A long-running saga over Aberdeen’s controversial bus gates will come to a head at the Court of Session today.
Retailer Norman Esslemont, representing a group of city centre businesses, has crowdfunded around £70,000 to challenge Aberdeen City Council’s decision to make the traffic restrictions permanent.
The case — Norman Esslemont v Aberdeen City Council — opens before Scotland’s highest civil court in Edinburgh this morning, with the Lord President, Lady Wise and Lord Clark presiding.
At the heart of the dispute is the council’s move to make permanent an experimental traffic regulation order (ETRO) that introduced bus priority and local access-only restrictions on Union Street, Market Street, Guild Street and Bridge Street.
Since their introduction in 2023, the bus gates have proved deeply divisive. The council has issued more than 100,000 fines, generating over £3.5million, while many motorists and traders claim the scheme has deterred shoppers and visitors from the city centre.
Mr Esslemont, whose family has traded in Aberdeen for six decades, said: “In my 60 years in business I have never seen a council so out of touch with the business and public in Aberdeen."
He said his business saw a 30–40% drop in turnover last summer as customers avoided the city after being fined.
Mr Esslemont’s legal team — Burness Paull LLP, with Alasdair Burnet KC and Alasdair Sutherland acting as counsel — argues that the council acted unlawfully in making the experimental measures permanent.
They claim the local authority required consent from Scottish Ministers under the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984, took into account irrelevant considerations such as grant funding, and provided inadequate reasons for its decision.
Aberdeen City Council, represented by Morton Fraser MacRoberts LLP and Dan Byrne KC, insists it followed proper legal procedures and that the restrictions improve air quality, bus reliability and active travel.
The hearing is expected to last two days, with a written judgment to follow.