Lord Tyre issued his judgement in relation to the challenge to
the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route (the AWPR) on 11 August 2011
(2011CSOH131). The decision is a lengthy
one and is of interest because of the varying different grounds
relied upon, a number of which had not properly been before the
Scottish Courts before. It is also the first case of
significance in Scotland where one of the parties has proceeded
protected by a protective expenses order. In fact in his
judgement Lord Tyre did not deal with the issue of costs or
expenses but decided to fix a hearing to hear submissions on that
topic having regard to the outcome of the case.
The AWPR has long been planned, the process of exploring routes
having started back in the 1970's. Over the
intervening years various routes were identified with a public
consultation in 2002. In 2003 Scottish Ministers confirmed
that while the route would be promoted as a trunk road the
preferred corridor did not include any
