Latest news with #AberdeenInspired
Press and Journal
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Press and Journal
Nuart OFF this year - with Aberdeen arts spectacular to return next April
Aberdeen's renowned art festival Nuart has been postponed until next April. The event has been a staple in the city's summer calendar for years, attracting thousands of visitors from across the globe. It is usually held in June, with artists from all over the world descending upon the Granite City to transform its grey walls into colourful works of art. However, the next instalment of the popular festival has been pushed to next spring as organisers focus on preparations for the Tall Ships. Aberdeen Inspired have been running Nuart for nearly a decade. Normally, they would begin planning the mural extravaganza months in advance. But unlike previous times, this year they decided to pause putting everything together until they received the needed funding from Aberdeen City Council. This essentially cut their time for preparations shorter. And with the huge spectacle planned for the arrival of the Tall Ships in July, they decided it was best to leave Nuart for next spring. Aberdeen Inspired chief executive, Adrian Watson, said they have already started working on some fresh ideas on how to make the festival even better. He added: 'Given that Nuart is all about transformation and bringing life and colour to the city, we felt there could be no better time for its return than in spring. 'Nuart isn't just for one weekend – it leaves a lasting legacy imprinted on the fabric of Aberdeen itself.' The four-day festival will take place from April 23 to April 26 next year. Aberdeen Inspired hopes the next edition of Nuart will be as successful as previous years, drawing thousands of visitors into the city centre. The council's culture spokesman, Martin Greig, said events such as Nuart, Spectra and the upcoming Tall Ships help make Aberdeen a 'high-quality destination'. He added: 'Once again we can look forward to the city being transformed into a canvas for imaginative street art.'
Press and Journal
14-05-2025
- Business
- Press and Journal
Exclusive: Meet the shopping specialist hired for £40k to 'bring big brands to Aberdeen's empty units'
'We wouldn't even think of taking this on if we didn't think we could be successful,' Jonathan De Mello tells me – with the confidence of a man who doesn't really mind sticking his neck out. The retail expert has been hired by Aberdeen Inspired to use his skills in their quest to revitalise the city centre. The improvement group has received £40,000 from the council to bring in the heavy hitter with a reputation for bagging big brands. Jonathan has more than 25 years experience transforming city centres at the helm of JDM Retail, and his track record speaks for itself. But just how can he turn around the mood of doom and gloom in Aberdeen city centre? The retail expert is exactly the type of man that Aberdeen Inspired were looking for when they became aware of the cash available. The 49-year-old's firm, JDM Retail, specialise in using data to figure out what sort of shops cities are missing. Then they work with some of the country's biggest brands to bring them in. The high street saviour has worked with the likes of the Westfield group, which owns the UK's biggest shopping centre in London, and helped turn around major cities such as Nottingham, Sheffield and Swansea. He's even appeared in national media as the go-to retail expert – including a recent Channel 5 documentary about the success of Lidl. And thanks to a £39,000 cash injection from the council, Aberdeen Inspired can now enlist Jonathan's services as they continue their city centre crusade… It's safe to say that Jonathan doesn't have the simplest of tasks when it comes to turning around Aberdeen city centre. More than one in five units on Union Street currently lay empty – with big brands deserting the high street in the past decade. But whilst most may look at the Granite Mile and surrounding area with a hint of despair – the retail guru sees instead sees endless possibilities. Explaining his process, Jonathan said: 'What we're doing is diagnosing the issues and then coming up with solutions to essentially say 'we should look at the independent quarter or global fashion brands', for example. 'What we want to do is take Aberdeen up the hierarchy locally, but also nationally as well. 'So really it's just addressing the structural issues we've seen in the sector, the decline of the High Street, what we can do to change that and also looking at future-proofing the city through the new things that are coming in.' Following his initial research into the Granite City, Jonathan was pleasantly surprised by what Aberdeen had to offer. 'Aberdeen is a great city from this perspective, it's self-contained,' the Sunderland-born shopping specialist beamed. He added: 'The nightlife in Aberdeen is great for that. It's not that people are going to go out to other cities because they're so far away to enjoy themselves in the evening. 'More restaurants, more evening entertainment opportunities, I think that is key. 'There is an affluence here that is not in some of the cities that I've looked at. 