Watchdog joins Annie Lennox in condemning Aberdeen city centre plans

SCOTLAND'S architectural watchdog yesterday added its voice to the growing chorus of condemnation over controversial plans for a new civic square in Aberdeen.

Aberdeen-born pop legend Annie Lennox has already attacked the proposals to create a 140 million street-level square above the site of the Union Terrace Gardens as "idiocy and madness".

And Architecture and Design Scotland (ADS), the national champion for good architecture and design, has now issued a report in which the organisation expresses serious reservations about the project being spearheaded by the local economic forum, Aberdeen City and Shire Economic Future (Acsef).

In its report, ADS states that no decision should be taken on the ambitious scheme before a wider analysis of the future of the development of the city centre takes place and alternative proposals to the scheme, first championed by oil tycoon Sir Ian Wood, are fully examined.

The report states: "Given the high level of investment and the scale of change being considered for a city centre public realm enhancement project, we see it as extremely important that alternative proposals are carefully examined and any solution is developed such that it will deliver the greatest benefit to the enhancement of Aberdeen.

"We have some concerns about the way in which the project is currently progressing, and suggest that there are a number of issues which should be addressed as the plans for improvements to the gardens and the rest of the city centre are developed."

Acsef chairman Tom Smith said: "All the options in the technical feasibility study were fully appraised based on extensive existing and new studies of what can and can't be done in this strategic site. Acsef agreed to move forward with the option to raise the gardens and cover the Denburn dual carriageway based on the evidence in the study that this provides much wider socio-economic benefits."

He added: "Acsef is not consulting on the other options because they do not deliver the wider benefits to the region and have no private sector funding available."