Aberdeen City Council faces a critical courtroom challenge next month as a veteran retailer’s legal campaign against the city’s controversial bus gates enters its final phase, with both sides now assembling heavyweight legal teams for the showdown.
Norman Esslemont, the prominent Aberdeen retailer spearheading the legal challenge, has announced that Alasdair Burnet KC has been brought on board to assist lead counsel Alasdair Sutherland in the appeal.
The recruitment of Burnet, who has extensive experience in planning law and public authority challenges, represents a significant strengthening of the legal team backed by Aberdeen’s business community.
Burnet has appeared in the UK Supreme Court and the Court of Session, and has particular expertise in planning appeals relating to major infrastructure projects and challenges to local development plans.
A Community-Funded Legal Challenge
The case has captured widespread public attention since Esslemont launched a crowdfunding campaign that has raised more than £65,000 from businesses and individuals frustrated by the traffic measures. The substantial public support reflects the depth of opposition to restrictions that city centre traders say have devastated footfall and threatened livelihoods.
Esslemont’s latest social media announcement said:
“Last week I contacted Alasdair Sutherland, our lawyer in the bus gates appeal for an update, prior to our court dates on 11 and 12 November, to discover that everything is progressing well, the final pieces of procedural paper work having now been submitted.”
“My confidence in our lawyer has only increased over the past few months. During this time I have witnessed the thoroughness in which he drills down into the precise details of the case and its legal niceties, supported by his very able colleague, Colin Dalgarno from Aberdeen, who is equally committed to ensuring that it will not be through lack of due diligence that the appeal doesn’t reach a successful conclusion.”
Esslemont noted that Sutherland and Burnet had previously worked together on the Eastgate Shopping Centre court case against Highland Council, providing a foundation for their collaboration on this matter.
Background to the Dispute
The bus gates were introduced in Aberdeen city centre in August 2023 under an Experimental Traffic Regulation Order (ETRO), restricting access to certain streets including Market Street, Guild Street, Union Street and Bridge Street to buses, taxis and authorised vehicles only. The measures were designed to reduce traffic congestion and improve public transport reliability as part of the city’s broader transport strategy and City Centre Masterplan.
However, the restrictions have proved deeply divisive. Data from Springboard showed that footfall in Aberdeen city centre fell by nearly 1.1 million between August 2023 and April 2024.
A survey by Aberdeen & Grampian Chamber of Commerce found that 90% of respondents reported the road changes had negatively impacted their usual activities in the city centre, with 79% saying they now visit less often.
Between January and early May 2025, council figures revealed that 11,973 fines were issued for bus gate violations. With penalties set at £100 (or £50 if paid within two weeks), the council could be forced to refund up to £1.2 million if the scheme is overturned. More recent statistics show the Guild Street gate alone has generated over £263,000 in fines between April and August of the current financial year.
Aberdeen City Council made the experimental order permanent in October 2024, citing grant funding obligations to Transport Scotland and improvements to bus journey times and passenger numbers. Bus operators have reported journey time reductions of up to nine minutes on some routes and an 11% increase in passenger numbers, representing an additional 430,000 journeys annually.
Legal Arguments
Sutherland, head of Planning & Environment at Burness Paull and a former advocate who returned to the firm in 2019, has outlined five key grounds for the legal challenge. Central to his case is the argument that the bus gates were not genuinely experimental in nature, as required under the legislation governing ETROs.
The appeal contends that Aberdeen City Council failed to properly assess the impact of the measures before deciding to make them permanent, and that planning chief David Dunne’s communications with bus operators seeking favourable statistics demonstrated a predetermined outcome. The court has granted permission for Dunne to lodge an affidavit providing context to those emails.
Sutherland also argues that the council failed to obtain necessary approval from the Scottish Government before making the bus gates permanent, and that concerns about potential repayment of Transport Scotland grant funding were not relevant considerations in the decision-making process.
Aberdeen City Council maintains it acted properly and lawfully throughout the process, and has obtained its own King’s Counsel advice supporting its position.
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Financial and Economic Stakes
The financial implications extend beyond potential fine refunds. Council officials have warned that reversing the bus priority measures could jeopardise an £8 million grant received from Transport Scotland for interlinked roadworks on South College Street. The grant was part of the Scottish Government’s Bus Partnership Fund aimed at improving public transport infrastructure.
What Happens Next
The substantive hearing on 11-12 November will be livestreamed on the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service website, allowing the public to follow proceedings. Under the current legislative framework, the experimental traffic order must be made permanent by the end of January 2026.
Whatever the outcome, the case is likely to have implications beyond Aberdeen. It will test the legal boundaries of how councils can use experimental traffic orders, the extent of consultation and assessment required, and the weight to be given to business and economic impacts versus transport policy objectives.
