Greens urge Ministers to review controversial St Fittick’s decision
Scottish Ministers must urgently review Aberdeen City Council’s “community wrecking” decision to give the go ahead to build on St Fittick’s Community Park – the last green space in Torry – says Scottish Green MSP Maggie Chapman.
Ms Chapman has supported the community-led campaign to save the park from being built on with a so-called Energy Transition Zone. In 2021, Ms Chapman hosted a debate about its future in the Scottish Parliament.
In a letter to the Minister for Public Finance, Ivan Mckee, Ms Chapman called for the application to be ‘called-in’ due to the detrimental impact it would have on public health and wellbeing, local nature and access to green space.
In August the Court of Session ruled against a judicial review brought by community campaigners to challenge the development.
Ms Chapman said: “A lot of people across Torry are rightly angry that they face the prospect of losing their last remaining greenspace, St Fittick’s Community Park, to a destructive and unjust corporate land grab.
“Torry has already borne far too much of the brunt of Aberdeen’s vast inequality and uneven development, and this will only make that worse. It has to deal with all of the city’s waste with the sewage works and incinerator looming over the community. And it’s just lost its beach at Nigg Bay to the massive South Harbour development. All of this after seeing Old Torry flattened and residents displaced decades ago to make way for oil and gas infrastructure.
“St Fittick’s Park is crucial for nature and the local community in Torry. If this community-wrecking development goes ahead it will further undermine health and wellbeing and the local environment.
“I hope that the Scottish Government will listen to the concerns of local people and that they will urgently call-in this disastrous decision.”
Text of Maggie Chapman’s letter to Ivan Mckee
Dear Ivan,
I am writing to you to request that you call-in planning application 231371/PPP approved by Aberdeen City Council on 7 November 2024. This decision came despite the many objections of local people as well as SEPA.
I believe that it would be appropriate for the Scottish Ministers to call in this application, in accordance with the guidelines set out in the Ministerial Statement of 28th June 2023. It raises matters of serious national interest and has implications for national planning policy in respect of the integrity and authority of NPF4, the government’s commitments in relation to the climate and nature emergencies and issues of public health and the wellbeing economy.
It also raises serious issues regarding equality, poverty and imbalances of power, given that the location of the proposed development, Torry in Aberdeen, is an area of multiple deprivation with life experiences and expectancy which are considerably worse than those of other parts of Scotland.
I will briefly set out my concerns in relation to each of these matters.
1. National Planning Framework 4
This application breaches fundamental elements of NPF4 including at least three of its overarching spatial principles.
a. Just Transition: This principle states that “We will empower people to shape their places and ensure the transition to net zero is fair and inclusive”. The proposed development is overwhelmingly opposed by the local people of Torry, who have been given no power to shape their place. Far from being fair and inclusive, the proposed development will take away their only available green space and exclude them further from their own locality.
b. Local living: This principle states that “We will support local liveability and improve community health and wellbeing by ensuring people can easily access services, greenspace, learning, work and leisure locally”. The proposed development will damage community health and wellbeing through its removal of greenspace and leisure amenity. The locality is one of multiple deprivation, in which access to private vehicles is very low, and the continued existence of St Fittick’s Park is therefore essential to local living.
c. Compact urban growth: This principle states that “We will limit urban expansion so we can optimise the use of land to provide services and resources, including carbon storage, flood risk management, blue and green infrastructure and biodiversity”. Green infrastructure, biodiversity and flood risk management are all seriously threatened by this development. SEPA has lodged an objection in relation to the proposal’s breach of NPF4 in respect of the proposal to build on a recognised floodplain without any of the applicable exceptions being met. The flood risk to the site has been substantially understated by the developers’ assessment as evidenced by flooding on the site within the past few weeks. The proposed development also threatens the national spatial strategy in respect of sustainable, liveable and productive places, in respect of the issues discussed above. I am concerned that if this application is not considered by the Scottish Ministers, the integrity and authority of the National Planning Framework will be dangerously undermined, with a precedent set that the overarching principles and national spatial strategy are not genuine priorities and that they can be ignored with impunity.
2. Commitments in respect of the climate and nature emergencies
While details are not yet available of what type of activity is planned at the site, evidence heard at the recent council meeting suggests that it will consist mainly of the import of components from East Asia to be assembled on site. This type of industry does not contribute essentially to Scotland’s pathway to net zero, while the destruction of woodland and wetlands at St Fittick’s Park would represent a loss both to carbon sequestration and to biodiversity.
3. Public health
As noted above, the locality in which the development is proposed includes areas in the lowest decile of multiple deprivation. It is widely recognised that in such places, the
residents’ right to a healthy environment, as recognised by the Scottish Government, requires particular priority to be given to high quality and accessible green space. The purported health assessment provided by the developer was highly inadequate, incorporating no primary data and relying upon speculation about theoretical and non[1]evidenced mitigations. Clinicians including the President of The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health have stated that the industrialisation of St Fittick’s Park would adversely affect the health of the people of Torry.
4. Wellbeing economy
The Scottish Government’s official position with regard to the wellbeing economy is stated as: “Making the transition to a Wellbeing Economy is a top priority for the Scottish Government. This means building an economy that is fair, green and growing. Our economic transformation aims to fundamentally reshape our economy, delivering a just transition to a net zero, nature-positive economy based on the principles of equality, prosperity and resilience.” The proposed development fails to meet these criteria, being neither fair nor green, standing in opposition to the principles of a just transition and breaching the principles of equality, prosperity and resilience, both in the way that decisions have been made and in their substantive effect, particularly the destruction of a highly significant community asset.
5. Equality, poverty and imbalances of power
Torry is a community that has already borne the brunt of Aberdeen’s vast inequality and uneven development, with a life expectancy more than 10 years lower than people elsewhere in Aberdeen. They have already been burdened with the city’s sewage works and incinerator and lost their beach at Nigg Bay to the South Harbour development. It is, I believe, especially important, if Scotland is to maintain its commitment to equality
and procedural justice, that this application be considered at the highest level.
For all of these reasons, and for justice for the Torry community, I urge you to call in –
urgently – the decision made by the City Council.