Union Street might be lacking shops, but it’s certainly not lacking people power

“It’s a sh*thole.”

And with those three words, a hush descended upon the room. Nearly 200 business people stunned into silence.

The remark was one of many gathered from passers-by for a short film capturing the esteem in which Union Street was held by the people of Aberdeen.

That was in November last year, after an extended oil downturn, followed by the CV19 pandemic, had left the Granite Mile a hollowed-out version of its former self.

It was played at the beginning of an emergency summit organised by Aberdeen Inspired and Aberdeen & Grampian Chamber of Commerce; a warts and all look at what the street had become.

I was in the room, and it was a sobering watch. Like most of us, I was familiar with the vacant units, but the bit I found hardest was the fact that people had clearly fallen out of love with our city centre.

It was a moment for reflection, thinking of the missed opportunities of years gone by, but also time for a reset.

I was one of the afternoon speakers at the summit and pitched an idea. It was far from perfect, and delivered in a clumsy powerpoint which rambled on (bizarrely, upon reflection) about Lizzo and Liz Truss. It’s a long story…

Anyway, the idea was a new approach to reversing decades of decline on Union Street; a coalition that brought everyone together for a unique, community-led effort to deliver positive change.

Central to that proposal was getting the occasionally sceptical wider population of Aberdeen to back the idea and share their thoughts and hopes, without writing it off before it got started.

Swift work by Aberdeen Inspired and the Chamber, with support pledged from Aberdeen City Council, Opportunity North East and Shell, brought the idea to life - and a few weeks ago, Our Union Street was born.

The partners wanted a unifying and collaborative figure to lead the effort, and approached Bob Keiller, who agreed to provide his services for free.

He has since set about building an army of volunteers drawn from all corners of Aberdeen to help arrest decades of decline in the city centre.

But first, we wanted to listen. We’d heard what people thought of the street in that video. We now wanted to hear what they wanted the granite mile to become in the years ahead.

It is quite humbling to say that, as I write this, more than 5,000 ideas have been submitted.

And then it dawned on me why people had used such inflammatory language to describe the street. It was because they care.

People care about the state of Union Street; they care that many retail units sit empty and uninviting, they care about graffiti, litter, dirty buildings, weeds growing on balconies and the general upkeep of the street.

They want Union Street to be a safe, busy, energetic, thriving thoroughfare that compares favourably with the best of UK’s small cities.

And they want somebody to take responsibility for addressing these challenges and improving the street; a consistent, concerted effort with plans, actions and progress.

To date, there has been no single body that has the remit to take on these challenges and opportunities. That’s what the brand-new organisation is for.

We need to be realistic. We can’t turn back time and undo any historic actions and decisions - we can only start from now and make changes that improve the future. It’s not a sh*thole. It’s a city centre in transition, like many others up and down the country.

If it feels a little more downtrodden that other peer cities, that’s because we’ve had greater challenges to deal with since the oil downturn to 2015.

But it can, and will, get better. But it will take a community effort to do it.

It feels like we are building one, and everyone who wants to will get the chance to play their part.

Ryan Crighton, Director of Policy and Marketing, Aberdeen & Grampian Chamber of Commerce