Civil legal aid has been granted in the reclaiming motion (appeal) to the Inner House of the Court of Session in the environmental justice judicial review of McLean v. Aberdeen City Council. The appeal concerns a decision by Aberdeen City Council (ACC) to industrialise St. Fittick’s Park as part of its Energy Transition Zone (ETZ) plan for the city.
The Scottish Legal Aid Board has sanctioned the case as suitable for both senior and junior counsel. Joanna Cherry K.C. will act as senior counsel and GLC’s Mike Dailly will act as junior counsel.
Local campaigners believe the loss of the park will have an adverse impact on the health, wellbeing and amenity of local people in Aberdeen’s Torry. In December 2021, 22 medical doctors from across Aberdeen published an open letter expressing their concern over the loss of the Park for local people. The doctors drew a comparison between the Aberdeen area of West End North, where the residents of two streets have exclusive access to 15 acres of mature riverside woodland, and the residents of the Torry community.
The petition was dismissed in the Outer House of the Court of Session. Lord Fairley’s gave the following reasons in his judgment: “[21] It is not contentious that the respondent is subject to the duties in section 149 of the Equality Act 2010 and regulation 5 of the 2012 Regulations. The very narrow point raised by this petition is whether, prior to passing resolution 9.6 on 11 September 2023, the respondent was under a duty to carry out an equality impact assessment. If the petitioner’s argument about that issue was correct, it would necessarily imply that the respondent was under a duty to carry out an assessment of impact without knowing what proposals it was assessing”.
“[22] The clear purpose of the resolution of 11 September 2023 was to facilitate the collection of relevant information about what development of the park by ETZ, PoA or any other interested party might entail. Logically, the ingathering of such information needed to take place before any impact assessment could be carried out. I therefore agree with the respondent’s submission that, in passing resolution 9.6 of 11 September 2023, it did not breach any of the duties incumbent upon it under section 149 of the Equality Act 2010 or regulation 5 of the 2012 Regulations”.
Joanna Cherry K.C. and GLC’s Solicitor Advocate Mike Dailly are instructed by Charis Brooks, Solicitor acting for our client and Laura McDonagh, Partner at Drummond Miller LLP acting as Edinburgh agents. The respondent is represented by Neill Maclean, Partner and Solicitor Advocate at Brodies LLP. Thanks to Hannah Moneagle, Solicitor and environmental justice campaigner for her assistance in this matter.
