Planning and Environmental Appeals Division: EIR release

Information requested

1) Would it be possible to provide a list of planning appeals which have come before the Scottish Government planning reporter, Mr Nick Smith, together with the outcome of those appeals?

2) On the Notice of Intention for planning appeal reference: PPA-400-2107, dated 05 May 2020, in paragraph 7 on page 3 (Contamination and construction phase) it is stated: 
"Contamination on the site from the historic disposal of incinerator ash poses risks to human health, as detailed in the appellant’s evidence, and so the site is shut off to public access. This convinces me that the site is currently unsafe and that remediation would be a pre-requisite of any development"

Can I be provided with the specific reasoning under which the reporter makes the assertion that "the site is currently unsafe"?

3) On the Notice of Intention for planning appeal reference: PPA-400-2107, dated 05 May 2020, in paragraph 16 on page 4 (Contamination and construction phase) it is stated "On balance, once complete, this suggests that safe use of the site would be to the advantage of local people and the wider amenity of the area."

Can I be provided with the specific reasoning under which the reporter makes the assertion that "safe use of the site would be to the advantage of local people and the wider amenity of the area"?

Response

As the information you have requested is ‘environmental information’ for the purposes of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004(EIR), 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, 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.

1) I have attached a document which details the appeals which have come before Mr Nick Smith, together with the outcomes of those appeals.

2) and 3) In reaching his findings in the Notice of Intention (NOI), the reporter considered all of the evidence submitted by all of the parties for this appeal proposal. The NOI makes reference to numerous pieces of submitted evidence throughout. Although the NOI should be read as a whole, your reference to the matters in paragraph 7 and the final sentence of paragraph 16 may best be answered by the document references quoted in paragraphs 7 to 16 of the NOI. However, you should not restrict yourself only to those pieces of evidence directly referenced in the NOI. Various of the submitted documentation covers these matters in differing levels of detail and each is available on the DPEA website for you to view at http://www.dpea.scotland.gov.uk/CaseDetails.aspx?id=120815.

Under regulation 6(1)(b) of the EIRs, we do not have to give you information which is already publicly available and easily accessible to you in another form or format. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the website( listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

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.

FoI-202000074170 - Information released - Appeals

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7 page PDF

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