- Target:
- Sir Ian Wood, care of Aberdeen City Council & Wood Family Trust
- Region:
- United Kingdom
Billionaire Sir Ian Wood wanted to build a giant granite web over Aberdeen's only green city centre, free access park. This was meant to magically enhance the city centre - but the City had to borrow £92,000,000 - money it can ill afford to gamble on a speculative real estate deal. Such schemes are causing economic havoc in Spain and in the US. The city's new administration is Labour-led. Labour's election pledge was to stop this scheme, which it did. Labour pointed out that a recent referendum was a non-binding consultation exercise - one in which a handful of business people (who are keeping their identities secret) spent far more on an advertising blitz than official campaigners were allowed to. Material produced by this group contained claims which have little sound basis, yet no regulatory body was able to intervene in this referendum's advertising.
The scheme to build a granite web for £140 million has already eaten through a large quantity of taxpayer money committed by a quango (ACSEF), billed to the taxpayer by the Chamber of Commerce. Audit Scotland and other regulatory bodies have been asked to investigate the scheme's genesis and operation. (details can be found on www.aberdeenvoice.com).
Sir Ian claimed in February he would instead spend his money on charitable works in Africa if we turned him down. This idea is now subject of a U-turn. Please ask him nicely to help Africa and not give Aberdeen any ultimatums.
Dear Sir Ian,
Your offer of a 'gift' of £50,000,000 to Aberdeen City Council was generous - but it had too many strings; you would not accept any compromise but to build over our Common Good Land, putting up a web with no relation to existing architecture, which would irretrievably damage the environment.
You told the press (Press & Journal February 2012) you would send your £50,000,000 to Africa if we turned down the granite web. Well, we turned down the granite web.
You changed your story: you are keeping your offer on the table for a year.
Please, for the benefit of our city, now divided by your scheme - but mostly for the benefit of people in truly desperate situations in Africa - send your money to Africa without delay. There is far more real good you can do there, and your generosity would save lives.
Thank you for considering this request - and hopefully acting on it sooner than later.
You can further help this campaign by sponsoring it
The Sir Ian Wood: Send your £50 Million to Africa As Promised! petition to Sir Ian Wood, care of Aberdeen City Council & Wood Family Trust was written by Suzanne Kelly and is in the category International Affairs at GoPetition.