Agenda, decisions and draft minutes

Councillor Watson moved as a procedural motion, seconded by Councillor Tissera:-

That the Council consider item 11.1 (Energy Transition Zone - Land at St Fittick’s Park & Doonies) in public.

On a division, there voted:-

For the procedural motion   (21)  -  Councillors Ali, Blake, Bonsell, Boulton, Brooks, Crockett, Cross, Farquhar, Graham, Grant, Houghton, Kusznir, Lawrence, Macdonald, McLeod, Malik, Massey, Nicoll, Thomson, Tissera and Watson.

Against the procedural motion (23)  -  Lord Provost; Depute Provost; and Councillors Al-Samarai, Allard, Alphonse, Buchanan, Hazel Cameron, Clark, Cooke, Copland, Cormie, Davidson, Fairfull, Greig, Henrickson, Hutchison, MacGregor, McLellan, McRae, Mennie, Radley, van Sweeden and Yuill.

The Council resolved:-

(i)             to reject the procedural motion; and

(ii)           in terms of Section 50A(4) of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973, to exclude the press and public from the meeting during consideration of item 11.1 so as to avoid disclosure of exempt information of the class described in paragraph 9 of Schedule 7A of the Act.

Councillor McRae advised that he had a connection in relation to item 9.5 (Community Planning Aberdeen Annual Outcome Improvement Report 2024/25 and Locality Plan Annual Reports for North, South and Central 2024/25) as a member of the Scottish Ambulance Service Naloxone Working Group in Aberdeen, however having applied the objective test he did not consider that he had an interest and would not be withdrawing from the meeting.

Councillor Yuill advised that he had a connection in relation items 9.4 (Aberdeen City Population Needs Assessment 2025) and 9.5 as the Council’s appointed member of the Board of NHS Grampian, however having applied the objective test he did not consider that he had an interest and would not be withdrawing from the meeting.

Councillors Fairfull, Greig and Henrickson advised that they had a connection in relation to item 10.1 (Notice of Motion by Councillor Boulton) by reason of being Council appointed members of the Board of Aberdeen Performing Arts, however having applied the objective test they did not consider that they had an interest and would not be withdrawing from the meeting.

Councillor Houghton advised that he had a connection in relation to item 9.4 by reason of his wife being a doctor employed by NHS Grampian, however having applied the objective test he did not consider that he had an interest and would not be withdrawing from the meeting.

Councillor Grant advised that he had a connection in relation to item 10.6 (Notice of Motion by Councillor Bonsell) by reason of his employment by Aberdeen Inspired and specifically his role of Project Manager for NuArt, however having applied the objective test he did not consider that he had an interest and would not be withdrawing from the meeting.

Councillors Cooke, Greig and Malik advised that they had a connection in relation items 9.4 and 9.5 as members of the Integration Joint Board, however having applied the objective test they did not consider that they had an interest and would not be withdrawing from the meeting.

Councillor Thomson advised that she had a connection in relation to items 9.4 and 9.5 by reason of her employment by NHS Grampian, however having applied the objective test she did not consider that she had an interest and would not be withdrawing from the meeting.

Councillor Fairfull advised that she had connections in relation to items 9.4 and 9.5 as a member of the Integration Joint Board and by reason of close family members working for NHS Grampian, however having applied the objective test she did not consider that she had an interest and would not be withdrawing from the meeting.

(A)          The Council received a deputation from Dr Ishbel Shand in relation to agenda item 11.1 - Energy Transition Zone - Land at St Fittick’s Park & Doonies - CFS/25/171.  

Dr Shand noted that she was speaking at a disadvantage given that the report was not available to the public and the Council was using paragraph 9 of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 as the reason to exclude the press and public. She feared the report would be nodded through on party political lines and the public would have to resort to Freedom of Information and legal action to find out what happened.

Dr Shand emphasised that elected members had the power, not the Port of Aberdeen, Opportunity North East or Sir Ian Wood. She did not believe that the appropriation of Torry’s green spaces was about combating climate change, creating jobs, benefitting deprived communities or enhancing the biodiversity of a public park; she felt it was a clumsy attempt at “putting lipstick on a pig”.