'The likes of Sheffield and Swansea, they don't have that level of affluent consumer that Aberdeen does. 'I'm working on Inverness and Stirling at the moment, they haven't got a hope of getting the kind of brands that Aberdeen will be getting.' Swansea in South Wales is quite similar in many ways to Aberdeen. Both have a population of around 250,000, and both are quite well known as university cities. Two years ago, Jonathan went into the Welsh city with the same goals as he has now in Aberdeen – turn the high street around. Recounting his crusade down in the Gower Peninsula, he explains: 'It was very similar to every other city around the UK. 'It had the same charity shops and discounters, but it didn't have anything that screamed 'this is Swansea, and this is what makes us different', and that's what we want to do.' His plan was to capitalise on a thriving market which had been overlooked for too long in the Welsh city – students. Groups of youngsters had previously taken the train through to Cardiff for shopping and nights out, with Swansea missing out on money from those with student loans to burn. So just how was this lucrative demographic enticed to keep their money in Swansea? 'We repurposed areas that were just no longer needed,' Jonathan recalls. 'There is an area called Kingsway, which historically was a high street, but the vacancy rate there was around 40-50%. 'So we said that retail needed to go, because occupiers were voting with their feet, they didn't want to be there.' And following his report, the city has undergone a huge overhaul, with The Kingsway being given a major facelift – along with the empty Debenhams unit planned to be filled in a few months. Looking forward to the work ahead, the JDM chief executive is as confident as ever when it comes to his Aberdeen project. 'I think you've got strong potential to succeed here,' he grins. He continued: 'That's why we want to take it on, because what we want to do from the strategy piece is diagnose the issues. 'Because we have the property agents and other services as well, we want to engage long term with the local authority and Aberdeen Inspired to actually deliver some of these occupiers to you. 'I'd say we have a high success rate in doing it elsewhere, so we can definitely do it here. 'I reckon we can make fairly material change in the space of six months to a year, in terms of at least signing some people up and coming up with a strategy.'
Press and Journal
13-05-2025
- Press and Journal
Scott Begbie: Time to ditch phones and put teachers back in charge
Every so often someone rolls out a pilot project that has you thinking why have a test run, just get on and do it? The perfect case in point is the two high schools in Edinburgh that have banned pupils from using mobile phones during the school day. The schools don't confiscate phones – which would have the diddums spitting the dummy about their rights, of which some teenagers know so much while not bothering about the responsibility side of the justice coin. Instead, they put them in a special wallet with a magnetic seal that can only be opened when the go home bell has rung. Genius idea that lets youngsters keep their precious mobiles in their possession. They just can't spend the day on TikTok when they should be learning stuff, not checking out the latest trend to smear yourself in duck fat and snorkel in the bath. But there was one line from Edinburgh Council that had me shaking my head in disbelief. The move is apparently necessary to end 'competition' between phones and teachers for pupils' attention. Say what, now? Is that actually a thing? If so, school has obviously changed a fair whack since I was a grubby pupil at Boroughmuir in Edinburgh. And a whack was precisely what you got if the teacher thought for a nanosecond you were not giving your complete and undivided attention to the lesson being taught. Look out the window for a moment to muse 'that cloud looks like a Dalek' and a piece of chalk bounced off your bonce. Do it a second time and it was the blackboard duster. Not that I condone for a second the use of physical force against kids. The only thing that teaches them is that hitting folk is fine to get what you want. But how have we got to the stage where a youngster even contemplates looking at their phone in a classroom without consequence? More chillingly, have we as a society reached the point where all life, even school life, is only real when viewed through a screen? Seems so. I'm actually typing these words beside a pool in sunny Gran Canaria and everyone around me is glued to their phone, not savouring the blue skies and swaying palms. What a waste. Perma-doomscrolling is a learned habit and one that we need to unlearn before all we know of the world is fed to us by algorithms and pixels. And the place to break that habit, to show life is better seen through your own eyes and gloriously elevated by your own understanding, is in school. So, let's not be faffing around with projects in two high schools in Edinburgh. Let's ban mobiles for every school and every pupil in Scotland so they can grow up savouring the wonders around them and not seeing life in tunnel vision. Scott Begbie is a journalist and editor, as well as PR and comms manager for Aberdeen Inspired.
