Latest news with #CourtofSession
The Herald Scotland
2 days ago
- Business
- The Herald Scotland
Aberdeen park faces bulldozers as planning documents lodged
However, after a legal challenge was defeated in the Court of Session, two planning applications to alter the site have been submitted to Aberdeen City Council. At an emergency community meeting on Monday evening, campaigners spoke about the importance of the park and discussed ways to combat the planning applications. Campaigners Scott Herrett, Ishbel Shand, and Richard Caie (L-R). (Image: Josh Pizzuto-Pomaco) Campaigner and local resident Scott Herrett told attendees: 'It's important to remind ourselves the planning process is not the only way in which to protect the park. "The council still has to vote to lease the land to ETZ Ltd before anything can happen. If these applications pass, then it's likely this might happen later this year.' Energy company ETZ Ltd, which is backed by oil and gas tycoon Sir Ian Wood, has long expressed a desire to turn part of the park into office space. The group says the 'opportunity zone' will benefit the renewable energy sector and Aberdeen's economy. However, campaigners have hotly contested these remarks. "I love the park, this is pure vandalism of a much enjoyed space filled with nature. It's completely disrespectful of local residents. Coupled with that, there seems no prospect that industry will come or jobs be created," said Chris Aldred, a Torry resident and member of Friends of St. Fittick's Park. Ishbel Shand, a long-time member of the group, told The Herald: "The proposed transfer of St Fittick's from the public to the private sector has nothing to do with creating jobs or combatting climate change. The Port of Aberdeen built a harbour in a pristine bay and they want the land for supporting infrastructure - offices, refuelling tanks and so forth. Shand added: 'I suspect the plan is to trash the park and when no-one shows any interest in using the sites for renewable projects argue that they might as well use it for port infrastructure since it has been trashed. 'That's what it did with the 'temporary construction site' on the park despite a legal requirement to reinstate it and return it to public ownership.' St Fitttick's Park viewed from the air. The council has previously signed off on a masterplan for the area and planning permission in principle. Now, they will be asked to make a more detailed decision. According to the ETZ's masterplan, a third of the park will be converted into 'high-value energy transition activity' with quayside access to the nearby Aberdeen South Harbour. A statement on their website reads: 'By partnering with the community, industry and investors, and harnessing world-class experience and know-how, the 40 hectare Energy Transition Zone will help the UK and Scotland reach Net Zero targets and will deliver sustainable economic and job security for our region and our people.' Read more from Josh Pizzuto-Pomaco: Calls to bring back this 'unique' detail in this popular Glasgow shopping centre Tory anger over 'woeful' LEZ retrofit scheme as Aberdeen businesses flounder How much has new trains procurement cost taxpayers? Scot Gov refuses to say Glasgow Film Theatre praised by pro-Israel lobby group over BDS vote The issue has been a political football for years. The Labour and Conservative-led council administration voted to allow the site to be rezoned in 2020, over the objections of the SNP and Liberal Democrats. However, now in opposition, Labour says the park must be preserved, while the SNP-Lib Dem partnership has voted to progress the planning process. An Aberdeen Labour spokesperson said: 'We support the principles of the ETZ as the ETZ will support and create well paid jobs which is vital to the UK and Scottish economy. What we do not support is the vandalism of St Fittick's Park in Torry as we believe there is a suitable alternative to using this much loved park.' 'Our other concern is that the Council has not yet agreed to lease the park to any individual or organisation yet we are seeing a planning application from ETZ Ltd. Officers of the Council have not yet reported back to Council on what is happening with St Fittick's Park despite an instruction to do so back in September 2023. 'There is a huge worry within the community of Torry that Aberdeen City Council are working hand in glove with ETZ Ltd who are not the land owners of St Fitticks Park.' When asked for comment, an Aberdeen City Council spokesperson said the local authority did not comment on live planning applications. A decision on the matter is expected to be taken over the summer.
