CAMPAIGNERS in one of Aberdeen’s most deprived areas have gone to Scotland’s highest court to save their last remaining green space.

Aberdeen City Council plans to turn St Fittick’s Park in Torry over to Energy Transition Zone Ltd (ETZ), whose 2023 application for the site included making the area a “centre of excellence” for hydrogen technologies, building an offshore wind campus, a skills campus, and an innovation campus.

ETZ Ltd, brainchild of Aberdeen oil services billionaire Sir Ian Wood, is a not-for-profit private company, backed to the tune of £60 million so far by both UK and Scottish governments in the name of creating a just transition.

But campaigners say their plans risk repeating the mistakes made in 1970s oil boom, when the community lost housing and its beach to the industry.

Their opposition has now reached the Court of Session in Edinburgh, where the campaigners including Friends of St Fitticks Park will argue that Aberdeen City Council failed in its duties under the Equality Act 2010, including a failure to carry out an equality impact assessment on a community among the 10 per cent most deprived in Scotland.

Ahead of the judicial review, an ETZ Ltd spokesperson said the development would deliver “significant improvements” to the park, arguing the development was a “fundamental requirement so we achieve the investment required to ensure Aberdeen is positioned to capitalise on the vast opportunities provided by new and green energies, particularly offshore wind.”

Ishbel Shand, a Friends of St Fittick’s Park campaigner, remained unconvinced, saying: “Aberdeen City Council is a partner in the business plan that created ETZ Ltd.

“It has control of the land. It is the planning authority.

“There was no consultation before St Fittick’s Community Park was re-zoned for industry.

“The scheme is, moreover, taxpayer-funded. Surely this is so manifestly unfair that it cannot be legal?”

Green MSP for North East Scotland, Maggie Chapman, who joined a rally outside the court on Monday, said: “The damaging and reckless proposal that would destroy the last green space in Torry is part of an unjust corporate land grab.

“Torry contains some of the worst deprivation in Aberdeen, with life expectancy in the area over a decade lower than in other parts of the city.

“We must put community wellbeing ahead of corporate profits and protect our green spaces.

“The loss of St Fittick’s Park does not stack up as part of the just transition we need in Scotland.”

Aberdeen City Council was contacted for comment.