Flooding and related problems with the Culvert in area of Carnbee Estate and Ellen Glens Road: EIR release

Information requested

1. Please advise all reported information relating to flooding issues within the length of Ellen's Glen Road (off Lasswade Road) EH16 over the past 20 years.
2. All reported incidents of flooding or damage reported and remedial work undertaken at the Culvert located between Carnbee Estate and Ellen Glens road off Lasswade Road EH16 over the past 20 years.

Response

If I might firstly clarify that, 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

I attach copies of all the documentation you have requested.

For ease of reference, some of the information attached was submitted in relation to the current examination of the City of Edinburgh Proposed Local Development Plan 2030, submitted to DPEA in late 2022 (Batch 1). Some of the information attached was submitted in relation to the examination of Edinburgh Council's previous plan which was submitted to DPEA in 2016 (Batch 2).

By way of background, as you may be aware, when planning authorities prepare their proposed development plans for their area they must provide an opportunity for people and organisations to make ‘representations’ - a statement with their views either objecting to, commenting on or supporting the development plan. This opportunity to make comment allows people to say what changes they want made to the proposed plan before it is adopted. All these views communicating an opinion or registering an objection are referred to as representations. Those points or topics raised in representations, which are not addressed (and which therefore remain in dispute) are called ‘Unresolved Issues.

Depending on how the matters raised have been grouped different aspects are dealt with under a number of Issues. In the case of "Ellen's Glen Road" and the surrounding area you mention, these were grouped under Issue 8 of the most recent examination and Issue 13 of the previous examination. The documents relevant to your query from those issues, and which reference flooding in that area, are attached. A link to the current examination of the 2030 proposed plan is attached for your wider interest. https://www.dpea.scotland.gov.uk/CaseDetails.aspx?id=1228788.

Depending on how the matters raised have been grouped different aspects are dealt with under a number of Issues. In the case of "Ellen's Glen Road" and the surrounding area you mention, these were grouped under Issue 8 of the most recent examination and Issue 13 of the previous examination. The documents relevant to your query from those issues, and which reference flooding in that area, are attached. A link to the current examination of the 2030 proposed plan is attached for your wider interest. https://www.dpea.scotland.gov.uk/CaseDetails.aspx?id=1228788.

Some of the information attached was submitted as part of an appeal case reference PPA-230-2336 (Batch 3) which was an appeal against the refusal of planning permission for the demolition of an existing hotel and redevelopment of the site for purpose built student accommodation at Northfield Hotel, 115 Lasswade Road, Edinburgh. The documents provided reference flooding in the area you highlight. A link to that case on our website is also provided for wider interest. https://www.dpea.scotland.gov.uk/CaseDetails.aspx?id=121506

The remaining documents attached are not related to a specific case within DPEA. (Batch 4).

Please note that the documents attached have been redacted. This is because an exception under regulation 11(2) of the EIRs (personal information) applies to some of the information requested because it is personal data of a third party and disclosing it would contravene the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation and in section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018. This exception is not subject to the 'public interest test', so we are not required to consider if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exception.

You may wish to contact Edinburgh Council at either southeast.locality@edinburgh.gov.uk or Flooding –The City of Edinburgh Council for more specific flood information in respect of the site you mention.

* 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.

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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.