Evaluation of the Aberdeen City Centre Partnership: final report

The Aberdeen City Centre Partnership (ACCP) was set up in 1991 to revitalise the city centre, following a retail downturn. SQW undertook an initial evaluation of ACCP in 1997; this second evaluation was commissioned to review progress made since that time. The aims were: to account for ACCP’s activities between 1997 and 2001; to compare the performance of ACCP with the performance of Aberdeen city centre over that period; and to make conclusions and recommendations for the future.

The sources used in the evaluation were: background documentation on ACCP’s strategies and structure; ACCP project monitoring data; a number of independent evaluations of Aberdeen city centre; and interviews with key players.

The evaluation found that: ACCP’s strategies were over-elaborate; the strategic purpose and priorities had become lost; monitoring and evaluation systems were inadequate; there was no strategic marketing of Aberdeen city centre; the increased spend on housing was inconsistent with ACCP’s priorities; and the city centre had underperformed since the last evaluation.

It was recommended that: a monitoring system be established immediately; ACCP review its strategies; the ‘Community’ and ‘Customer Care’ themes be dropped as major strategic themes and transformed into cross-cutting operating principles; the ‘Transport’ and ‘Environment’ themes be merged; ACCP’s role be more clearly defined as researcher, monitor, lobbyist and best practice demonstrator; five sub-city action plans be identified and themes joined together in a more clustered way; more formal project development and appraisal procedures be put in place; the Aberdeen and Grampian Tourist Board join ACCP; a City Centre Consultative Forum be established; ACCP be transformed into a company limited by guarantee; a chief executive be appointed; the city centre manager role remain in the new structure.