Chamber and committees

I was, indeed, but you would be very welcome to visit, too.

I thank Mercedes Villalba, Audrey Nicoll and the other MSPs who have supported the motion. I am very pleased to have lodged it, not just because it is my first ever members’ business motion, and the first Scottish Green Party members’ business debate in this session of Parliament, but because I think that it highlights so much of what we need to consider as we design and build a better, fairer and greener world.

The campaign to save St Fittick’s park and Doonies Farm speaks to fundamental issues of power and democracy, inequality and deprivation. It speaks to challenges to the status quo, to business as usual and to the neoliberal economic model that has created both the climate emergency and the nature emergency. In short, it speaks to the inextricable links between social, economic and environmental justice, and it is that interconnected understanding of what justice is that must be at the heart of a just transition—for Torry, for the north-east and for Scotland.

St Fittick’s community park, for those who do not know it, is an award-winning wetland and reedbeds in the south of Aberdeen. The brainchild of the Scottish Environment Protection Agency as a way of making space for biodiversity and supporting local people, the park is a relatively small urban green space in Torry. The community neighbouring the park is one of the 10 most deprived in Scotland, with life expectancy 12 years lower than elsewhere in Aberdeen. Squished between industrial land and a sewage works, the park is the only accessible green space for that community. It is well loved and well used by people who live locally, mostly in tower blocks and flats.

Doonies Rare Breeds Farm, to give it its full name, is just a bit further down the coast road from St Fittick’s. It is nationally recognised, having one of Scotland’s largest collections of rare and endangered farm animal breeds. It is a favourite place for family days out, where children and young people can learn about farming, different animals and so much more.

Together, the two sites are the lungs of Torry. In stark contrast to the greyness of the heavy industry around them, including the current harbour development at Nigg Bay, St Fittick’s park and Doonies Farm are vibrant, varied places with a range of habitats, species, facilities and amenities for all to enjoy. St Fittick’s has what we might expect from a community park: play areas for children, a skate park and accessible paths for walking, wheeling and cycling. However, what makes it so special is that it also boasts areas of woodland, wet meadow, reedbed and diverse dry grasslands. Then there is the staggering biodiversity: more than 40 species of breeding birds, including nine red list species and eight amber list ones; more than 115 plant species, including a wonderful array of orchids; and hundreds of invertebrate species, many of which are still being documented. Also, as well as the great variety of dogs that have regular walks in the park, otters, deer and other mammals can be spotted in the reeds and woods. As we come into autumn, we will start to see some of the tens of thousands of migratory birds that stop over at those green spaces. Over the winter, we will see a substantial snipe population.

All the work that was done a decade ago by the Aberdeen ranger service and SEPA has really paid off. What was a polluted, poor-quality and inaccessible area is now an award-winning biodiverse wetland, which, just last year, won the biodiversity and climate change category in the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds nature of Scotland awards.

There really is nowhere else like it in the city of Aberdeen. Why are we even contemplating destroying it? Because that is exactly what is happening. Aberdeen City Council has proposed rezoning those areas as “opportunity sites” for industrial development in the city’s new local development plan. Specifically, there are proposals for an energy transition zone—ETZ—to be sited on that urban green space and green-belt land. Their proximity to the south harbour development at Nigg, the sewage works and other encircling industrial estates means that developers such as Energy Transition Zone Ltd want to use the land for industrial purposes. That appears to be the settled will of the council, too.

Let me be clear: my opposition to the rezoning and development of both St Fittick’s community park and Doonies Farm in no way diminishes my passionate support for energy transition. I am, like everyone who is campaigning to save St Fittick’s park and Doonies Farm, only too aware of the need for an energy transition.

Torry, like other communities, has suffered as the oil and gas industry has declined. We understand that the climate emergency is affecting people and nature all over the world, but we also know that we can get the energy transition that we need without destroying valuable community green space. Other—brownfield—sites are available and other options possible. We must not concrete over the lungs of the community, which would result in poor air quality, pollution and noise, not to mention the loss of amenity and of valuable nature.

