Decision details

With reference to Article 6 of the minute of its meeting of 11 September 2023, the Council had before it a report by the Chief Officer - Corporate Landlord and the Chief Officer - City Development and Regeneration which summarised the outcomes of discussions and activity instructed by Council in September 2023 and proposed a means of developing the sites to fully realise the ambitions of the Regional Economic Strategy.

The report recommended:-

that the Council -

(a)           agree that the land at St Fittick’s Park and Doonies, as identified in the report, be taken forward for development subject to the safeguards identified within the report;

(b)           note the Council instruction of 11 September 2023 that the St Fittick’s Park OP56 and Doonies OP61 sites were “only to be made available for lease and must remain in Council ownership and that, furthermore, any such lease agreement was only to be entered into at the point where an end user was agreed by Aberdeen City Council and financial close was reached” and agree that this instruction shall still apply to the St Fittick’s Park site (OP56);

(c)           note that the Doonies site (OP61), following further investigation, has been found to be capable of accommodating a variety of end users and it is accordingly unlikely that a number of leases with numerous parties could be agreed simultaneously; and therefore agree that, if development was to be delivered, this would involve an element of speculative site enabling works being undertaken;

(d)           agree to establish a new company with ETZ Ltd, such company to work in partnership to make the land at both sites available for development, with ETZ Ltd underwriting all costs for on and off-site enabling works and the costs of servicing the company;

(e)           agree the principles of the Heads of Terms (Appendix 2) and instruct the Chief Officer - Commercial & Procurement Services to, following consultation with the Convener of the Finance and Resources Committee, further develop the Heads of Terms into a formal legal structure for the company; and authorise that Chief Officer to approve such a structure on behalf of the Council and to do anything necessary to set up such a company and bring such a structure into effect;

(f)             agree that the Council’s ALEO Assurance Hub shall maintain oversight of the company once operational and that the company shall have 3 directors from the Council and 3 directors from ETZ Ltd;

(g)           instruct the Chief Officer - Commercial & Procurement Services to identify 3 Council officers to act as Directors of the company, such officers among them to possess sufficient technical, economic development and locality planning expertise; and to identify such replacements as may be required from time to time;

(h)           agree that the Council forego any financial return from the sites once income streams are established, and agree the principle that any surplus from the development and leasing of land be utilised as follows:

1)             to support the delivery mechanism/operating costs of the company to be formed;

2)             to meet the costs of the repair, maintenance and upkeep of all assets created or impacted by any development. This ensures long term finance to maintain the assets in St Fittick’s Park and Tullos Wood, such as East Tullos Burn, sports pitches, playpark, path networks etc;

3)             any remaining funds to be invested to further the company’s aims as outlined in a community benefit statement, to include funding of local initiatives to support disadvantaged groups in Torry such as the disabled, elderly and those furthest from the labour market, with allocation of these funds to be determined through a mechanism, yet to be decided, that empowers the Torry community to make decisions;

(i)             approve the criteria set out in the Investor Selection Framework attached at Appendix 3; and

(j)             agree a Licence to Occupy will be provided to ETZ Ltd to carry out environmental and improvement works to St Fittick’s Park during 2025.

Councillor Allard moved, seconded by Councillor Greig:-

          That the Council -

(a)       agree that the land at St Fittick’s Park and Doonies, as identified in the report, be taken forward for development subject to the safeguards identified within the report;

(b)       note the Council instruction of 11 September 2023 that the St Fittick’s Park OP56 and Doonies OP61 sites were “only to be made available for lease and must remain in Council ownership and that, furthermore, any such lease agreement was only to be entered into at the point where an end user was agreed by Aberdeen City Council and financial close was reached” and agree that this instruction shall still apply to the St Fittick’s Park site (OP56);

(c)        note that the Doonies site (OP61), following further investigation, has been found to be capable of accommodating a variety of end users and it is accordingly unlikely that a number of leases with numerous parties could be agreed simultaneously; and therefore agree that, if development was to be delivered, this would involve an element of speculative site enabling works being undertaken;

