Spean Bridge felling licences: EIR release

Information requested

[W]e would like to make a further request for all the papers relating to two cases of suspected illegal felling at sites INV 47920 relating to a stand of Douglas Firs in Spean Bridge, and INV45876 and 37228 which relate to Birch Trees felled adjacent to the Sewage Farm Road also In Spean Bridge.

And for your subsequent clarification, dated 5 June, that this request related to map references NN 23114 81961 and NN 22618 81874.

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.

Response to your request

Due to the volume of documents covered by your request, copies of this documentation will be emailed to you separately.

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) of the EIRs (personal data relating to a third party) applies to some of the information you have requested. This information has been redacted in the documentation. This exception is not subject to the public interest test.

* Due to the size of the files we are unable to upload the documents referred to above.
If you wish to consider, please contact us at the address below and we will be happy to provide.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.