Dr Shand provided an overview of the history in relation to the matter, with a perceived shifting narrative from providing economic growth to responding to a climate emergency - however the end result was still the same, a land grab. Dr Shand believed that the Port of Aberdeen and ETZ Ltd had persuaded the Council that sacrificing Torry’s green spaces would make Aberdeen the energy capital of Europe, however nobody was champing at the bit to build factories and industrial units on the land in question. She added that the harsh reality was that while other ports in Scotland, like Invergordon and Leith, were preparing for the future, Aberdeen had been desperately trying to maintain the status quo.

Dr Shand highlighted that the city had a lot of highly educated people and they should be involved in the process. She believed that the current plan was scientifically illiterate and depended on massive public subsidies, and that poor outcomes had resulted from a lack of democracy in Aberdeen. Dr Shand emphasised that public scrutiny had been denied and the people responsible had not been held accountable and today’s discussion looked to perpetuate that pattern.

Dr Shand asked the Council to instil its legal team to put in place stringent and enforceable legal protections to protect the public interest and the public purse from exploitation from private interest, and that the officer report and any decisions taken today be made public.

At this juncture, Councillor Allard advised that he had a connection by virtue of being the Council appointed member of the Board of Opportunity North East, however having applied the objective test he did not consider that he had an interest and would not be withdrawing from the meeting.

The Council asked questions of Dr Shand and thanked her for her deputation.

(B)          The Council next received a deputation from Richard Caie, also in relation to agenda item 11.1

Mr Caie advised that he was a resident of Torry, he was retired but volunteered  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.

The Council had before it the minute of meeting of Aberdeen City Council of 16 April 2025.

The Council resolved:-

to approve the minute.

The Council had before it the minute of the reconvened meeting of Aberdeen City Council of 28 April 2025.

The Council resolved:-

to approve the minute.  

The Council had before it the minute of the special meeting of Aberdeen City Council of 28 April 2025.

The Council resolved:-

to approve the minute.

The Council had before it the minute of the special meeting of Aberdeen City Council of 12 June 2025.

The Council resolved:-

to approve the minute subject to noting:-

·       that prior to Councillor McLellan moving a procedural motion in terms of Standing Order 31.1, the Lord Provost had indicated that Councillor Brooks was next on his list of speakers in terms of debate, however Councillor Brooks was unable to speak as a result of the procedural motion having been moved and adopted; and

·       that in relation to dissent being recorded after the substantive vote, that the Lord Provost had ended the meeting and therefore dissent could not be recorded.

The Council had before it the business planner as prepared by the Chief Officer - Governance.

The Council resolved:-

(i)             to note that the Chief Officer - Strategic Place Planning would check, in terms of item 25 - Revised Council Climate Change Plan, whether the new Framework for Local Authorities Climate Change Plans had been published by Environmental Standards Scotland and when the report would be submitted to Council, and provide an update to Members accordingly; and

(ii)           to otherwise note the business planner.

Appendices 1, 3 and 4 are not included with the agenda due to their size. However, they can be accessed at the link below:-

https://committees.aberdeencity.gov.uk/ecSDDisplay.aspx?NAME=SD2899&ID=2899&RPID=71713995

The Council had before it a report by the Chief Officer - Strategic Place Planning which informed of the work undertaken to prepare the Evidence Report for the Local Development Plan 2028, and requested approval to send the Evidence Report to Scottish Ministers for consideration through the Gate Check process.

The report recommended:-

that the Council -

(a)           instruct the Chief Officer - Strategic Place Planning to submit the Evidence Report (Appendix 1), and appropriate supporting documentation, to Scottish Ministers, subject to any necessary minor drafting changes to satisfy the requirements of the Gate Check process;

(b)           note the outcome of the engagement undertaken on the Evidence Report Topic Papers and, in particular, the areas of agreement and the remaining disputes, as summarised in paragraphs 3.10 to 3.12 of the report and Sections 5 and 7 of Appendix 1;

(c)           instruct the Chief Officer - Strategic Place Planning to publish the Evidence Report (Appendix 1) and other technical background documents (subject to any necessary minor drafting changes) (Appendices 2 to 4) which would support the development of the Proposed Local Development Plan on the Council’s website as soon as practicable;

(d)           noting the content of Appendix 4 - Play Sufficiency Assessment, and recognising that play is not only important to children, but to well-being throughout life, instruct the Chief Executive to refresh the existing Aberdeen Play Strategy 2018 to better emphasise the importance of play from birth to old age, and refer the draft objectives of the refreshed strategy to the 2026/27 budget setting process, alongside any other relevant information on open space provision;

(e)           authorise the Chief Officer - Strategic Place Planning to respond to any requests for further information or clarification issued by the Planning and Environmental Appeals Division of the Scottish Government during the course of the Gate Check; and

(f)            authorise the Chief Officer - Strategic Place Planning to make any technical amendments to the Evidence Report and supporting documents as a result of the Gate Check process.

