Alex Mitchell takes another wander through Aberdeen’s streets for Aber­deen Voice. Plan­ning Blight: Con­cerns have been raised about how long the present uncer­tainty con­cern­ing Busi­ness Rates and the anti­cip­ated chaos attend­ant on major con­struc­tion pro­jects will have on busi­ness activ­ity in the vicin­ity of Union Ter­race Gar­dens. Even the rel­at­ively small-scale resur­fa­cing work around the Green has ser­i­ously dis­rup­ted trade & com­merce there. Princes Street in Edin­burgh, for example, has been dev­ast­ated by their Tram­ways pro­ject. The usual effect of ‘plan­ning blight’ is that exist­ing busi­nesses and house­hold­ers decide to sell up and leave whilst their prop­er­ties retain some mar­ket value, while oth­ers who had been think­ing of mov­ing in to the affected area — set­ting up shop, invest­ing in lease­holds etc. — decide not to. The loc­al­ity goes down­hill as exist­ing pro­pri­et­ors and res­id­ents move out and are not replaced by incomers [ Con­tin­ued… ]

By Dave Guthrie. On a quiet Sat­urday even­ing a couple of week­ends ago a cel­eb­ra­tion took place in Union Ter­race Gar­dens. As even­ing fell, small groups of people began arriv­ing with pic­nic blankets, candles, lan­terns and glow lamps to take part in ‘Unplugged in the Park’, a low-key event loosely organ­ised by Friends of UTG. Amidst a sea of shim­mer­ing lights the audi­ence were treated to storytelling, poetry, some ama­teur dra­mat­ics ( rather wit­tily entitled ‘Trees Not Wood!’ ), some fine music and African drum­ming. The first lantern-balloon, released per­haps too soon, rose slowly in the still night air and there was some appre­hen­sion as it hovered close to the trees and HMT but there was a col­lect­ive sigh of relief — and a few cheers — as it caught the breeze and seemed to head decis­ively in the dir­ec­tion of St Nich­olas House. Later launch­ings were trouble free. [ Con­tin­ued… ]

Mis­cel­laneous Sat 4th Sept. 10:00am to 6.00pm, The Prin­cess Royal and Duke of Fife Memorial Park, Brae­mar Brae­mar Gath­er­ing The Gath­er­ing is fam­ous for its friend­ship and hos­pit­al­ity which we look for­ward to shar­ing with the many vis­it­ors. http://www.braemargathering.org/ 10.30pm, The Brig O’ Don, King Street, Aber­deen Sue Ryder Care Aber­deen Mid­night Walk Sue Ryder Care’s second Aber­deen women only 10k sponsored Mid­night Walk. Event starts at 10.30pm and fin­ishes at 3.30am on Sunday. Regis­tra­tion for the walk is £15. http://fundraising.suerydercare.org/midnightwalk/events/aberdeen-midnight-walk.aspx Thurs 9th Sept. 7.00pm, Aber­deen For­ward offices, 2 Poy­ernook Road Aber­deen AB11 5RW Home com­post­ing Learn how to make your own com­post from kit­chen and garden waste in time for next year’s seed sow­ing pro­jects. £2 Con­tact Aber­deen For­ward http://www.aberdeenforward.org Tel ; 01224 560360 email : admin@abzforward.plus.com 10th to 11th Sept. Gadiefest 2010 A Fest­ival of Storytelling and Tra­di­tional Arts in [ Con­tin­ued… ]

By Fred Wilkin­son. An Aber­deen char­ity is mak­ing pro­gress towards re-establishing a range of facil­it­ies and activ­it­ies for dis­abled people lost to them as a res­ult of sav­age cuts imposed by Aber­deen City Coun­cil. Future Choices is an organ­isa­tion com­pris­ing former users of Choices Day Care Centre, their carers, friends and fam­il­ies, who feel that the ser­vice was unjustly with­drawn, and was vital to their func­tion­ing as indi­vidu­als on a par with non-disabled per­sons. Choices, the only day care facil­ity in the city for phys­ic­ally dis­abled people, was closed in June 2008 as part of the city council’s endeav­ours to address a £29m budget defi­cit. Users enjoyed access to a reg­u­lar pro­gram of thera­peutic, edu­ca­tional, recre­ational and socially stim­u­lat­ing activ­it­ies tailored to their needs, abil­it­ies and pref­er­ences. More import­antly, together with needs based trans­port arrange­ments, Choices Day Care Centre provided the means for users [ Con­tin­ued… ]

The Don Cross­ing Com­munit­ies Alli­ance, whose mem­bers are opposed to the pro­posal to build a third bridge over the Don between the Park­way, Dan­e­stone and Tilly­drone, is hold­ing a River­side Pic­nic on Sat­urday Septem­ber 4 at Tilly­drone Com­munity Centre, Gordon’s Mills Road. http://www.touchaberdeen.com/business/map The num­ber 19 bus ser­vice passes close by. Ross Grant, Tilly­drone Com­munity Coun­cil Chair­man has urged all sym­path­etic cit­izens, or those who would like to visit an area not often included among the city’s beauty spots, to “feel free to come along and see Tillydrone’s best kept secret in the beau­ti­ful Don Val­ley”. Bring your own food and refresh­ments and visit any­time between 10am and 2pm. Local experts will be on hand to answer ques­tions and to show pic­nick­ers around the area, cur­rently under threat due to the Council’s con­tro­ver­sial pro­posal. More info re. 3rd Don Cross­ing — Click here.

At Woo­dend Barn this Sat­urday, music lov­ers can enjoy a fresh approach to the music of Chopin, and Scotland’s influ­ence on his work. Amadeus Duo – Mar­garet Pre­ston on flute and Alina Bzhezh­in­ska on harp present a pro­gramme of Chopin’s music. Their arrange­ments give an inter­est­ing slant on Chopin’s piano music, as the evoc­at­ive and sen­su­ous com­bin­a­tion of flute and harp take a fresh look at some of the most pop­u­lar piano rep­er­toire. They will also play the works of com­posers who influ­enced Chopin on his travels in Scot­land. The girls have toured this con­cert to many ven­ues in UK and in Ukraine as part of the inter­na­tional cel­eb­ra­tion of Chopin’s 200th Anniversary (1810–1849). The tour will end in Octo­ber with a con­cert at RSAMD where Alina was appoin­ted Harp Lec­turer in 2008. The pro­gramme which is designed to be audi­ence friendly is nar­rated by [ Con­tin­ued… ]