Scottish Forestry - Development of the new Lenzie Academy information: EIR release

Information requested

A Proposal of Application Notice (TP/ED/25/0313 | has been submitted by Stantec on behalf of East Dunbartonshire Council (EDC) to EDC intimating an intention to submit a planning application for a major development (New Lenzie Academy) on Whitegates Park Kirkintilloch/Lenzie ,a protected neighbourhood park in terms of land use in the councils Local Development Plan adopted in November 2022 (LDP2),and a proposal which is a significant departure from EDCLDP2.

I appreciate that a formal application has not been submitted and that your organisation will not have had an opportunity to comment on any impending formal application as an external statutory or non statutory consultee, but believe you may have been consulted in relation to Pre Application Consultation.

I have attached a copy of the Arboricultural Impact Assessment dated 2024 released in response to an FOI request outlining the intended impact on the trees in Whitegates Public Park for your information and consideration .

I am seeking all information held, sent or received by your organisation held in whatever format relating to the above councils intention to destroy trees of value in this policy protected public park in order to build a new Lenzie Academy on the site when there is an alternative i.e rebuilding the school on the current site ,as has happened with many other schools in the Local Authority area.

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.

Please find attached the information we hold in relation to your request.

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.

As we have a duty to provide advice and assistance, under regulations 9(1) of EIRs, we would suggest that you direct any future request to East Dunbartonshire Council relating to felling in this case, as they are the planning authority and the body responsible for the proposal and would continue to be the responsible body should it proceed to application. They will likely hold more records regarding any pre-application, application consultation or felling than might currently be available to Scottish Forestry.

Although Scottish Forestry currently holds some records within the scope of the request, our agency could become involved in the following ways should the proposal proceed.

As this proposal involves a major development and potential woodland removal, East Dunbartonshire Council may consult Scottish Forestry during the formal planning application stage. We would then provide technical advice and guidance on whether the proposal complies with current guidance on woodland removal and would advise on how to mitigate against loss of woodland.

If the Council grants planning permission that includes tree removal, they typically include a "Compensatory Planting" condition, and this has been recommended in the Arboricultural Impact Assessment you submitted alongside your request for information. Scottish Forestry may be asked to advise on any such plans to ensure it meets the UK Forestry Standard.

That said, trees removed via valid planning consent do not require separate felling permission from Scottish Forestry. However, if any tree removal were to occur outside the scope of a planning consent, felling permission from Scottish Forestry would be required. As such, it is not always the case that Scottish Forestry would be required to approve felling of woodland.

Typically, any consultation with Scottish Forestry, or any other public bodies, would be published by the Local Authority during the application stage.

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 202500499163 - Information released - Annex

File type

PDF

File size

2.1 MB