The Council resolved:-

to approve the recommendations.

The Council had before it a report by the Chief Officer - Governance which considered the allocation of committee places as a result of a change to the political composition of the Council.

The report recommended:-

that the Council determine the membership number for each of the Council’s committees (as listed in section 3.1) and thereafter set the composition for each committee, in terms of Standing Order 47.9.

The Council resolved:-

to approve the following allocation of committee places:-

With reference to Article 10 of the minute of its meeting of 16 April 2025, the Council had before it a report by the Chief Officer - Governance which met the instruction to report back with further proposed revisions concerning meeting structure as well as motions and amendments for requisitioned meetings.

The report also proposed changes to the Terms of Reference to align all procurement reporting through the Finance and Resources Committee, provided assurance in relation to the Council’s Local Code of Governance following revision of guidance for local authorities, and sought an instruction in response to recommendations made by Audit Scotland in the annual audit report.

The report recommended:-

that the Council -

(1)           consider the options, including purposes, risks and mitigations, set out in Appendix A;

(2)           determine which, if any, of these options to implement;

(3)           instruct the Chief Officer - Governance to make:

(i)             any amendments to the Standing Orders which are necessary to implement the determination made under recommendation (2), and

(ii)            any amendments to other Scheme of Governance documents which are necessary to reflect the Standing Orders as so amended;

(4)           delegate power to the Chief Officer - Governance to, following consultation with the Co-Leaders, bring the Standing Orders (and any other Scheme of Governance documents) as so amended into force on 10 August 2025 prior to the next Council meeting; and instruct that Chief Officer to thereafter circulate the relevant documents (with tracked changes) to all members of Council for information;

(5)           approve that, with effect from 3 July 2025, the Terms of Reference be amended by deletion of:

(i)             “to approve annual procurement workplans, reflecting the LOIP, the Population Needs Assessment, the Council’s commissioning intentions, the Council’s service standards, the views of customers and citizens, and the best evidence of effective interventions to ensure a preventative focus on demand reduction”; and

(ii)       “to receive an annual procurement performance report to enable scrutiny of performance”;

from the Aberdeen City Council section of that document and addition of that wording to the Finance and Resources Committee section thereof; instruct the Chief Officer - Governance to make any other amendments to Scheme of Governance documents which are necessary to reflect the said amendments to the Terms of Reference and delegate power to that Chief Officer to, following consultation with the Co-Leaders, bring such other amendments into force as soon as practicable; and instruct that Chief Officer to thereafter circulate the relevant documents (with tracked changes) to all members of Council for information;

(6)           for the reasons set out in the “Scheme of Governance Reviews” section of this report, agree that no further reviews of the Standing Orders and Terms of Reference shall take place before the next local government elections in 2027, subject of course to exercise of the Chief Officer - Governance’s existing delegated powers (under the Scheme of Governance) to amend the Council’s Scheme of Governance documentation and subject also to that Chief Officer concluding that an  ...  view the full minutes text for item 11.

The Lord Provost advised that he was bringing forward item 11.1 to be considered at this juncture.

In accordance with Article 1 of this minute, the following item was considered with the press and public excluded.

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  ...  view the full minutes text for item 12.

The Council had before it a report by the Chief Officer - People and Citizen Services which presented the 2025 Population Needs Assessment for Aberdeen City.

The report recommended:-

that the Council note the Population Needs Assessment 2025 as contained at Appendix 1.

The Council resolved:-

to approve the recommendation.

The Council had before it a report by the Chief Officer - People and Citizen Services which presented the Community Planning Aberdeen Annual Outcome Improvement Report 2024/25 and the Locality Plan Annual Outcome Improvement Reports for North, South and Central 2024/25.

The report recommended:-

that the Council -

(a)           approve the Community Planning Aberdeen Annual Outcome Improvement Report 2024/25 as a representation of the Council’s contribution to partnership working in delivery of the Local Outcome Improvement Plan 2016-26; and

(b)           approve the Locality Plan Annual Outcome Improvement Reports for North, South and Central as a representation of the Council’s contribution to partnership working in delivery of the Locality Plans refreshed in 2024.

