Locals bid to thwart Euro 2008 stadium plan; SPL: Aberdeen

Pressure group's stern opposition to a new ground in Kingswells has forced an expensive public inquiry, reports Michael Grant

PITTODRIE is supposedly the stadium where the only noise is the rustle of sweetie papers and the flap of tartan rugs. As far as suburbs of Aberdeen go they hardly come more peaceful or sedate than Kingswells. How then, between sleepy Pittodrie and tranquil Kingswells, has a row erupted of ferocious sound and fury?

Aberdeen Football Club once reigned in Europe, but now cannot get their own way on their very own doorstep. A self-employed information technology consultant who does not claim to be a football fan, Mike Dunbar, has organised a methodical, exhaustive campaign of opposition to the club's plan to move into his neighbourhood, Kingswells. That Dunbar has become a successful nuisance is about the only thing everyone in Aberdeen can agree on.

A new stadium in the Granite City is part of Scotland's Euro 2008 proposal and if the bid is successful it would be part-funded by the Scottish Executive. But the planning application is wading through treacle. The club thought victory was secured when Aberdeen City Council granted approval for a 25,000-seater stadium at Kingswells, to the west of the city. But there had been so many objectors that the Scottish Executive were called in and this month granted a full public inquiry, which will take several months to reach a conclusion and could jeopardise the north-east's inclusion in the Euro 2008 proposal, or for that matter the bid as a whole.

This row could have been bone dry, bogged down by tedious squabbles over planning regulations and dreary disputes over the local authority's intentions for the land in and around Aberdeen. Instead, it has crackled with acrimony, degenerating into divisive, emotive mudslinging and personal insults.

Highlights - lowlights, more to the point - so far have been accusations that Aberdeen chairman Stewart Milne is intent on the Kingswells move so he can profit from selling Pittodrie to build Stewart Milne Group homes there, a corruption allegation in which one city councillor resigned after a votes deal scandal over the stadium proposal and a second - who had secretly recorded the conversation which exposed him by relaying it to an answer machine via his mobile phone - was accused of behaviour which broke the council's own code of conduct.

Last week Keith Wyness, Aberdeen's chief executive, considered legal action after being compared to a Nazi and an Iraqi dictator on the website of Dunbar's Kingswells Infrastructure First Group (KIFG) body.

Wyness admires the energy and professionalism KIFG have shown in their campaign, but nothing else. He questions whether the group even have the mandate they claim.

Of 4,440 written objections officially submitted against the application, Wyness asserts that many were merely copies of a duplicate letter prepared by KIFG, and that only 138 people with Kingswells addresses cared enough to submit their own handwritten objections.

"It has been more complicated and messy than we would have hoped," he said. "KIFG have been a very effective pressure group. It's just unfortunate the energy they have put into that has not been put into something for the benefit of the entire north-east."

A date has still to be set for a public inquiry but presenting evidence there will cost the club (pounds) 150,000 - expenditure it can ill afford. It is almost three years since Aberdeen spent that much on a signing. "The public inquiry decision is a blow because of the cost," Wyness said. "That is a factor for us. We're a small company and this cost will be a higher percentage of our turnover than we would want."

If KIFG are being tarred as a self-interested Nimby faction with a troublesome website, to Dunbar the club are bullying commercial heavyweights riding roughshod over the wishes of a worried local community.

When Wyness criticised KIFG, according to Dunbar, the pressure group were merely being added to a list which already included the SFA, the Scottish Executive and Rangers and Celtic.

"Mr Wyness suggested that steps should be taken to drown out the opinion of a vocal minority, a suggestion to which I take enormous exception," said Dunbar.

"If Mr Wyness is to choose which opinions are valid and which should be ignored then that is the endgame for democracy.

"I don't feel that this is a battle or that it's about winning or losing at the end of the day. It's about trying to ensure that the correct location for a new football stadium is arrived at on its merits."

Dunbar accuses the club of using spin to disguise their application's "massive shortcomings", notably that a stadium at Kingswells would breach numerous planning policies and guidelines.

The truth, though, is that this is a dispute in which only the media are winning - both sides are happily co-operative in the hope that the other will make a public relations slip.

No wonder - the north-east could be forgiven for feeling confused. This is a conflict in which the identity of the good and bad guys is a matter of opinion.

Maybe Aberdeen complied with all local planning procedures for a stadium it feels will enhance the entire region, or maybe the club are imposing themselves on a vulnerable small community with disregard for traffic concerns and the impact of thousands of descending supporters.

Perhaps KIFG have fought admirably to defend their suburb against an oppressive threat; or perhaps they really are a group out of touch with general opinion or even the majority view within Kingswells itself.

It will be settled by MSPs after the public inquiry. Both sides remain confident. The only certainty is that they should start selling earplugs in the Pittodrie club shop. There is much more noise to come out of Kingswells.

Copyright 2002
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