By Mike Shepherd.
The Facebook site ‘Run-down Aberdeen’ was started out of a concern that Aberdeen Council appears to be more interested in multi-million pound big-ticket projects such as the City Square, rather than dealing with their day-to-day responsibilities of managing the city. Large parts of Aberdeen are starting to look run-down and neglected as a result.
By John Sangster.
A new government with new thinking, a new way of looking at things? This is what we were told when an agreement was made between Tweedle Cameron and Tweedle Clegg. We were told that the first thing we must do is save money, make cuts, every single penny we save is good for the country. So taking my role as a model citizen very seriously I have come up with an alternative budget.
By L.G. Braithwaite II.
I say, I say, I say….
How many votes does it take to change a councillor?
I don’t know, how many votes does it take to change a councillor?
About…Oh, say, about 801….
By Dave Watt.
Interesting question, isn’t it? Have the good citizens of Aberdeen always been associated with a bunch of credulous, vacant-eyed, loose-jawed dingbats who you just know would buy a bunch of shares for a spurious gold mine in Kemnay if approached by some fast-talking sleazebag?
If the World Corporate Games held in Aberdeen ten years ago this week were anything to go by, then I’m afraid the answer is probably a loud and resounding ‘Yes’.
By Dave Innes.
Well, well, well.
No sooner had the toner dried on the recent article explaining the reasons for the current council’s tenure lasting five years rather than the statutory four, than the whole pretence would seem to have been shown up to be just that.
You’ll recall that we reported that the Gould Report decided that it would be bad for democracy for multi votes to take place on the same day. The two ballot papers in 2007 confused those easily put into that state and the numbers of spoiled ballot papers soared to record levels. One of the penalties of improving our democracy under Gould’s recommendations is that the citizens of Scotland are stuck with their local politicians of whatever political hue and whatever practical competence for an extra year in the next two council elections to allow improved alignment of Scottish and local elections. Most people seem to be prepared to accept this imposition, irrespective of its temporary drawbacks.
Yet, not two full months into the uncharted waters of peacetime coalition government, despite all the positive noises about “respect” for the parliaments and assemblies of Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, the recommendations of the Gould Report may as well have been written in invisible ink. On invisible paper. By The Invisible Man.
With uncaring, non-listening disrespectful disdain for Gould’s report, for democracy beyond Westminster and for tolerant electors, the announcement that the referendum on voting reform will be held on 5 May 2010, concurrent with elections for non-Westminster representatives, is early proof that talk of respect for the supposedly partner UK political institutions is hollow, shallow, empty populist rhetoric.
The easily-confused, the casually-bewildered, the bug-eyed ballot fodder can look forward to contributing again to yet another day of unbridled loop-the-loopery in polling stations from Strabane to Strathlene, from Cardiff to Cardhu and from Newry to Neath. Three nations all playing ballot box bluff. Maybe we should award points per hundred spoiled papers and start a mini league? Come AWWWWWWWWNNNNN Scotland…
The irony is, of course, that the Westminster referendum is a genuine, if possibly flawed, attempt to improve democracy UK-wide – if you ignore the partisan small print, obviously – which will itself inhibit democracy by its intrusion into the well-trailed national elections which must, by statute, be held every four years.
If I was a cynic, I’d be tempted to think that piggy-backing one vote on top of another is a way of offering democracy on the cheap, despite the well-known and statistically-proven risks in asking any less-cerebral electors to attempt to multi-task with a pencil on a string and more than one sheet of paper. I’m glad, therefore, that cynicism is an affliction from which I have never knowingly suffered.
New lease of life for the Gibberie Wallie in Sunnybank Park
Gibberie Wallie badly in need of repair after being vandalised.
A group of residents in Aberdeen have come together to stop a valued green space being sold by the Local Authority. The newly constituted group “Friends of Sunnybank Park” are a collection of citizens from all walks of life who have renamed and taken control of their own recreational centre in the Old Aberdeen area. The formerly named St. Machar Outdoor Centre had, in 2009, been earmarked by Aberdeen City Council (ACC) for closure – saving the city an extra £22,000 – as part of it’s £25 million budget cuts package. However, after many objections and local protest, the council agreed to give the initial steering group a period of 6 months to devise a business plan for the park. In May 2010, the plan was accepted and the Council agreed to lease the ground to the group at the rate of £1 per annum. The lease is still being finalised .
Union Terrace Gardens: Aberdeen City Council decided in favour of the ACSEF/Ian Wood City Square Project on Wednesday 19th May 2010. We must respect the democratic process, although many citizens found the outcome incomprehensible. It appears that the decisive stage in the Debate was the split vote, 14-14, on Labour and Conservative amendments presenting a straight choice between the Peacock scheme and the City Square Project with eleven councillors abstaining. The split-vote impasse was resolved by the Lord Provost, who deployed his casting vote in support of the City Square Project, effectively killing off the Peacock option.
Conventional planning practice in the event of a split vote is that the Chairman votes in support of the ‘status quo’, i.e., for no change, against the new proposal or application. The ‘status quo’ in this case might reasonably be considered to be the Peacock scheme,