The Council resolved:-

to approve the recommendations.

The Council had before it a report by the Chief Officer - Finance which provided an update on Treasury Management activities undertaken during financial year 2024/25.

The report recommended:-

that the Council note the Treasury Management activities undertaken in the 2024/25 financial year as detailed in the report.

The Council resolved:-

to approve the recommendation.

Councillor Yuill moved as a procedural motion, seconded by Councillor Radley:-

That the Council refer items 10.1 (Notice of Motion by Councillor Boulton) and 10.5 (Notice of Motion by Councillors Yuill and Allard) to the Finance and Resources Committee; items 10.2 (Notice of Motion by Councillor Macdonald) and 10.4 (Notice of Motion by Councillor Kusznir) to the Staff Governance Committee; and item 10.3 (Notice of Motion by Councillor Nicoll) to the Net Zero, Environment and Transport Committee.

On a division, there voted:-

For the procedural motion  (23)  -  Lord Provost; Depute Provost; and Councillors Al-Samarai, Allard, Alphonse, Buchanan, Hazel Cameron, Clark, Cooke, Copland, Cormie, Davidson, Fairfull, Greig, Henrickson, Hutchison, MacGregor, McLellan, McRae, Mennie, Radley, van Sweeden and Yuill.

Against the procedural motion   (20)  -  Councillors Ali, Blake, Bonsell, Boulton, Brooks, Crockett, Cross, Farquhar, Graham, Grant, Houghton, Kusznir, Lawrence, Macdonald, McLeod, Massey, Nicoll, Thomson, Tissera and Watson.

Absent from the division  (1)  -  Councillor Malik.

The Council resolved:-

to adopt the procedural motion.

That Council:

(1)    Shares the pride of Aberdonians in our city, including its beautiful granite architecture, and wants everyone who lives, works, studies or visits here to see Aberdeen at its best;

(2)    Understands the increasing concerns of residents, businesses and community organisations that graffiti is defacing too many buildings, walls and other structures in the city centre and across Aberdeen;

(3)    Recognises the efforts of Council officers and Police Scotland in addressing the issue of graffiti, for instance, through their reporting systems, graffiti removal service, and diversionary activities, including the graffiti art wall in Sunnybank Park;

(4)    Commends citizens for their vigilance in spotting and reporting graffiti to the Council and Police Scotland;

(5)    Appreciates the positive contribution of NuArt Aberdeen to our cityscape and looks forward to the return of this cultural festival in 2026;

(6)    Instructs the Chief Officer - Operations, following consultation with the Community Safety Manager, to bring a report to the Communities, Housing and Public Protection Committee on 11 November 2025 on current efforts to reduce graffiti in Aberdeen and what more could be done, including partnership working with Police Scotland, local businesses, and community organisations.

The Council had before it a notice of motion by Councillor Bonsell in the following terms:-

“That Council:

(1)     Shares the pride of Aberdonians in our city, including its beautiful granite architecture, and wants everyone who lives, works, studies or visits here to see Aberdeen at its best;

(2)     Understands the increasing concerns of residents, businesses and community organisations that graffiti is defacing too many buildings, walls and other structures in the city centre and across Aberdeen;

(3)     Recognises the efforts of Council officers and Police Scotland in addressing the issue of graffiti, for instance, through their reporting systems, graffiti removal service, and diversionary activities, including the graffiti art wall in Sunnybank Park;

(4)     Commends citizens for their vigilance in spotting and reporting graffiti to the Council and Police Scotland;

(5)     Appreciates the positive contribution of NuArt Aberdeen to our cityscape and looks forward to the return of this cultural festival in 2026;

(6)     Instructs the Chief Officer - Operations, following consultation with the Community Safety Manager, to bring a report to the Communities, Housing and Public Protection Committee on 11 November 2025 on current efforts to reduce graffiti in Aberdeen and what more could be done, including partnership working with Police Scotland, local businesses, and community organisations.”

The Council resolved:-

to approve the notice of motion subject to an amended part (6) as follows:-

(6) Instructs the Chief Officer - Operations, following consultation with the Community Safety Manager, to bring a report to an appropriate Communities, Housing and Public Protection Committee on current efforts to reduce graffiti in Aberdeen and what more could be done, including partnership working with Police Scotland, local businesses, and community organisations.