Land purchased by Standard Life near Newtonmore referred to as Far Ralia: EIR release

Information requested

Relat[ing] to an area of land purchased by Standard Life near Newtonmore […] referred to as Far Ralia.

Please could Scottish Forestry provide all of its correspondence with SAC Consulting relating to tree planting, fencing and any forestry related aspect (including tracks) for the Far Ralia Estate for the last six years.

Please could Scottish Forestry provide all of its correspondence with Akre Ltd/Kilrie Trees Ltd (Company number SC683478 - Kilrie Trees Ltd is the previous name of Akre Ltd) relating to tree planting, fencing and any forestry related aspect (including tracks) for the Far Ralia Estate for the last six years.

Please could Scottish Forestry provide all of its correspondence with (a) Ralia Enterprises (to which some rural payments may have been made), (b) the previous owners 'Alasdair Findlay and Trustees of Eira Drysdale', (c) the current owners, with names such as Abdn Property Income Trust, Standard Life Property and Investment Trust or similar, and (c) and agents or representatives of these owners for the last six years.

Please could Scottish Forestry provide a detailed breakdown of all contracts (agreed or proposed), payments or proposed payments by Scottish Forestry for the last six years, for the Far Ralia estate. Please provide specific dates for which each contract was agreed.

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

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 third party) applies to some of the information you have requested. This information has been redacted in the documents provided.

Please could Scottish Forestry provide all of its correspondence with SAC Consulting relating to tree planting, fencing and any forestry related aspect (including tracks) for the Far Ralia Estate for the last six years.

Please could Scottish Forestry provide all of its correspondence with Akre Ltd/Kilrie Trees Ltd (Company number SC683478 - Kilrie Trees Ltd is the previous name of Akre Ltd) relating to tree planting, fencing and any forestry related aspect (including tracks) for the Far Ralia Estate for the last six years.

Please could Scottish Forestry provide all of its correspondence with (a) Ralia Enterprises (to which some rural payments may have been made), (b) the previous owners 'Alasdair Findlay and Trustees of Eira Drysdale', (c) the current owners, with names such as Abdn Property Income Trust, Standard Life Property and Investment Trust or similar, and (c) and agents or representatives of these owners for the last six years.

Given the volume of documents included in our response, copies of the information we hold in relation to your request will be emailed to you separately.

I note that we do not hold any record of correspondence with Akre Ltd/Kilrie Trees Ltd.

In addition to the personal data exception noted above, an exception under regulation 10 (5) (g) of the EIRs (protection of the environment) applies to some of the information requested. This exception applies to documents:

• “19 - Ralia Ops Zones 261022_Redacted”
• “25 - Ralia Screening Opinion Request Form REVA_2022_2206_Redacted”
• “26 - Ralia Screening Opinion Request Form REVB_2023_0802_Redacted”

The redacted information has been marked accordingly.

The reasons why these exceptions apply are explained in Annex A to this letter.

Please could Scottish Forestry provide a detailed breakdown of all contracts (agreed or proposed), payments or proposed payments by Scottish Forestry for the last six years, for the Far Ralia estate. Please provide specific dates for which each contract was agreed.

At time of writing, the Far Ralia FGS applications are still at the public consultation stage of the woodland creation process, and therefore no contracts have been agreed.

Draft Schedules of Works for the four FGS applications are included in the release, which include details of proposed payments.

 

 

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.

Annex_A_202300354820

File type

1 page PDF

File size

124.2 kB