The second referendum was held after ACSEF didn’t like the result of the 2009 one which said to leave the Gardens alone. How democratic.
The ‘get it right peasants’ second referendum was rigged, in that each side was limited to £8000 of expenditure in the campaign. Whilst ACSEF seems to have complied, individual business people funded a far more expensive campaign, via paid-for local radio ads, and a glossy brochure delivered to thousands of homes. These expenditures were not counted as part of campaign expenses. How democratic.
The ‘business (some say ‘basket’) case was utter nonsense. Wood’s £55m was £85m short of the £140m forecast cost. I think only a further £20m was pledged by the business community, waaay short of the target in Wood’s plan. Some commitment. The remainder was to be funded by Tax Incremental Funding ie extra income that was predicted to accrue due to an increase in companies desperate to invest in industrial estates in Dyce and elsewhere due to there being the attraction of a new block of concrete in Aberdeen city centre. Yes, really. Eventually, after years of FOI request denial, Salmond’s lot in Holyrood had to cave in and give details of the comparative, independently-judged TIF applications, with the go-ahead to be given to a limited number from across Scotland. The Aberdeen analysis showed that it was outside that Top * (too long ago to remember the exact detail, and it used to be on the first link I gave above which now seems to be showing something else, but I have a copy of the assessment table), and that, as I recall, a Falkirk bid was scored highest.
THERE WAS NO BUSINESS CASE WHICH IS WHY OUR LOCAL CAPITALISTS AND PUBLIC TEAT-SUCKERS FAILED TO BACK IT WITH HARD CASH. That is why, on 22 September 2012, the Council voted against its progress as a viable project.
Bullet dodged.
The Herald FOI:
https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/...rdeen-project/
Our very own Stewart Milne went Tonto. At the time he owned the Triple Kirks site, and wanted to develop that as a commercial centre, with his eyes on the space under Wood’s slab as car parking for this development. Later on that day, after that democratic triumph over attempted land-grab and for which the city’s finances would be fiscally liable, the council told Cove huns that the lease they’d held for Calder Park in Nigg since 2000, would now be taken back by the council. They were due to have a new stadium on the site by September 2012. It was a key part of the Dons’ plans to build a ground at ‘the Foggy Dump’ as this site named it, due to the planning need for a second exit for emergencies which the Cove ‘plans’ would fulfil. The council now being the lessor meant that the club would need to negotiate directly with the council rather than heel-dragging Cove. The Dons stadium plans were already passed, and would not have been affected, but that didn’t stop Wiggy from flinging the toys out of his entitled pram.
That’s when Gallus79 came into his own, hinting that he had insider knowledge on this which he never expanded on, and he and his Milne-tainted brown nose disappeared later, unable to substantiate his self-important claim.
I’ve somehow managed to give the URL twice of the Guardian article written by Mike Shepherd who led the campaign against Wood’s nonsense, because I’m an idiot. Read it for the facts.
NaeMairNeeps will agree with most if not all of the above, since we were all involved, determined to prevent a theft, to the extent of a new online citizen journalism ‘publication’ being launched.
https://aberdeenvoice.com/2012/04/un...e-big-picture/
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