Scotsman
30-05-2025
- Sport
- Scotsman
Former Hibs star sues club over 'horrific' injuries in training-ground clash
Lawyers in career 'lost' declaration as Court of Session papers name Easter Road club Sign up to our Hibs football newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to Edinburgh News, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Crocked former Hibs player Jake Doyle-Hayes has started legal proceedings over the training-ground tackle that ended his career, with the player's lawyer accusing then manager Lee Johnson of making 'incompetent and incoherent decisions.' The Irish midfielder is seeking compensation from the club over the injury that derailed his attempts to make a lasting impact on the first team. Johnson is accused of making a tackle that resulted in 'horrific injuries' for Doyle-Hayes back in September of 2022. The former St Mirren player needed an operation on his ankle the following month – and never really recovered, with his solicitor today insisting: 'A career has been lost to this athlete.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Doyle-Hayes has begun proceedings at the Court of Session aimed at claiming compensation for lost earnings, with the player named as pursuer and Hibernian Football Club – who employed Johnson as manager at the time – named as defender. The player, who signed for Hibs in the summer of 2021, left the club by mutual consent in January. Lee Johnson named in case claiming 'mismanagement and ineptitude' Joel Shaw, a partner with Thompsons Solicitors, laid out the claim being made by the former Aston Villa prospect as he said: 'Our client, Jake Doyle-Hayes suffered horrific injuries from a tackle made by the then manager of Hibernian Football Club, Lee Johnson. The impact of this has greatly restricted his career. 'These injuries should never have happened and were incurred due to incompetent and incoherent decisions made by his manager. Jake's career has been derailed by mismanagement and ineptitude. 'A career has been lost to this athlete. We will get him compensation.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Surgery, recovery and a recurring injury restricted Doyle-Hayes Doyle-Hayes made almost 70 appearances in his three-and-a-half seasons with Hibs. And he did appear to make a good initial recovery from the operation, returning to the first team later in season 2022-23 - and making a handful of appearances at the start of the following season. But he sat out the rest of the 2023-24 campaign with a recurring ankle issue. And he made just a single appearance for Hibs last season, coming on for the closing seven minutes of October's 1-1 home draw with Hearts. The club agreed terms on a deal to cancel his contract in January, allowing the 26-year-old to sign for Sligo Rovers as a free agent. He has played regularly for the League of Ireland side since the switch – but his lawyers will argue that, without the lingering effects of the training-ground incident, he would be playing at a much higher level. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The history of footballers making injury claims against employers or opponents suggests Doyle-Hayes will have to meet a high threshold before succeeding, with the player required to prove that he was owed a duty of care by Hibs, that this duty of care was breached – and that the injury was caused by that breach. In addition, his lawyers will have to convince a judge that the conduct of Johnson was reckless and fell below expected standards. A spokesman for Hibs, responding to the comments by Shaw and commenting on the case, told the Evening News: 'The club is aware of the claim, however as an ongoing matter shall not be commenting further at this stage.'
The Herald Scotland
29-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Herald Scotland
He is Scotland's greatest novelist but no-one reads him now. Why?
With originality and verve, he illuminated the turbulent past, mainly of Scotland, but also England and France. Scott's phenomenal productivity was in part the result of finding himself almost bankrupt in 1825. Yet he had been drawn to stories of the great events that shaped Scotland since he was a boy. Despite the demands of his roles as Sheriff-Depute of Selkirkshire and Clerk of the Court of Session in Edinburgh, Scott turned to fiction with such energy it was as if he were an uncorked bottle of champagne. Read more In the space of 18 years, 27 novels fizzed out of him in a seemingly unstoppable stream, intoxicating readers worldwide and changing forever the face of his homeland. The more vivid the period, the livelier his imagination: Waverley was about the 1745 Jacobite Rebellion; Woodstock about the Cavaliers and Roundheads; Ivanhoe took place in England after the Norman Conquest, while Old Mortality was about the Covenanters. The Heart of Midlothian is based on the Porteous Riots of 1736; Kenilworth was set in Elizabethan England, Quentin Durward in 15th-century France and The Talisman in Palestine during the Crusades. In tribute to his continuing influence, the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction was founded 16 years ago by the Duke and Duchess of Buccleuch, with the winners announced at the Borders Book Festival in Melrose in June. Previous winners include Hilary Mantel, Robert Harris, Robin Robertson and Tan Twan Eng, and this year's shortlist features novels set in Sicily in 412 BC, the 19th-century American frontier and England in the winter of 1962–3. As a genre, the historical novel appears to be thriving, its perennial success directly attributable to the Laird of Abbotsford. Scott's literary career had begun first as a collector of Border Ballads – Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border – and then with epic poems such as Marmion and The Lady of the Lake. Only in his forties did he turn to fiction. Learning of his change of direction, Jane Austen wrote: "Walter Scott has no business to write novels, especially good ones. "It is not fair. "He has fame and profit enough as a poet, and should not be taking the bread out of other people's mouths. Sir Walter Scott's home