Agenda item

With reference to article 10 of the minute of the previous meeting of 3 February 2021, the Committee had before it a report by the Director of Resources which provided information on what could be prioritised within the City Centre Master Plan (CCMP) in the short term to support initial economic recovery within the city, and then set out actions to progress in the medium and long term which would ensure the CCMP contributed to the medium and long term recovery and growth.

The report recommended:-

that the Committee –

(a)      approve the proposed objectives for the CCMP review set out in paragraph 3.5 of the report, noting that COVID-19 has exacerbated some existing structural changes and there are some emerging structural changes also taking place;

(b)      approve the proposed work plan set out in Appendix 1 which informs the review of the CCMP over the short (year 1), medium (years 2-4) and long term(year 5+);

(c)      instruct the Chief Officer (Corporate Landlord) to support the city’s short-term economic recovery from Covid-19, by facilitating the re-opening of existing CCMP projects, in line with Scottish Government guidance; and to prioritise non-capital works across the Council’s building stock in order to increase aggregate demand in the local economy;

(d)      instruct the Director of Resources to develop design works for current City Centre interventions on Union Street, West End, George Street and Schoolhill and report outcomes to the City Growth and Resources Committee in August2021;

(e)      instruct the Chief Officer (Capital) to support the City’s short term economic recovery from Covid-19 , by accelerating, where possible, the completion and opening of CCMP projects under construction within the next 12 months ensuring a focus on the realisation of the Council’s community benefit policy;

(f)       note that the Chief Officer (Operations) has already received an instruction to prioritise road maintenance work programmes with the aim of increasing aggregate demand in the local economy;

(g)      note that the Council’s sport and culture ALEOs and Joint Ventures (Sport Aberdeen, Aberdeen Sports Village and Aberdeen Performing Arts) will be re-opening a range of sport and cultural facilities in line with Scottish Government guidance; and that ambitions are for these attractions to be available to support this year’s “staycation” market to the city as uncertainty remains around overseas travel;

(h)      instruct the Chief Officer (Governance), in conjunction with Chief Officers (Strategic Place Planning) and (City Growth), to undertake a review and evaluation of all existing powers available to Council in order to drive the return of footfall to the city centre and incentivise city centre living;

(i)       note that the Council will participate in the Scottish Government’s cities recovery taskforce via Cllr Laing, as the Council’s member in the Scottish Cities Alliance, and that the outcome of the Chief Officers’ review and evaluation of existing powers referred to in (h) will be discussed with the taskforce;

(j)       note that the Chief Officer (City Growth) will continue to review the economic trends over the course of the next 6 months as part of Invest Aberdeen’s “North East Performs”, and to report back to this committee if further medium-term stimulus is required in response to the analysis of economic impact of covid-19 on the city;

(k)      instruct the Director of Resources to develop and undertake engagement exercise with the public, all appropriate partners and stakeholders to seek their views on the City Centre Review, what it would take to attract them back to the city centre in the short-term, how the changed travel patterns and reductions in travel experienced throughout the pandemic can be embedded and report the results to the City Growth & Resources Committee in August 2021;

(l)       note that the workplan proposes that the Chief Officer (Strategic Place Planning) use the opportunity of the CCMP Review to ensure it considers environmental intervention into our medium-term plans for the CCMP, given the scale of transition required to achieve net zero by 2045;

(m)     instruct the Chief Officer (City Growth) to ensure that the CCMP also plays apart in ensuring a “just transition”, as envisaged by the final report from Scottish Government’s Just Transition Commission;

(n)      instruct Chief Officer (Digital and Technology) to use the CCMP Review to integrate further “smart city thinking” into our medium-terms plans for the CCMP, as part of positioning the city as a leader in the knowledge and digital economy;

(o)      instruct the Director of Resources to use the CCMP review to consider the possibility, post pandemic, of a more fundamental change to how the Aberdeen City Centre operates in the future, be it in response to a seismic permanent rise in home-working and shift to on-line retail or changes to business and consumer confidence on how we approach our leisure time;

(p)      instruct the Chief Officers (Strategic Place Planning) and (City Growth) to use the CCMP review and the Local Development Plan to ensure that the ambition to secure economic growth by attracting businesses operating in energy transition or low carbon sectors to the city is realised;

(q)      note that Chief Officer (Strategic Place Planning) will ensure that changing needs of the city are reflected within future iterations of the regional and city spatial and land use plans;

Funding

(r)       instruct the Director of Resources in consultation with the Convener of City Growth & Resources Committee and Chief Officer (City Growth) to develop bids for potential submission to the following UK and Scottish Government programmes (with deadlines as noted below):

·      Scottish Government Placed Based programme (17 June 2021);

·      UK Government Levelling Up Fund (18 June 2021);

·      UK Government Community Renewal Fund (18 June 2021);

·      Scottish Government Green Growth Accelerator Pathfinder (date to be confirmed); and

·      Shared Prosperity Fund (date to be confirmed).

The Committee resolved:-

(i)       to approve recommendations (a) to (m) and (o) and (q);

(ii)       to instruct the Director of Resources to carry out a review of the Aberdeen City Centre Master plan Objectives and their associated workstreams as contained within the 2015 approved Masterplan and to report back findings to the City Growth and Resources Committee on 10 August 2021 and also to report back on the Phase 1 and 2 projects contained within the city centre masterplan as approved in 2015;

(iii)       to instruct the Chief Officer - City Growth and the Communication and Marketing Manager to use the CCMP Review to integrate further “smart city thinking” into our medium-term plans to develop and undertake engagement exercise with the public, all appropriate partners and stakeholders to seek their views on the City Centre Review, what it would take to attract them back to the city centre in the short-term, how the changed travel patterns and reductions in travel experienced throughout the pandemic can be embedded and report the results to the City Growth & Resources Committee in August 2021, as part of the CCMP report detailing how best the city can be a leader in the digital economy;

(iv)      to instruct Chief Officer - City Growth to use the CCMP review and the Local Development Plan to ensure that the ambition to secure sustainable inclusive economic growth by attracting businesses operating in energy transition or low carbon sectors to the city is realised;

(v)      to instruct the Director of Resources in consultation with the Convener and Vice Convener of City Growth & Resources Committee and Convener of the Capital Programme Committee and the Chief Officer (City Growth) to develop bids for potential submission to the following UK and Scottish Government programmes (with deadlines as noted below):-

·            Scottish Government Placed Based programme (17 June 2021);

·            UK Government Levelling Up Fund (18 June 2021);

·            UK Government Community Renewal Fund (18 June 2021);

·            Scottish Government Green Growth Accelerator Pathfinder (date to be confirmed); and

·            UK Shared Prosperity Fund (date to be confirmed);

(vi)      to agree the Aberdeen City Centre Master Plan is a regeneration blue print that is transforming the City Centre while conserving its proud heritage;

(vii)     to agree the Aberdeen CCMP was shaped following an extensive public consultation and was unanimously approved at Full Council in June 2015;

(viii)    notwithstanding any decision taken by Committee in respect of item 12.2 on the agenda, agrees to instruct the Director of Resources to carry out a review and visioning exercise on the streetscape and infrastructure works for the whole length of Union Street and to report back the outcomes to the August 2021 Committee; and

(ix)      to instruct the Chief Officer - Strategic Place Planning to review the City Centre Living Strategy and informed by the CCMP review bring forward Aberdeen Planning Guidance to support the City Centre in line with the Local Development Plan.