Felling Permissions issued by Scottish Forestry: EIR release

Information requested

What replanting has been required under any licences issued for the felling conducted following storm Arwen by Dunecht estates on the eastern and northern slopes of the Hill of Fare, Aberdeenshire between 2021 and 2023 located between the summit ridge of the Hill of Fare and the the road ways B9119 and B977?

Response

As the information you have requested is ‘environmental information’ for the purposes of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs), we are required to deal with your request under those Regulations. We are applying the exemption at section 39(2) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA), so that we do not also have to deal with your request under FOISA.

This exemption is subject to the ‘public interest test’. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption, because there is no public interest in dealing with the same request under two different regimes. This is essentially a technical point and has no material effect on the outcome of your request.

Please find attached the information we hold in relation to your request. While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide some of the information you have requested because an exception under regulation 11(2) (Personal data relating to third party) of the EIRs applies to some of the information you have requested. This information has been redacted in the supplied documentation.

Two felling permissions (FPA- 8626 and FPA-8672) have been issued by Scottish Forestry on the land in question covering a total area of 49.5 hectares all of which area is required to be replanted as a condition of these permissions.

In addition to the area felled under Felling Permissions issued by Scottish Forestry a further two areas have been felled on the land owned by Dunecht estates on the Hill of Fare following Storm Arwen:

2.1 hectares felled under planning approval via SECTION 37 OF THE ELECTRICITY ACT 1989 for the upgrading of electricity transmission infrastructure. This felling has been designed to widen the wayleave corridor to 80 metres to provide resilience against the risk of future damage from storm events to the infrastructure. Due to the nature of this felling this area is not required to be replanted.

23.1 hectares felled without approval from Scottish Forestry. The circumstances surrounding this felling are subject to an ongoing investigation.

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EIR 202300390354 - Information Released - FPA-8626 Felling Permission

File type

11 page PDF

File size

1.4 MB

EIR 202300390354 - Information Released - FPA-8672 Felling Permission

File type

PDF

File size

1.6 MB