Sanjoy Sen is a North Sea oil engineer and was the Scottish Conservatives candidate in Aberdeen North at the 2015 general election. In 2019, he gained over 18,000 votes in Alyn & Deeside, coming within 213 votes of taking the seat.
So much has happened since 2015 (no fewer than three general elections plus a Brexit referendum) that it’s hard to believe it was only five years ago. But casting our minds back, a hot local topic in Aberdeen back then was the proposed Marischal Square re-development. And, as you might recall, pretty much no-one was enthralled when the initial plans went public.
Now, we all know that the end result turned out OK(ish). So, why worry? Because Aberdeen is at a critical point where it urgently needs to re-invent itself, create new jobs and diversify away from oil & gas. Sadly, the city is developing a bit of a track record in missing opportunities – or, at least, not making the very best of them.
At Marischal Square, Aberdeen might have created something bold and unique to compliment (not overshadow) the magnificent college opposite. Perhaps a top-quality museum, maybe a hotel or even a first-rate shopping experience. With world-class architecture prompting tourists to make Aberdeen an essential part of their Scotland trip. Yes, that sounds ambitious but that’s the idea. Experience shows what can be done if the vision is there: once-industrial Bilbao put itself on the European tourist map via its new Guggenheim modern art museum. UK cities have done it, too – read on.
And as a former season ticket holder at Aberdeen FC, I couldn’t help noticing that the city created top-quality training facilities at the Sports Village (barely a stone’s throw from Pittodrie) then delivered an excellent spectator experience at the P&J Arena. Yet the club is now attempting its own separate equivalents – but due to space restrictions, these are as far away from the city centre as possible. Just imagine the Dons playing at Europe’s very first indoor, 20,000-capacity stadium in the heart of this city. Opportunities lost due to a lack of joined-up thinking.
I’m sure I’m not the only who’s lost count of the number of times they’ve heard well-intentioned ideas floated for the re-generation of the city. It’s time to start joining them up and make them happen.
Right now, there’s a proposal to re-purpose a decommissioned oil platform as a visitor attraction in Aberdeen harbour. By all means, let’s do it - but not as a standalone, monument to the past. Instead, let’s put it at the heart of a wider scheme that showcases the future of clean energy: wind, wave, tidal and, underpinning it all, hydrogen. And, as well as a first-class visitor attraction, bring in employers in low-carbon businesses to the site, all inter-linked by zero-emission transport. In other words, use it as a platform (no pun intended) to re-invent Aberdeen as a forward-thinking city which is not only a great place to visit but also a great place to work, study and live.
For anyone who thinks this is all sounds a bit far-fetched, remember that the UK has a strong track record in urban regeneration. But such turnarounds are rarely achieved piecemeal and are often anchored around a single, unifying theme. In east London, it was an event: the 2012 Olympics. In Belfast it was a story: the Titanic. And in Dundee, it was a major new attraction: the V&A museum. Let’s not get fixated on the rig but let’s see it for what it might offer: a focus for the re-invention of Aberdeen.
International experience shows that bringing change to an area dependent on a single industry is challenging. The Aberdeen City Region Deal was a step in the right direction. But it’s time the city got the support it needs via the much-discussed Oil & Gas sector deal to help businesses and residents make the transition over to the vast clean energy opportunities out there. The impact of COVID combined with a drop in global oil prices have hit this city harder than most. Things look difficult right now but let’s get the vision in place so we can start to turn the corner.
By Sanjoy Sen
Follow Sanjoy here.
Image by Gordon McLeman from Pixabay
