 As part of Aberdeen City Council's successful Energising Aberdeen Urban Realm regeneration programme, a number of historical lanes are being given a facelift. These enhancements are not only improving the visual appearance of the areas in question but are also designed to deter vandalism. Two of the lanes, The Adelphi and McCombies Court, have been given makeovers by the city's leading external graphics specialist Passell and are now ready to meet the public eye. Tom Moore, Aberdeen City Centre Manager, told us: "We are delighted with the creative approach used by Passell on the McCombies Court project where they devised a way to protect the historic lane from vandalism by using the latest anti-graffiti materials and recount the history of McCombies Court." Mr Moore added that Passell had also incorporated the region's new Aberdeen City and Shire branding into the large mural graphic created for the public walk way at McCombies Court. "This mural brings a new vitality to the historic site and demonstrates the creative use of the new branding." Support for the project, which also includes facelifts for Patagonian Court and improvements to Union Street doorways, has in part come from the Urban Realm strand of the City Growth Fund. The Fund is administered by Aberdeen City Council and represents a £22.25 million investment over five years by the Scottish Executive in the future of Aberdeen. The Fund was created to implement the recommendations of the Building Better Cities review conducted by the Scottish Executive, which identified the economic, social and cultural importance of Scotland's main cities to national life. Commenting on the successful completion of the project, Simon Greig, Passell (Aberdeen) Ltd. said, "Cities are now looking for visual rejuvenation and are able to capitalise on the latest robust materials used for external graphics projects. Using visuals in this way has grown tremendously in popularity and we are seeing an increased demand. When the Council gave us the brief of creating the mural for McCombies Court, adding colour and vitality to the area was given high priority. Recently having invested over 50K in state-of-art solvent printing equipment, we were able to deliver the best result". Local Councillor Jim Hunter, who represents Castlehill said: "This is an exciting and imaginative way in which to upgrade the area. It greatly improves the look of the walkway, making it a more attractive and inviting pedestrian route." (Councillor Hunt will be attending the photo call) Also see News section for further items. | 
