Information on the proposal for the provision of housing in the area of Coul Links: EIR release

Information requested

Information kept in any form, electronic, on paper, or otherwise, so far as in the possession of either or both of Scottish Ministers, St Andrews House, Edinburgh EH1 3DG, or The Highland Council, Glenurquhart Road, Inverness IV3 5NX, or anyone on their behalf, showing or tending to show whether any proposal, however indicative or advanced in its preparation, for the provision of any category or categories of housing in, on or about the area of Coul Links, Embo, Dornoch, Sutherland has been offered or made to Scottish Ministers, or to The Highland Council, by any person, company, firm, or other entity, and whether or not any such proposal is said to depend to any extent on the consideration of, or grant of, planning permission in principle or in outline for any golf course development proposal at Coul Links, aforesaid.

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.

The following correspondence is Enclosed:

1. Email from Highland Council Planning Service to Scottish Government (Senior Planner) regarding November Committee Report on Masterplan Consent Areas.

2. Email from Highland Councillor to Scottish Government Ministers enclosing the Highland Council November Committee Report on Masterplan Consent Areas.

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.

EIR 202500495095 - Information released - Annex

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