Press and Journal
06-05-2025
- Automotive
- Press and Journal
Scott Begbie: Scottish Government is going down the wrong road with its war on cars
Could the high heid-yins at Holyrood please drop the dogma and rethink their war on cars before the north-east grinds to a halt? We've already had barmy suggestions such as cutting the speed limit from 60mph to 50mph on single carriages stretches of trunk roads like the A96, just to make it that bit more time-consuming to Inverness. And no need to rehearse the carnage bus gates have created in Aberdeen city centre – or the sheer illogical thinking of wrapping a Low Emission Zone round a train station and busy working harbour crammed with diesel trains and ships. Now we have the latest wheeze of suggesting roads in 'built-up' areas – including key transport routes by the way – be reduced to 20mph. Now, that's fine and dandy in places that are properly residential where ordinary folk – especially kids – should go about their business in quiet and safety without motors zooming past at speed. But to slow traffic down to a 20mph crawl on the likes of major routes like Holburn Street, Garthdee Road and North Deeside Road? Seriously? Sometimes I think there's a man behind a curtain in the bowels of the Scottish Parliament coming up with wizard wheezes designed purely to force drivers around the bend – providing they do it at 20mph or less. I wouldn't be surprised if we eventually get an announcement that we are going back to the future – cars can only drive on city roads if they have someone walking in front of them holding a red flag. There is, of course, a policy at play in these diktats from Holyrood. It's to 'encourage' people to give up the car and use public transport instead – or get on their bikes. The only problem is, here in the north-east the car is quite simply the cheapest, quickest and easiest way to get around, be it for work or play, given the disjointed public transport network that we have. For example, on days when I car share to the city office, I'm door to door in 25 minutes – including a walk from my drop off point. On days I take the train, I have to leave 20 minutes earlier than normal, walk to the station, hope the train turns up on time, or at all, and then walk to the office, all of which takes a good 40 minutes out of my day. Now which do you think I choose most often? Besides, the anti-car drive isn't working. The Scottish Government's target was to cut car use across the nation by 20% by the end of the decade. It's only come down by 3.6% since before the pandemic. Little wonder then, that Holyrood last month dropped that target as 'not realistic'. Well, we could have told you that. Same with so many of the other measures. So, can the powers-that-be now concede we all still need our cars, especially with the north-east's mix of rural and urban communities, and stop trying to make driving as difficult as humanely possible? You're on the wrong road, admit it and change direction for all our sakes. Scott Begbie is a journalist and editor, as well as PR and comms manager for Aberdeen Inspired.