We know that we face a climate emergency and a nature emergency. The motion and the community campaign are clear that urgent action is needed, but we cannot tackle the climate emergency by compromising the health and wellbeing of biodiverse habitats. The health and wellbeing of communities, some living within metres of the proposed industry, would also be directly affected. We understand that climate justice cannot happen without environmental and social justice. Destroying nature cannot be the cornerstone of the energy transition we so desperately need.

We must encourage plans for the development of wind turbine manufacture, for a wind turbine parts assembly area and for de-commissioning. That work and the jobs that come with it are vital to our future. However, that work must be developed on sites that are not green spaces or in the green belt. Brownfield sites are available at east Tullos and Altens, which are less than a kilometre away and which have rail and road access.

It would be absolutely feasible. The possible sites at east Tullos and Altens are on good road and rail links and are less than a kilometre away.

Such brownfield site development would also result in lower carbon emissions than ripping up wetlands, which we know act as carbon sinks.

Communities should be involved in decisions about the siting of such development. Their voices have yet not been heard, and that must change. If we are serious about a just transition underpinning Scotland’s future, we must not only recognise the connections between environmental, social and economic justice but act accordingly. Therefore, I ask the Scottish Government to listen to the people of Torry and to the experts at the Scottish Wildlife Trust, who support the aims of the campaign, and to make any Government support for the energy transition zone conditional on both the use of brownfield sites and on genuine community engagement. Only then can we deliver a just transition for Torry that is genuinely just.

Will Liam Kerr agree that, however great the master plan might be, any development at all still represents a loss of green-belt land and urban green space?

I invite you in your ministerial role to visit St Fittick’s community park and Doonies Rare Breeds Farm at some point to see exactly what the Torry community is at risk of losing here.

I thank the cabinet secretary for the answers that she has given so far. I add my voice to her earlier comments and put on record my very strong support for reform of the Gender Recognition Act 2004. As a woman, I do not think that it has any impact on my rights or women’s rights in general. I think that there is no conflict between those rights and the measures that are being taken to let trans people live as who they are.

I want to ask a couple of questions on new Scots refugees and the support that is available to them. I welcome your unequivocal support for Afghan refugees. The new Scots refugee integration strategy will come to an end next year. Can you provide a little bit more detail about what plans the Scottish Government has, in addition to the £500,000 support for local authorities to accommodate more unaccompanied children, to refresh and expand the strategy, especially in the light of the increased demand resulting from the refugees coming from Afghanistan?

It is heartening to hear that there is a focus on lived experience, which is a theme across lots of different elements of the committee’s work.

What has been the response to the ending destitution together strategy? I am interested primarily in the response from the third sector organisations with which the strategy needs to work in partnership. How can we appropriately measure the strategy’s effectiveness? Quite often, we do not get the volume of quantitative data that is useful in that respect.

I have a small supplementary question. You mentioned something about considering a suite of legislation or support for neurodiverse people. Would it be relevant to the scope of that work to include discussion on our approach to conversion therapy? We have been talking about that in the committee in relation to LGBTQ+ rights, but there is an important issue around neurodiverse people who are challenged and people who try to “fix” them. Do you see that as a legitimate area to consider within the scope of that work?

I thank the witnesses for coming along this morning; like Pam Duncan-Glancy and Fulton MacGregor, I also signed the end conversion therapy petition during the election campaign.

I will pick up on a couple of things that you have said around cultural sensitivities and the definition of conversion therapy being all-encompassing, including behaviour or activity that is “with or without” consent or without consent and the notion of partnership working. If we look at those issues with particular reference to religious and faith groups and the tensions between religious and faith beliefs, understandings and practices, in particular, that “with or without” consent part could be quite tricky and might cause concern for some faith leaders. Could you say a little more about that? Do we need to consider any exceptions, specifically around the expression of religious freedoms?

Thank you.