IT’S been a long five years since Scotland last elected its councillors, and there are fewer places where that difference is more marked than in Aberdeen.

Every week it seems as if a new report is forecasting doom and gloom for a city that used to a byword for wealth.

And while the city still boasts five of the most expensive postcodes in Scotland, it also faces a housing and homelessness crisis.

In their most recent forecast, EY said the city had seen a drop in total employment of 1.6 per cent in 2016, worse than both the Scotland and the UK averages.

Poor growth forecasts, the services firm says, mean “employment prospects remain weak” and the oil and gas sector will continue to “shed jobs, with knock-on effects on the rest of the economy through supply chains, accompanied with further job losses in the public sector.”

Last year, Shelter recorded 1157 individuals who were assessed as homeless in the city, with the charity saying many of them are on the streets due to the downturn.

And yet, there can be fewer cities in the whole of the UK with as many building sites.

New offices, a massive new road, new houses, new schools.

This is a city that seems to be under construction.

There’s also the prospect of a fair chunk of money coming back to the north-east as firms eyes up lucrative decommissioning contracts.

Taking the rigs out of the North Sea is expensive, complex work.

Then there was the failed bid to be UK City of Culture that seems to have embarrassed the city into doing something about its cultural offer.

The Nuart street art festival that ran for the first time last week was a palpable hit with Aberdonians, and plans are already afoot for it come back for the next three years at least.

It’s worth going back to the the 2012 election.

That fight was bitter and divisive, and its heart was Union Terrace Gardens, the green sunken park that sits in the centre of the city.

Local-boy-turned billionaire Sir Ian Wood offered up to £50 million for a new £140 million civic square.

That would have replaced a popular plan by local Peacock Visual Arts to open an arts centre in the gardens.

It would have been a massive project to turn the park into a “transformational” Granite Web.

The initial proposal had was enthusiastically backed by the SNP, and, in a special referendum, by 45,301 of Aberdonians.

Labour strongly opposed, as did around 41,175 Aberdonians.

In the election, Labour made a vote for them a vote to cancel the project.

They romped home, increasing their share of the vote, doubled their councillors, and duly ditched the scheme.

It's worth pointing out that the SNP actually took more votes than Labour.

Five years later and there is now some consensus over the park, with councillors from all parties backing a new master plan for the gardens just last month. There is a feeling that the future of Union Terrace Gardens has now been put to bed.

But there is a similar split in the city over the Marischal Square project, the massive building going up over the road from the former University building turned council HQ, Marischal College.

SNP group leader Stephen Flynn says it’s this building and the controversial deal between Muse and Aberdeen City Council that keeps coming up on the doorstep.

He says only 10 per cent of office space is occupied, which, under the terms of the contract, could leave taxpayers with a hefty bill.

He says the SNP will promise a “real level of scrutiny over public projects”.

Something, the councillor belives “hasn’t existed over the last five years”.

“We simply can’t afford that,” he argues. “We’re looking to transform the infrastructure of the city and build a more exciting and prosperous future for Aberdeen.”

Labour dismiss the SNP’s claims. Jenny Laing, who leads their group on the council says: “What we don’t want to do is go back to the bad old days of the SNP cutting services, blowing the reserves on vanity projects. We want to contribute with the financial stability that we’ve got. We will have joined up thinking.”

There is also some consensus from the parties on the housing challenge facing the city.

“Aberdeen, despite the downturn, is still a very expensive place to live,” Flynn tells the National.

“We need to overcome that. That would be the primary driver for us,” he says, adding that the party are promising to build 2500 new council houses.

His counterpart on the Labour benches agrees. Laing says they’ve made housing their key issue.

“We have a commitment to deliver 2000 council houses, and 3000 affordable homes, we want to make sure we can retain people in the city and attract people to come and work here in the future.”

Figures released last week by letting firm City Lets suggested the average rent in Aberdeen is still declining, and yet still higher than most places. This in turn makes it harder to attract public sector workers. Last month there were 137 vacancies in the city’s schools — the highest yet.

The Greens are also hoping to do well here, with seven candidates standing in the city. The most they’ve ever put up for election.