Aberdeen's sweet dreams aren't made of this

POP legend Annie Lennox has joined the growing furore over plans for a new civic square in Aberdeen – the city where she was born.

She attacked proposals to create a 140 million street-level square above the site of the Union Terrace Gardens as "idiocy and madness".

The former Eurythmics star wrote in her MySpace blog: "For me, Union Terrace Gardens was, and still is, the green historical heart of the city."

"Like so many towns and cities, Aberdeen lost a great deal of its architectural heritage and charm through destruction by bulldozer and concrete. It made me sad then, and it still makes me sad.

"I hoped that this kind of 'vandalism' had peaked in the 60s and 70s, but for Aberdeen it seems to be back with vengeance. What idiocy and madness."

Lennox left Aberdeen at 17 to study at the Royal Academy of Music in London, which she quit to find fame first as lead singer with the Tourists before forming Eurythmics with Dave Stewart.

She added: "I've been based in London since 1971, so I guess that kind of counts my voice out. But, to the citizens of Aberdeen I would say this – are you going to sit back and do nothing while its beautiful historic centre gets ripped out and concreted over?"

Her intervention was yesterday welcomed by opponents of the scheme, including Aberdeen-based Peacock Visual Arts, which has secured planning approval to build a new contemporary arts centre at the Rosemount Viaduct end of Union Terrace Gardens.

Elly Rothnie, campaign director for Peacock, said:

"Despite being a major international star Annie's views still seem to reflect those of her fellow citizens of Aberdeen who are inundating us daily with messages of concern."

The concept of creating a civic square above Union Terrace Gardens was first championed by oil tycoon Sir Ian Wood.

Sir Ian, head of the Aberdeen-based oil services company the Wood Group, has pledged 50m of his personal fortune towards the scheme, which is being developed by the economic forum Aberdeen City and Shire Economic Future (Acsef).

Tom Smith, the chairman of Acsef, said last night: "Given that Ms Lennox appears to have made her comments based on a wholly inaccurate description of the project on MySpace, we are hardly surprised by them.

"Acsef has repeatedly stated that the City Square project aims to create a new civic space and gardens with an iconic arts centre as its centrepiece. It is about elevating the gardens into the sunlight and creating a green and attractive destination using the natural topography.

"Objectors' claims that it will be a flat, concrete square similar to Red Square are as misleading, as is their statement that it will be full of shops and car parking."