Important: How to Send Aberdeen City Council your Objections
Deadline 18th December: details below
We are the Friends of St Fittick’s Park and we are campaigning to protect our beloved community park and the last greenspace in Torry, Aberdeen. You will hopeuflly have heard of the campaign through emails like this or seen coverage in media outlets.
Oil billionaire Ian Wood and his partners want to destroy our local park and create a so-called ‘Energy Transition Zone.’ Despite our best efforts the Aberdeen are still trying to force through a plan for this Energy Transition Zone which will industrialise our green sanctuary.
There is a planning application which is open for public response until Monday 18 December. It would be a big help to our campaign and our community if you were able to spare 5 minutes to take action. Every objection is a help.
How you can help save St Fittick
Use the planning portal to tell Aberdeen Council you object to the industrial development. The Friends of St Fittick's Park is submitting an objection, and we ask that you do the same with the support of our guidance below.
Adding your own comments will send a more powerful message to Aberdeen City Council. Please fill in the fields at the Council’s planning portal. Each objection below really counts! Note: you do not have to register a whole profile; you can just fill in your name, address, ‘your comment’, and then hit ‘Submit’.
Our sample objection is below; you can build on it or cut and paste it into the portal’s comment box. Thank you!
(Please copy and paste this text into the comment box.)
I object to the sections of the PPiP relating to the development of Opportunity Site 56 in St Fittick's Park (Zone A in the ETZ Masterplan).
Although the 2023 Local Development Plan (LDP) allocates this site for industrial use, Aberdeen should adhere to the policies set out in both the LDP and the NPF4 that prioritise sustainable and liveable places for people and nature. I ask for a refusal of Planning Permission in Principle for the proposed development of OP56 for the following reasons:
1. It would have significant adverse impacts on environmental health and increase existing social inequalities in Aberdeen.
The proposed industrial development of St Fittick's Park would be in a low-income community, surrounded by existing industry, which already has a significantly lower life expectancy than wealthier areas of Aberdeen. The developer has failed to properly assess both existing health burdens and the cumulative impact of additional air, noise, and light pollution. The loss of half of the park, which improves physical and mental health, would further contribute to poor health in Torry.
The negative impact on environmental health is counter to NPF4 Policy 23 and LDP Policies WB1, WB2 and WB3.
2. It would have significant adverse impacts on the natural environment.
The proposed development in the park would disrupt an established habitat mosaic, removing large areas of mixed woodland, grassland, and scrub and displacing Red List birds and other protected and priority species. Re-routing the East Tullos Burn would disturb wetland sediments, contaminated by upstream industrial runoff, and 15 m high buildings would overshadow the remaining wetland. The development would cause biodiversity loss and reduce habitat connectivity within the park and beyond.
The negative impact on the natural environment is counter to NPF4 Policies 1, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 20, and LDP Policies NE1, NE3, NE4 and NE5.
3. It would have significant adverse impacts on the amenity of the surrounding residential area.
The amenity and visual character of the park, the only large green open space for Torry residents, would be damaged by industrial development. Views of industrial buildings and the new road would replace those of grass and woods. The road would create safety and access problems for residents and conflict with Cycle Route 1 and local path connections. proposed Land raising for the development platforms would also increase flooding in the park. Proposed compensatory greenspace at Tullos Wood, a managed landfill site and only accessible on foot through an industrial estate, is not a viable alternative to the loss of half the existing park.
The negative impact on amenity contradicts NPF4 Policies 14, 21, 22 and LDP Policies D2, D4, D5 and NE4.
4. It would have a significant adverse impact on the setting of a Scheduled Ancient Monument and Commonwealth War Grave.
The proposed development, on raised land, would come within meters of St Fittick's Church and its graveyard, rising above, and overshadowing the church and completely altering its relationship with the surrounding open space.
The negative impact on the setting of a Scheduled Ancient Monument is counter to NPF4 Policy 7.
In addition, I ask for refusal of PPiP because the industrial development of OP56, if approved, would create a precedent for the future re-allocation of other harbour-adjacent green sites, such as the Nigg Bay Golf Course. Further development around Aberdeen South Harbour, as set out in the Aberdeen Harbour Masterplan 2020 would only amplify the adverse impacts noted above.
Thank you so much!
A clean energy transition can and must happen in Aberdeen but it should not come at the cost of our community's most valuable and cherished public asset.
Thanks for your support of our community and our environment.
Friends of St Fittick's Park