James Findlay QC and Alasdair Sutherland have netted a victory for Aberdeen Football Club to ensure the development of its new stadium at Kingsford can continue as planned.

Following an 18 year search for a suitable site for a new stadium and training facilities, planning permission was granted by Aberdeen City Council on 23 April 2018 for the construction of a new stadium, community and training facilities at Kingsford, on the western edge of Aberdeen.  The ‘No Kingsford Stadium’ group raised a judicial review challenging the Council’s decision.  The court has rejected that challenge, ensuring that the development can continue.

Lord Tyre, rejecting the group’s petition, stated that the group “has not identified an error of law in the approach of the Council that would entitle this court to interfere with its decision to grant planning permission for the proposed development.”

The group’s challenge included that the Council had failed properly to apply its local development plan policies concerning “significant footfall-generating development” and transport (managing impact and sustainable travel), and had failed to establish the necessary factual basis for the sequential approach to site selection. Broadly speaking, the court considered that in all respects the group was essentially complaining about matters of judgment, which are for the decision-maker, and which the Council had exercised lawfully.

This case is a good example of a planning authority exercising its judgment to reconcile tension between the proposed development and parts of the development plan, and indeed between different parts of the development plan itself.  It is also a good example of the flexible and realistic approach that should be taken to the application of the sequential approach to site-selection.

The Court's decision can be read by following this link.