{"id":1196,"date":"2026-05-12T17:34:39","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T16:34:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/connectedaberdeen.org\/woodside\/?p=1196"},"modified":"2026-05-12T17:36:48","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T16:36:48","slug":"fersands-a-story-of-transformation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/connectedaberdeen.org\/woodside\/2026\/05\/12\/fersands-a-story-of-transformation\/","title":{"rendered":"Fersands: A story of Transformation"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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ONE OF THE THINGS I LIKED BEST about living in Sandilands was the big, old tree outside my bedroom window. Planted more than eighty years ago, it would bud every spring, offer welcome shade in summer then shed its leaves through autumn as a sure sign winter was on its way. For years I watched it change with the seasons; it was a sad day when it got blown down in a storm a couple of years ago. <\/strong><\/p>

The council tidied the remains but left half the trunk in the garden. It lay there for over a year, untouched and unsightly, then I came home one day to find someone had planted a little flower garden round it, turning that old lump of tree into something that brings smiles to the faces of passers-by.<\/p>

I spoke to the Ukrainian lady who\u2019d done this. Not long moved in, she and her daughter\u2019s English was limited but between the three of us we managed to hold a decent conversation. Refugees from the war, they don\u2019t know when, if ever, they\u2019ll be able to return home, but one of the first things they did on arriving here was make an effort to brighten the place up a bit, proving that despite what some of our slimier politicians might claim, immigrants really don\u2019t need to speak good English to contribute to their adopted communities.<\/p>

The same day, I took a wander round Ferrier Crescent for the first time in near twenty years. The change to this previously ragged street was incredible: so many lovely gardens with well-tended flower beds, gazebos, picnic tables and barbecues. I bumped into Wayne Gill, who\u2019s lived here all his life, and his partner Louise Moir, who told me: \u201cThe area is so much smarter now. Lots of Polish families round here who really look after their gardens. It\u2019s great\u201d<\/em>.<\/p>

This is all so different from when I moved to Fersands in 2002. Half the houses were empty; nobody wanted to live here because of the area\u2019s reputation. There were few cars but significant social problems. Garden furniture in those days consisted of the odd, rotting sofa or abandoned washing machine. On the plus side, there was an active local community network, a core of decent, hard-working folk trying to get on and a community project doing its best to support them.<\/p>

Perhaps surprisingly, the first signs of real, long-term change came in 2004, when the UK opened its borders to Eastern Europe. The first wave of newcomers duly arrived from Poland, Lithuania etc. and, quite astonished to find these lovely houses lying empty, promptly snapped them up – a win-win situation for the council, the community and our local shops.<\/p>

Our new neighbours brought with them ambition and a strong work ethic that helped kickstart the rehabilitation of our community. Once near-empty streets began to fill with cars and work vans; overgrown gardens were knocked into shape; the council installed new street lighting and garden fencing and built a modern play park in Ferrier Crescent; the Woodside surgery moved to new premises in Marquis Road; the Fersands and Fountain Community Project expanded its services and moved into our newly-extended community centre. Things were looking up.<\/p>

Over the last twenty years, a combination of all these things and more has transformed Fersands from near-ghetto into a thriving, inclusive community. Like any other council estate we have our problems, but generally everyone rubs along pretty well together and many of us were saddened to see that hard-won community cohesion threatened by the recent outbreak of ill-judged, flag-waving nationalism.<\/p>

Yes, working class folk stuck in an apparently never-ending cost of living crisis are bound to feel angry and resentful but by directing our frustration at immigrants \u2013 legal or otherwise \u2013 we are not only playing the billionaires\u2019 game, we are doing it on their terms. They own the media telling us every day our problems are caused by what they like to describe as \u201cunfettered immigration\u201d but the reality is that if we deported every single refugee and asylum seeker tomorrow, nothing would change. Nothing. None of us would be any better off. Prices and rents would continue to rise. Meanwhile, the rich keep getting richer and this government continues to attack our democratic right to protest against capitalism, genocide and injustice.<\/p>

There\u2019s nothing the super-rich like better than the working class arguing fruitlessly on social media but, instead of fighting each other, we would do well to remember the only thing that really frightens billionaires (and governments) is the idea of the working class standing together, united, demanding real change. Instead, we\u2019ve allowed them to manipulate and divide us into \u201cleft\u201d and \u201cright\u201d, constantly shoving immigration down our throats until some of us have succumbed to the utter futility of standing outside hotels shouting abuse at frightened refugees and asylum seekers. We really need to wise up, because if it wasn\u2019t immigration, they\u2019d soon find something else to distract us, to keep us at each others\u2019 throats while they – the billionaires and the politicians they own \u2013 carry on, as always, laughing all the way to the bank.<\/p>

Pete Thompson<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ONE OF THE THINGS I LIKED BEST about living in Sandilands was the big, old tree<\/p>\n