A legal expert leading the effort to save St Fittick’s Park in Aberdeen has said the team “wouldn’t have taken on the campaign if we didn’t think we could win”.
Hannah Moneagle, a director and principal solicitor at Grampian Community Law Centre and a law lecturer at Robert Gordon University, spoke at a meeting of the Torry Peoples’ Assembly at the end.
Although Aberdeen City Council’s local development plan cannot be changed, the team are still hopeful they can prevent the controversial energy transition zone going ahead.
Miss Moneagle said a number of avenues are being considered, all with “differing chances of success”.
In November, it was confirmed that the majority of Torry’s “last bit of green space” would be saved, with the ETZ taking up “less than a third” of land at St Fittick’s Park.
But campaign group Friends of St Fittick’s Park insist
The ETZ being approved – which is claimed will directly support 2,500 jobs within eight years – is being driven by the not-for-profit ETZ Ltd, whose chairman is Sir Ian Wood.
Situated next to Aberdeen’s new £350 million South Harbour, the zone would boost renewable and low carbon energy sectors in the region by reducing the north-east’s reliance on oil and gas.
‘Defend the park’
Miss Moneagle – who along with colleagues at the Grampian Community Law Centre is defending the park against the ETZ – told The P&J that Torry residents are making sure that “no stone is left unturned to build a case to defend the park”.
She added: “There were some views that were passed from members of the audience that they feel that many opportunities were missed by politicians, right from local level upwards, that they could have challenged the rezoning of the park from a much earlier stage, and it’s too little too late.”
The ETZ has already been approved and rubber stamped by local government empowerment and planning minister Joe FitzPatrick, who said that “due planning process has been followed” and no intervention is planned by the Scottish Government.
Local development plan latest
The local development plan (LDP) was returned to Aberdeen City Council in early May.
Government officials said it was “unsatisfactory” as it referred to out-of-date planning rules.
Ministers adopted a new planning framework in February, months after councillors agreed the LDP.
The suggested changes are technical points to bring the Aberdeen in line with the newer rules.
But – despite hope when it was first returned to the city on May 10 – it is not an opportunity for the city to review the content of the plan.
Miss Moneagle said the required changes were “minimal” and changed “nothing” in the fight for St Fittick’s Park.
Despite this “final nail in the coffin”, Miss Moneagle maintains that the ETZ “don’t have concrete plans” and believes that it can still go ahead without affecting St Fittick’s Park.
She said: “All they’re trying to do at the moment is secure the land and what we found through our own research is that an effective ETZ can still be delivered without having to take away any portion of that land.”
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