The ETZ is still in limbo, even after the announcement of the ScotWind leasing round on 17th January. Activities have been predicated on offshore wind supply chain work coming to Aberdeen but details of successful consortia’s Supply Chain Statements will not be published until agreements between them and Crown Estate Scotland have been signed,…
Although the consultation period for the PLDP had opened on 10th May, the local residents of Torry were first aware that St. Fittick’s park was threatened with industrial development on 10th June, when the statutory neighbourhood notification notices were delivered to residents living a pre-allocated short distance surrounding the park. The vast majority of…
These claims were also used by the ETZ’s proponents and AHB in their submissions made as part of the Call for Ideas for the National Planning Framework 4 which was running at about the same time January 2020 – 30th April 2020. The ETZ’s documentation (prepared by Barton Wilmore) is strongly in favour of a…
One possible reason for the reference to large, level sites immediately next to the South Harbour could be the notion that Aberdeen should become one of the UK freeports, which had developed from an idea of Rishi Sunak’s in 2016, and floated enthusiastically by Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister in June 2019: his way…
The publicity around the still as yet realised concept of the ETZ zone continued, even before the PLDP had gone to the vote. In early January 2020 at the Oil and Gas UK Maximising Energy Steering Group meeting in Aberdeen the UK Oil and Gas Chairman enthused about what has now become “The Energy…
An initial version of the feasibility study was submitted to Aberdeen Council planners in December 2019. The final plan was published on 6th February 2020, went to councillors on 24th February, only 6 days before they were to vote whether to approve the Proposed Local Development Plan. Version 2 acknowledged that the study has been…
The continuous campaign to plant the idea of a major “Energy Transition Park” linked to the transition to a low carbon economy into the public mind started very soon afterwards. On June 18th 2020, Sir Ian Wood announced a Park at the Energy Export Conference in Aberdeen. Maintaining that Aberdeen must become “a significant…
The arguments for removing this areas greenspace designation when AHB bid for land to be rezoned from Greenspace to Development land in the Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire Strategic Development Plan in 2018 – 2019 prioritised future economic development over keeping the land as greenspace. That was (and still is) seen as “overtly restrictive”; something which…
The Bay of Nigg Development Framework Baseline (BNDF) report, published in early 2016, outlined the plans for the New Harbour, and improved transport links from it to East Tullos. Although AHB and “users of the harbour” (oil and gas industry), wanted land immediately next to the new Harbour for associated industrial activities e.g., wind…