Plans for Aberdeen’s first Energy Transition Zone are moving forward after Scotland’s highest court ruled that the city council did not act unlawfully over the proposals for a community park.
Publishing his ruling from the Court of Session in Edinburgh, Lord Douglas Fairley refused the petition from Friends of St Fittick’s Park which argued the local authority failed its legal duty to perform equality impact assessments.
The park, in Torry, is the site of a proposed ETZ, an industrial hub tailored to support the transition to green energy.
A spokesman for ETZ Ltd, the private sector-led and not-for-profit company spearheading the transition, said less than a third of the popular park would be used for the ETZ.
He said: “We welcome today’s Court of Session judgment.
“Through our Community & Coast programme, ETZ Ltd are firmly committed to enhancing wider greenspaces in proximity of the Energy Transition Zone in co-design and collaboration with the local community.
“This will include significant improvements to St Fittick’s Park, Tullos woods and the coastal path corridor as part of the project’s wider regeneration ambitions.
“It is important to highlight that we have proposed utilising, subject to planning, a significantly reduced area of development to St Fittick’s Park with just over half of the Aberdeen City Council proposed sites being developed equating to less than a third of the park overall. ”
Richard Caie, from Friends of St Fittick’s Park, said the group was “dismayed but not discouraged” by the ruling, and that it would continue to oppose the development.
An Aberdeen City Council spokesperson said: “Aberdeen City Council notes today’s decision by the Court of Session.”