in Abbotsford (Image: free) "I do not like him, and do not mean to like Waverley if I can help it – but I fear I must." Scott's fame crossed continents. Eager to see the locations he so vividly described, tourists flocked to Scotland to visit the scenes of his stories and explore his stately home, which was opened to the public in 1833, the year after his death. His evocation of bygone times turned a country once deemed primitive and inhospitable into the alluring backdrop for drama, intrigue and heroism. Thanks to the appeal of his swashbuckling plots and unforgettable characters, and to the romance surrounding the author himself, Scott put Scotland on the map. A natural storyteller, whose grasp of social and political history was profound and enlightened, Scott's impact on literature was transformational. Across Europe and America, writers took their cue from him, notably Balzac, Alessandro Manzoni, Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas, Jules Verne, James Fennimore Cooper, Theodor Fontane, Pushkin, Tolstoy and Turgenev, all of whom acknowledged their debt. Not everyone, however, was a fan. Mark Twain believed his novels exerted a "malign" influence on "the character of the Southerner". By diverting Southerners' attention from the present and future to an idealised past, wrote a frothing Twain, he helped foment the American Civil War. Until the present era, familiarity with Scott's novels was essential for anyone who wished to be considered well-read. To admit never having broached The Heart of Midlothian or Ivanhoe (Tony Blair's desert island book) was to invite derision. Today, sadly, Scott is barely read in his home country. Whereas there have been recent translations of his work in Croatia, Albania, Bosnia and Catalonia, here he has become the Great Unread. Read more People wouldn't thank you for a set of his novels; I doubt if even charity shops would accept them. But although his stories are consigned to library bookshelves, where they gather dust, his legacy endures. The rocket-like Scott Monument in Princes Street is within earshot of the tannoy system at Waverley Station. What other city has named its main railway station after a novel? And all across the UK streets, houses and pubs are called after his books or characters: Marmion Road, Durward Avenue, Waverley Place, Ivanhoe Avenue, Woodstock Road, Peveril Street, Kenilworth Terrace... It is one of literature's great injustices that a writer whose purpose was to bring history alive for as wide an audience as possible is now deemed dry and dull. Neither accusation is fair. Scott has fallen from favour not because of changing taste, although that plays a part; nor because he is now as historic as his subjects, although that too is true. It is not because of his rich, occasionally antique language, or his love of dialect, or his leisurely digressions. The biggest enemy of Scott is time itself—not its passing but readers' lack of it. Modern bestsellers are written to catch the attention quickly and not overstay their welcome. It's a brave writer who produces a novel as long as Peveril of the Peak. But for some of us, the heft of Scott's stories is part of their appeal. In fact, right now I'm off to continue Rob Roy, which had me hooked from the opening page. I may be some time. The Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction shortlist: The Heart in Winter, Kevin Barry; The Mare, Angharad Hampshire; The Book of Days, Francesca Kay; Glorious Exploits, Ferdia Lennon; The Land in Winter, Andrew Miller; The Safekeep, Yael van der Wouden. The winner will be announced on Thursday 12 May at 5pm. For details and tickets go to:
Press and Journal
26-05-2025
- Business
- Press and Journal
Developers reveal timeline of St Fittick's Park and Doonies Farm takeover as ETZ plans ramp up
Developers have plotted out exactly how they will transform Torry's St Fittick's Park and the former Doonie's Farm into a bustling industrial renewables hub. Work will take place to transform the Aberdeen park into an Energy Transition Zone (ETZ), much to the dismay of campaigners who recently lost a last-ditch legal challenge to protect the space. Just last week, activists failed to convince the Court of Session to overturn the council's ruling approving the development in principle. And the team behind the ETZ have now lodged further plans with the council to spell out the stages of the planned transformation. The work includes realigning the East Tullos Burn, landscaping projects and gradually paving over Doonies. Ultimately, the ETZ is hoped to transform the region's fortunes – securing a boom in employment by attracting major renewable energy firms to the north-east. But before all that, consent is needed for the sites. And we can now reveal how the mammoth project is poised to take shape. The first phase of the project focuses on realigning the East Tullos Burn. This will go hand in hand with landscaping works within and around the burn's corridor, if approved by Aberdeen City Council. Vegetation of the surrounding area will also be worked on in the hopes of improving the habitat and wetland species will be planted. There will also be measures taken to enhance water quality in the area. A new sports pitch will also replace the existing one at East Tullos playing fields. Following on, there will be more work to improve the surrounding area. Trees and further grassland will be planted on and off-site at Tullos Woods, while new play equipment will be created at the park. Footpaths within St Fittick's Park will be improved, making it easier for people to reach the ETZ site. Small 'parklets' will be formed in the surrounding neighbourhood too. And the Coast Road will also be realigned to give access to new development plots, in a major scheme. The construction of industrial buildings for the ETZ Zone will then begin. Two buildings will be built on the outskirts of the wooded area of the park, as will supporting car parks and refuse storage. The existing Nigg sewage plant will be retained with the ETZ buildings in place around the area. New greenery will then be planted in the surrounding areas of