My name is Chris Aldred and I am a member of the Friends of St Fittick's Park.  We need your help to complete our legal research and launch a legal challenge to help keep the award winning park as a thriving habitat for people, plants and animals.

I’ve lived in Torry, Aberdeen for 45 years. St Fittick’s Park is a much loved space that was woven into my children’s lives as they grew up.I believe the children of Torry deserve the same chance to experience the nature, joy and peace that the park has brought to my family.

I believe the children of Torry deserve the same chance to experience the nature, joy and peace that the park has brought to my family.

That’s why we believe a legal challenge is vital – it could be our last real hope of protecting the future of Torry’s wonderful park. As has already happened to so many other places in Torry, once it’s lost to industrialisation, it’s lost forever.

Summary

We want to raise a  court action to prevent Aberdeen City Council allowing St Fittick's Park to be concreted over by industry. This is because St Fittick's Park is a much loved, thriving and wild greenspace in the heart of Torry. Many of the trees now growing in the park have been planted by two generations of the community's children. The timing of this intervention is key because the Council have already allowed preparatory works to start.

Our  approach is based on the following aspects:

Some of the land is part of a 300 year 'Lands of Torry Trust' originally bestowed for the benefit of the 'poor', and can only be used for education, heritage and charitable purposes - not for industrial development.

We believe that this restricts the ways in which the land can be used.

In 1876 the Council were judged to have broken the Trust agreement having sold themselves Trust land 80 years previously. The highest court in the land (The House of Lords) ordered the Council to hand back the land around the Bay of Nigg (present site of St Fittick's Park) to the Trust and pay compensation. This judgement is crucial because it describes the location of Trust land and clarifies the role of Aberdeen City Council as trustees of the “Lands of Torry Trust” land.

Call to action

We need your support to bring this legal action – it’s our best chance of saving St Fittick’s Park. But we must act quickly. Aberdeen City Council have already given permission for ETZ Ltd to begin works in the park. This has seen access restricted, parts dug up and the burn moved to make way for later industrialisation. These works are a blow and already causing distress to residents and the wildlife that lives in the park. 

If the next phase of industrial  plans is allowed to continue, it will cause irreversible harm to the park, particularly to all the plants and animals that currently live there. It will also prevent people accessing large parts of the park and ultimately reduce the amount of greenspace available to the people of Torry.

But all is not lost, the park can still be protected from the Council's plans with your help.

Please contribute what you can and share this page today.

What are we trying to achieve?

We believe that applying to the courts is the only way at this late stage of keeping St Fittick’s Park a wonderful haven for nature and people for generations to come.

Your contribution will help ensure that the legitimacy of Aberdeen Council and ETZ Ltd's plans are independently scrutinised.

Our campaigners have already gathered extensive evidence as part of our investigations into the underlying title to the land and the way in which the land requires to be managed. Funds are now required to complete this research  and prepare court papers.

We are a small group of local residents with limited resources doing what we can in our spare time to protect this precious green space.   

What is the next step in the case?

Once we have completed the necessary legal research we have been conducting, we will be asking an Advocate (Counsel) to finalise court papers and for these to be submitted to The Court of Session.  Part of our application to the court will be to apply for a Protective  Expenses Order to limit our liability in the event of a court decision going against us.

How much we are raising and why?

If we are able to secure a Protective Expenses Order in the Court of Session, we estimate that we will need to raise a total of £40,000 to take this case forward through to its conclusion. Right now, our urgent goal is to raise £8,000 to cover finalising our legal research, preparing and submitting court papers and applying for a Protective Expenses Order. 

Every donation helps. Thank you so much for standing with us.