalise the appointments, nominations and memberships where required;

(iv)      note that Robert Gordon’s College Board of Governors and Enterprise North East Trust Limited (trading as Elevator) no longer require elected member representation from Aberdeen City Council;

(v)        agree to appoint Councillor McLellan as this Council’s representative on the Scottish Joint Council for Local Government Employees;

(vi)      agree to appoint the following Council Spokespersons:

a.          Anti Poverty: Councillor Allard

b.          City Centre: Councillor Hutchison

c.          Culture: Councillor Greig

d.          Inward Migration: Councillor Allard

e.          Mental Health: Councillor Al-Samarai;

(vii)     agree to appoint the following Council Champions:

a.          Disability: Councillor Delaney

b.          Veterans: the Lord Provost; and

(viii)    agree to appoint Councillors Yuill and Hutchison as this Council’s representatives on the Northern Roads Partnership and Councillor Radley and one nominee of the Labour Group as substitute members of the Northern Roads Partnership.

Appendix A

The Council had before it a report by the Chief Officer - Governance which presented the written decision made by the Standards Commission for Scotland following a hearing held on 7 June 2022.

The report recommended:-

that the Council -

(a)           consider the content of the written decision; and

(b)           note that the Standards Commission for Scotland held that there had been no breach of the Code of Conduct by Councillor Hutchison.

The Council resolved:-

(i)             to note the content of the written decision; and

(ii)           to note that the Standards Commission for Scotland held that there had been no breach of the Code of Conduct by Councillor Hutchison.

The Council had before it a report by the Chief Officer - Finance which provided an update on Treasury Management activities undertaken during financial year 2021/22.

The report recommended:-

that the Council consider and note the Treasury Management activities undertaken in the 2021/22 financial year as detailed in the report.

The Council resolved:-

to note the Treasury Management activities undertaken in the2021/22 financial year as detailed in this report.

With reference to Article 17 of the minute of its meeting of 28 February 2022, the Council had before it a report by the Chief Officer - Commercial and Procurement which provided the background to the Beachfront Masterplan and updates on the preparation of a Beachfront Development Framework as well as a number of key projects which were progressing to either Outline Business Case (OBC) or Full Business Case (FBC).

The report recommended:-

that the Council -

(a)           approve the content of the Draft Beachfront Development Framework and Executive Summary (Appendix A and Appendix B);

(b)           note the content of the Draft Beachfront Strategic Environmental Assessment Scoping Report (Appendix C) and recognise that an Environmental Report would be prepared to accompany the Development Framework;

(c)           instruct the Chief Officer - Strategic Place Planning to publish the Draft Beachfront Development Framework and associated Strategic Environmental Assessment for a 6-week public consultation period;

(d)           instruct the Chief Officer - Strategic Place Planning to report the outcomes of the public consultation on the Draft Development Framework back to a future meeting within the next 6 months, including any recommended revisions to the Draft Framework; 

(e)           instruct the Chief Officer - Commercial and Procurement to continue to progress the following short term interventions to FBC: Urban Park, Events Park, Beach Landscaping, Broadhill (Public Realm and Landscaping) and report progress to December 2022 Council;

(f)            instruct the Chief Officer - Commercial and Procurement to continue to progress the following medium term interventions to OBC: New Canopy, Beach Ballroom Plaza, Broadhill structures, Pedestrian spine and report progress to December 2022 Council;

(g)           instruct the Chief Officer - Commercial and Procurement to provide further updates on all longer term interventions to OBC: Beach Boulevard, Surf Village, Beach Ballroom, New Stadium, New Leisure Facility, Boardwalk, New Slipway, Energy Centre, Justice Street Roundabout and report progress to December 2022 Council;

(h)           instruct the Chief Officer - Commercial and Procurement in conjunction with Chief Officer - Operations and Protective Services to progress coastal protection studies and design development to inform OBC and report progress to December 2022 Council; and

(i)             note the development of the engagement plan and instruct the Chief Officer - Commercial and Procurement to report updates on an ongoing basis to the Council.

The Council resolved:-

to approve the recommendations.

The Council had before it a report by the Chief Officer - Early Intervention and Community Empowerment which sought approval of a scheme to deliver the £1,000,000 Aberdeen Fuel Poverty Fund and proposed that the fund be used for wider anti-poverty measures in the city.

The report recommended:-

that the Council approve that the £1,000,000 Fuel Poverty Fund be considered in the wider Cost of Living Support due to be heard at the Operational Delivery Committee on 31 August 2022.

Following questions to officers, the circulation of an amendment by Councillor Houghton and a short adjournment, the Lord Provost, in terms of Standing Order 36.6, indicated that he was adjourning the meeting to a later date which would be confirmed and notified to members in due course.