STV NEWS | Public reaction to Aberdeen's Union Street 

Close Amazon..reduce high rates stop the nonsense of ulez..

Such a pity to see it degenerate from the busy, almost elegant Union Street to the depths of the state it's in today. It looks much better in those ancient films with the trams from 1935 oatcake , & it was mobbed with local people. It even looked better than now in the 1990s , it was full of people going places. ACC messed up badly by closing it down totally for that cold time.. Giant planters down middle of street looked stupid. Then, ACC forgot all about it while they busy building more shopping centres, hotels & forcing Air BnBs into tenement flats where they don't belong. We all know it's the people that make the City , so why not open the main thoroughfare in Aberdeen to all traffic again. There is nothing wrong with the air quality, it's on the coast, so why close it & push all traffic to outside the centre, only to make people travel further to get anywhere. Now these ridiculous £bus £gates,, this is like daylight robbery all over again. If Aberdeen needs to make £££££ , I suggest they stop penalising the local people with £traffic penalties. The City Council obviously don't want people there by putting them off travelling. Is it all lip service about wanting to return it to a busy area? What of The Common Good Fund set up by Robert the Bruce? ❤ Why don't ACC dig in to that account to "clean it up" & open up rent free community shops for people with good ideas.

They need to fix the underlying problems, not "clean up". Having a pristine street in not magically going to fill empty shops. And figuring out exactly what the underlying problems are, is not exactly rocket science. 1. Business rents and utilities are obscenely expensive. 2. Shoppers have no money. 3. Too many of the wrong kind of shops. 4. Zero differentiation between products available in bricks and mortar shops vs Amazon. They need to start by investing more in actual industry. Until we start manufacturing stuff to sell, there's no point in having shops that just sell the same Chinese crap you can already buy cheaper on Amazon. More manufacturing creates more jobs, which boosts the economy, and creates actual shoppers with money to spend in shops, which now actually have something to sell. Looking at an empty, dilapidated high street, scratching your head and asking "why?", is utterly moronic.

Should be no rent. Will that happen ?

It's the previous cabal of clowncillors who caused the decline of this once bustling thoroughfare. (Why have a public vote on Union Terrace Gardens then ignore the result?) If there is limited access to the city centre, then there the problem lies.

Brilliant coverage, Kirstin. I think if anyone is going to fix Union Street it would be Aberdonians. Looking forward to get stuck in.

Most of Union Street is Arab owned just like King Street. Maybe if the greedy landlords reduced the rent, it would encourage more local businesses.

😂😂😂😂

Aberdeens a Garbage city and Union street is awful now, kinda glad tbh - serves the horrible rude insular people that live in Aberdeen right 🤣🤣🤣

Too much immigrants