David Knight: Council bosses need to act on Raac before Balnagask becomes broken-down ghetto of rebellion overlooking cruise ship harbour

Press and Journal

2 days ago

There's a lot to be said for the personal touch – it can knock down walls and win people over with one small gesture.
Unless the walls are made out of Raac (Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete), it would seem.
Someone famous once wrote how American bank tellers were trained to make customers feel as though they were old friends.
I felt something similar when I met the King in Aberdeen when he was still Prince of Wales.
A brief encounter of just a few minutes left a vivid lasting impression.
It's just a knack which he has perfected over the years: as though you were special and the most important person in the room at that precise moment.
Let's now take a look at the Raac people at Torry in Aberdeen, for example.
Specifically, owners who bought their homes from the council or other private proprietors who had previously completed similar transactions with the authority.
They now face ruin due to weaknesses in Raac 'concrete' used in construction years before (more Aero-looking than concrete, it's been said).
Devastated to see Aberdeen City Council offering to 'rescue' their homes at slashed knockdown prices, at up to £50,000 less than they might have otherwise received
The council much prefers to describe their offers as realistic 'current market value', but don't be silly – we know which is the more accurate description.
An apparent lack of personal touch from council leaders amid such a personal crisis rankles with families, who plead to be compensated fairly.
Official valuers come and go, cut-price offers made and that seems to be about it.
This aloofness issue surfaced again when award-winning P&J journalist Lindsay Bruce grilled co-council leader Christian Allard about all things Raac.
When asked pointedly about his lack of one-to-ones with those who were suffering he didn't really have a convincing answer.
Actually he appeared to squirm like a seal out of water.
Many a leader has come unstuck by not being around in person when disaster strikes a community.
Now owners are digging in for a long battle.
The authority cannot brick this up behind a fireplace and hope people abandon the fight or die off.
A few days ago, community campaigners backed by the P&J met the council to offer compromises in search of a solution to cover their serious losses – incurred through no fault of their own.
A difficult challenge as the council has appeared unwilling to budge so far.
The event resonated with echoes of an infamous episode when Aberdeen bus-gate protesters took their own sensible compromises to the council in an attempt to protect city businesses from ruin – and had the door slammed in their faces, so to speak.
Raac owners vow to stay-put in condemned houses until they get what they're owed as their once-vibrant community sadly goes to ruin around them.
Do council bosses really want to see a broken-down ghetto of rebellion overlooking their shiny new cruise-ship harbour, with waves of affluent tourists passing by?
Resembling surviving structures in a bombed-out wartime street; a monument to past follies?
Call me simplistic or plain old-fashioned, but surely the buck goes back to the council in some form or other?
After all, the properties carried serious hidden structural defects at the time they were offloaded to the public – irrespective of what was known then or now about Raac.
It's now become depressingly normal for institutions to recompense victims today for yesterday's mistakes by past colleagues.
And especially as warning bells were sounded by another Scottish council which condemned Raac houses nearly a quarter of a century ago.
Is it fair to assume Aberdeen officials were aware of this and had assessed its impact on local owners?
One Torry family member struck a chord with a particularly memorable quote.
'When they really want to do something they'll always find the money,' he said.
Meaning governments and councils will always find the cash for any number of ideological projects to which suit their agenda.
Or unless they happen to be a doctor, nurse, bin worker or train driver who wield enormous disproportionate power to win generous pay rises backed by dire threats to public health and safety.
But not necessarily for the likes of Raac victims in Torry.
If you're scraping a living in Torry you pose no threat and can be pushed around – no matter how unjust it is.
Just like pensioners who discovered they were dispensable when Starmer and Reeves stole winter fuel payments from their back pockets.
Do we now look to Swinney to unlock the door to housing cash or can Aberdeen Council be creative within its own housing budget?
A roof is only a roof, but we feel the strain – and therefore the pain – of living beneath it when the world is about to cave in.
David Knight is the long-serving former deputy editor of The Press and Journal
To read more about the Raac crisis and our campaign click here.
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