Agenda item

With reference to Article 5 of the minute of its meeting of 29 June 2022, the Council had before it a report by the Director of Resources which brought together a number of different workstreams and presented a recalibrated, place-led, masterplan report for both the City Centre and the Beach.

The report recommended:-

that the Council -

City Centre and Beach Masterplan

(a)          note the progress made on the City Centre Recovery Workplan and how this work had, and would continue, to inform the review of the City Centre Masterplan over the short, medium and longer term (Appendix 1);

(b)          approve the City Centre and Beach Masterplan 2022 (Appendix 2), noting that it was a live document and instruct the Chief Officer - Strategic Place Planning to keep the report under review, with progress reported to Full Council after 12 months;

(c)          note that £12,030,000 had been granted by Transport Scotland to Aberdeen City Council to work with partners in the North East Bus Alliance to develop and deliver bus priority interventions (Bus Partnership fund); and that this programme included a specific package for City Centre interventions;

(d)          note that, to address specific issues around vacant buildings, aspects of Empty Property Relief would be devolved to local authorities on 1 April 2023, allowing local authorities to make decisions based on their own local needs;

(e)          note that on 26 May 2022, the Planning Development Management Committee approved an extension of the Affordable Housing Waiver mentioned in Section 4.8 of the City Centre and Beach Masterplan 2022 (Appendix 2) until September 2022 and agree to further extend the Waiver until 31 December 2025;

(f)           note the progress and update in the City Centre and Beach Masterplan 2022 (Appendix 2) in relation to the Union Street building works programme, and the focus on the pilot project between 107-131 Union Street and note that a further update would be reported to the Full Council meeting in December 2022;

Market Streetscape

(g)          note the progress made on design development for Phases 1 and 2 of the Market Streetscape area (Appendix 4) and instruct the Director of Resources to prepare a Full Business Case to be reported back to Full Council by the end of 2022;

(h)          note the engagement that had taken place on the Market Streetscape proposals to date (Appendix 5) and note that the Director of Resources would continue to engage key stakeholders as designs for this area developed; and

Spaces for People

(i)            agree that a question on the temporary Spaces for People measures at the Beach be included in the upcoming public consultation exercise on the Draft Beach Development Framework and report a recommendation on the future of these measures to Full Council in December 2022.

The Council resolved:-

(i)            to approve the recommendations;

(ii)          to instruct the Chief Officer - Commercial and Procurement to proceed to consult on the Beach Masterplan based on the existing red line boundary;

(iii)         to note that the revised Beach Masterplan Area included the Footdee Conservation Area and the area north to the river Don;

(iv)         to agree that any new development associated with the beach masterplan should seek to enhance the setting of the historic settlement of Footdee and protect the valuable natural habitat and open space;

(v)          to instruct officers to explore opportunities as part of a Phase 2 of the Beach Masterplan to improve active travel and public transport connectivity between Footdee, and other parts of Aberdeen, and to consult on this at a later date as may be necessary; and

(vi)         to agree that this Council has no intention to purchase the Trinity Centre at this time.