TORRY PEOPLES ASSEMBLY HAS MET TWICE. THE REPORT FROM THE FIRST ASSEMBLY IS HERE. YOU CAN READ THE DECLARATION OF TORRY FROM THE SECOND BY CLICKING ON THE IMAGE BELOW.

Torry's second peoples’ assembly was held on the 27th and 28th of May in a marquee in the beautiful greenspace, historically known as the Vale of Cheerfulness, a part of St Fittick's Park. Attended by around 150 people over the weekend, we discussed the challenges Torry has faced and started thinking through some of the ways that local people can claim the power to make change in their community and beyond. 

The assembly's main focus was on St Fittick's park, because we had just received the long awaited pronouncement from the Scottish Government which upheld Aberdeen City Council's proposed rezoning of the park as an 'opportunity zone', opening the door for a new industrial development to be sited where there is now wetland, park space and trees.

Emotions run high around this issue and, although we planned for a broader focus, this was clearly the one that assembly members wanted to work on. We discussed questions like: ‘What problems does Torry face?’ and ‘Why do they happen?’ We also considered: ‘How shall we move towards making Torry happy and healthy?’

We have continued the work begun through the assembly: we have supported the Community Classroom project and are starting work on a whole community Retrofit project. We will also run future assemblies and link with other community-led assemblies to reclaim democracy.