Woodland creation grant applications for postcode area IV24 3BW: EIR release

Information requested

Any information held concerning grant applications for woodland creation in the postcode area IV24 3BW between January 1 2017 and todays date (August 25 2025).

Thank you for providing further clarification on the scope of your request, which I received from you on 30 August:

Thank you for your response. By way of clarification, I am attempting to learn of any forestry grant applications with the subject of the grant being the Gruinards Common Grazing. I believe any potential applicants will live in the same area code as that of the grazing: IV24 3BW.

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 into account all the circumstances of this case, we have considered whether 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.

The information you requested is in the public domain. Under the Scottish Environmental Regulations (EIRs), information in the public domain is the information held by the Scottish public authorities, in this case, by Scottish Forestry, that is made readily available to the public, either because it is actively disseminated by the authority or provided to the requester upon request. When information is readily accessible to the public, public bodies have a duty to direct you to where it can be found online.

The question of whether there are any Forestry Grant Scheme (FGS) applications on the Gruinards Common Grazings can be answered by checking Scottish Forestry’s Map Viewer and Public Register, where the information is regularly updated.

The Scottish Forestry publishes the locations of all woodland creation grant approvals on its publicly accessible Map Browser: https://www.forestry.gov.scot/support-regulations/scottish-forestry-map-viewer

You will be able to navigate the map to see FGS applications by clicking on the layers tab of the new version of the map, which is located in the top-left corner to the left of the legend tab: https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/f7af4d60802d4539b59f12f2ba995d64/page/Page?views=Layer-Group

More detailed information on projects is regularly shared through the Register of Forestry Grant Scheme Woodland Creation and Tree Felling Permissions, which can be found here: https://www.forestry.gov.scot/support-regulations/public-registers/register-of-felling-permissions-and-forestry-grant-scheme-applications

You can find the information you requested by narrowing your search in the case book through various categories, such as the case type (Felling Permission Applications; Forestry Grant Scheme; Woodland Creation pre-applications; LTFP), case status (open for comment; under consideration; approved; not approved; expired), location (conservancy; local authority; property name), and case reference number: https://casebook.forestry.scot/w/webpage/prhome

If you need any information about a specific project that is not recorded in the public register, we will be happy to provide it to you upon request in accordance with the Scottish Environmental Regulations (EIRs) or the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA Regulations).

You might also find the guidance for requesters on the Scottish Commissioner’s website useful: https://www.foi.scot/how-do-i-ask

The Scottish Government regularly publishes all the Scottish Forestry’s FOI and EIR responses on its website. Information on previous information requests can be found by browsing responses classified by categories, such as topic, keywords, or time frame: https://www.gov.scot/publications

About FOI

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