(d)       agree to establish a new company with ETZ Ltd, such company to work in partnership to make the land at both sites available for development, with ETZ Ltd underwriting all costs for on and off-site enabling works and the costs of servicing the company;

(e)       agree the principles of the Heads of Terms (Appendix 2) and instruct the Chief Officer - Commercial & Procurement Services to, following consultation with the Convener of the Finance and Resources Committee, further develop the Heads of Terms into a formal legal structure for the company; and authorise that Chief Officer to approve such a structure on behalf of the Council and to do anything necessary to set up such a company and bring such a structure into effect;

(f)         agree that the Council’s ALEO Assurance Hub shall maintain oversight of the company once operational and that the company shall have 3 directors from the Council and 3 directors from ETZ Ltd;

(g)       instruct the Chief Officer - Commercial & Procurement Services to identify 2 Council  Officers and 1 Elected Member from the Partnership to act as Directors of the company, such officers among them to possess sufficient technical, economic development and locality planning expertise; and to identify such replacements as may be required from time to time;

(h)       agree that the Council forego any financial return from the sites once income streams are established, and agree the principle that any surplus from the development and leasing of land be utilised as follows:

1)      to support the delivery mechanism/operating costs of the company to be formed;

2)      to meet the costs of the repair, maintenance and upkeep of all assets created or impacted by any development. This ensures long term finance to maintain the assets in St Fittick’s Park and Tullos Wood, such as East Tullos Burn, sports pitches, playpark, path networks etc;

3)      any remaining funds to be invested to further the company’s aims as outlined in a community benefit statement, to include funding of local initiatives to support disadvantaged groups in the neighbouring communities, including Torry and Cove, such as the disabled, elderly and those furthest from the labour market, with allocation of these funds to be determined through a mechanism, yet to be decided, that empowers the neighbouring communities, including Torry and Cove, to make decisions;

(i)         approve the criteria set out in the Investor Selection Framework attached at Appendix 3; and

(j)         agree a Licence to Occupy will be provided to ETZ Ltd to carry out environmental and improvement works to St Fittick’s Park during 2025.

Councillor Watson moved as an amendment, seconded by Councillor Thomson:-

          That the Council -

(1)       note the recommendations within the report agreeing some of those are a departure from what was agreed in September 2023;

(2)       agree the UK Government modern industrial strategy puts Aberdeen at the forefront of global transition with the Aberdeen Energy Transition Zone project being a key transformation project designed to accelerate progress to net zero through energy transition activities generating 2,500 new jobs in Aberdeen;

(3)       agree the industrial strategy can and must be done without relying on St Fittick’s Park therefore Council must remove St Fittick’s Park from the Energy Transition Zone;

(4)       agree officers have not carried out instruction 6 of the September 2023 agreed position, noting that the Council’s engagement  with ETZ Ltd may mean that the Council does not obtain best value for the site;

(5)       agree not to provide ETZ Ltd with a licence to occupy to carry out environmental work and improvement works to St Fittick’s Park during 2025;

(6)       require that any such private company established shall provide access to its information as if it were subject to the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 and the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004; and

(7)       agree Council should be very worried about the recommendations within the report given the external Audit Report titled Corporate Landlord Responsibilities to be heard on 28 July 2025 which noted amongst other things that in terms of contracts the Council is in breach of Procurement regulations and Best Value may be at risk through short term measures.

On a division, there voted:-

For the motion  (29)  -  Lord Provost; Depute Provost; and Councillors Al-Samarai, Allard, Alphonse, Boulton, Brooks, Buchanan, Hazel Cameron, Clark, Cooke, Copland, Cormie, Cross, Davidson, Fairfull, Farquhar, Greig, Henrickson, Houghton, Hutchison, MacGregor, McLellan, McLeod, McRae, Mennie, Radley, van Sweeden and Yuill.

For the amendment   (13)  -  Councillors Ali, Blake, Bonsell, Crockett, Graham, Grant, Kusznir, Lawrence, Macdonald, Nicoll, Thomson, Tissera and Watson.

Declined to vote  (1)  -  Councillor Massey.

Absent from the division  (1)  -  Councillor Malik.

The Council resolved:-

to adopt the motion.