the building's grounds. As part of the works, bosses have pledged to help with repairs to historic St Fittick's Church. The Doonies Farm site will be transformed into a hydrogen campus with testing and demonstration facilities, years after the animals there were relocated. A new Links Road is to be built to connect the Coast Road to Peterseat Drive to allow access to the sites. Once these steps have been taken, the construction of the buildings required for the site will begin. Further greenery measures will also be introduced following the erection of the buildings. These could include green roofs, native species of trees, and hedgerows. But now developers will need their detailed vision for the ETZ to be approved by the local authority before any work can launch. You can see the St Fittick's Park and ETZ plans for yourself on the council's website. Exclusive: The 7 old Altens oil industry buildings being brought back to life in multi-million-pound ETZ spending spree New £9m ETZ building to generate dozens of Aberdeen jobs Aberdeen safety firm moves to new ETZ headquarters after seven-figure investment
Daily Record
26-05-2025
- Daily Record
Limbs in the Loch killer makes fresh bid for freedom after parole board decision
William Beggs was jailed for life in 2001 after murdering and dismembering Barry Wallace, disposing of the limbs and torso in Loch Lomond and his head at sea. A lawyer has urged a judge to throw out a legal challenge brought by 'limbs in the loch' killer William Beggs as he seeks to be freed from prison. Mark Lindsay KC told judge Lady Drummond on Monday that parole board officials acted lawfully in a decision made by the organisation in February 2024. The Court of Session heard how staff refused to release Beggs on license from the life sentence given to him in October 2001 for murdering Barry Wallace. Lawyers for Beggs claim that the parole board's decision to deny their client's release from custody was incorrect - this has prompted them to raise a judicial review at Scotland's highest civil court. His legal team want Lady Drummond to quash the February 2024 decision. They also want the parole board to convene a tribunal of new members to reconsider Beggs's bid for freedom. However, on Monday, Mr Lindsay said the decision made by the parole board was lawful. He told Lady Drummond: 'There's no merit in the grounds of appeal advanced on behalf of the petitioner. I invite your lady to dismiss the petition.' Beggs was jailed for life in 2001 after murdering and dismembering 18-year-old Mr Wallace after luring him back to his flat in Kilmarnock, in Ayrshire. He disposed of the limbs and torso in Loch Lomond and the head at sea. He was ordered to serve a minimum term of 20 years in jail before he could seek to apply for release on parole, but completed that period in December 2019. Legal papers lodged in the case states that the petitioner is now 'five years over his punishment part.' A hearing in the action was due to begin at the Court of Session in Edinburgh in the absence of Beggs earlier this year. However, Lady Drummond agreed to discharge it so the murderer could either be brought into court or observe proceedings virtually via a video conferencing app called Webex. On that occasion, Lady Drummond was told that Beggs,62, wanted to be able to respond to what was said in the judicial review as he was present at the Parole Board hearing. The court heard that Beggs had made a complaint to the prison authorities over a refusal to bring him to court and has had no response. Beggs's lawyer Simon Crabb said: "He wishes to be able to fully participate in the hearing by attending to hear the arguments, to observe any judicial interventions and to be able to see justice is done in his case." Mr Crabb said Beggs felt he had been treated unfairly and added: "He thinks it is important he should be present either in person or by Webex. This is a case that obviously involves his fundamental right to liberty.' On Thursday, Beggs observed proceedings from prison. He could be seen wearing a navy suit, a light blue shirt and a royal blue tie. He sat beside a prison officer and had what appeared to be a number of legal files beside him. Join the Daily Record WhatsApp community! Get the latest news sent straight to your messages by joining our WhatsApp community today. You'll receive daily updates on breaking news as well as the top headlines across Scotland. No one will be able to see who is signed up and no one can send messages except the Daily Record team. All you have to do is click here if you're on mobile, select 'Join Community' and you're in! If you're on a desktop, simply scan the QR code above with your phone and click 'Join Community'. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. To leave our community click on the name at the top of your screen and choose 'exit group'. If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice. Lawyers acting for Beggs claim parole board officials made their decision partly on the basis of an 'irrelevant factor'. They claim that parole board officials considered his conviction for murdering student Gary Oldham,28, in England in 1987. However, Beggs successfully appealed the conviction. Beggs's legal team claim that in their February 2024 decision, parole board officials considered the death of Mr Oldham in their deliberations. They believe the parole board had no lawful basis to do this. On Monday, Mr Lindsay said this wasn't the case and considered evidence which related to the level of risk posed by Beggs to the public. He added: 'They looked at the lack of insight and they looked at the lack of insight focused work on the part of the petitioner. 'They looked at the lack of a supportive network for the petitioner. They were entitled to conclude that the level of risk posed by the petitioner cannot be, at this time, managed within the community.' Mr Lindsay also told the hearing that Beggs will have another chance to apply for parole at another hearing in August 2025. Lady Drummond told the lawyers that she'd issue her findings at some time in the near future. She added: 'I will take this to avizandum.'