Press and Journal
04-05-2025
- Business
- Press and Journal
Inside Aberdeen's derelict upper floors as taskforce plots ways to breathe new life into Granite Mile buildings
Iain Nicholas casts an eye around the grotty upper floor of 463 Union Street, which was once home to one of many closed bank branches. Retail expert Iain is now heading up a panel working hard to identify new uses for these rows of empty spaces lining both sides of the Granite Mille. They hope that their work will ultimately rejuvenate the struggling street. And that's why I find myself standing in the forlorn space, next to the Capitol office complex. This is exactly the sort of decaying space this specialist taskforce is determined to turn around. Joining Iain on the high street crusade are designer Richard Tinto, Ross Grant and Adrian Watson from Aberdeen Inspired, chartered surveyor Shona Boyd and Aberdeen City Council officials. Entering the former bank at the top of Union Street, the first thing I clock is the stark barebone appearance of the unit. The ground floor has been fully stripped back, with the wooden frames on show and even some holes in the floor exposing the grimy basement below. Ross begins to tell me about the group's progress so far as we have a look around each nook and cranny. This is the fourth derelict unit the group has visited that day, with their exploratory journey taking them along the whole stretch of the Granite Mile. But despite it looking like quite the challenge to my untrained eye, the local councillor is feeling positive about today's boots on the ground operation. Ross tells me: 'The key takeaway from today for me is that each of the upper floor spaces has their own specific opportunities and barriers. 'I think the panel discussions so far has been really refreshing, really positive.' And before we head upstairs to the former offices of the bank – I begin chatting to one of the big guns Aberdeen Inspired have enlisted. The city centre Bid (Business Improvement District) received £15,000 of government funding in 2024 to find the key to bringing the Granite Mile's upper floors back to life. Using this cash, they've drafted in Iain – who is the founder of the Vacant Shops Academy. He is a former BBC radio reporter, who has been working on boosting town and city centres since 2013. Amids the exposed steel beams and knocked down walls, he enthuses about the project. The 66-year-old explains: 'We're starting off by thinking about what could go in these in these spaces? What are the barriers to that happening? How can those barriers be overcome? 'We want to get away from this situation where agents and landlords are left with really challenging buildings where maybe the finances don't stack up in terms of commercially sorting it out. 'We want to look at the opportunities and the ways Union Street and Aberdeen can help with tackling some of those places.' As the panel inspect the bare interior of the upper floors and begin to gather their thoughts on the building, I grab a word with one of the biggest names in Aberdeen's architecture game. Richard Tinto, of Tinto Architecture, is another who has been showing his passion throughout the afternoon for turning around Union Street's upper floors. His firm are currently overseeing the revamp of the former John Lewis into a go-karting mecca, along with the much-anticipated return of the Belmont Cinema. The Aberdeen-based designer also has previous experience in bringing Union Street's upper floors back to life. Plans drawn up by Richard are currently in place to turn the empty space above the Tag Heuer showroom into fancy apartments. And for him, the group's main goal shares similarities with one of the Beatles' many hits. As we huddle around in what is a quite tight office, he tells me: 'If someone has a desire to move into Union Street, one of the great wins for the group would be to make that as easy as possible for them. 'Right now it's a little bit siloed and disjointed, and it needs a few different moving parts to come together. 'If we can be that 'come together' then that's it.' This is the first step of a lengthy process for the team of experts, with it likely being years before units like this one are fully given a new lease of life. For now, the group's goals are to get their ideas together on what the units could be used for, and then writing up a report. This would then be sent back to the building's owners – offering advice and solutions on how to overcome the current hurdles which have discouraged any revival efforts yet. And the panel's crusade doesn't stop there. They tell me they're planning on pushing Holyrood to change some of the more frustrating planning policies that have stopped developers and dreamers alike in the past. But whilst the group's work has only just begun, the Granite Mile already has a vast array of plans in the pipeline for reviving some of its upper floors. A new golf mecca is on the cards, being opened by Golf Academy Scotland. The firm are keeping tight lipped on their plans for now, but say it will include a top of the range simulator, lessons, and its own pro shop. The Edinburgh-based Optimal Student firm are also in the mix for reviving the Granite Mile's upper floors – with £2.7 million plans to revamp the floors above The former offices at Braemar house will become 25 student flats, with plans to join the two complexes together. So with our visit over we descend back down the pitch black staircases, with our phone torches guiding the way. Shaking hands with the group and saying goodbye, it's clear that the panel of experts will stop at nothing until Union Street's upper floors are brought back to life. The different members making up the crack team all come from different backgrounds within the same industry – making it the perfect melting pot of ideas and perspectives. So whilst there's a long way to go, as the condition of 463 Union Street proved, the only way seems up for the Granite Mile.
