Scottish Forestry - Bowden Moor tree felling application details: EIR release

Information requested

Earlier this year trees were felled on Bowden Moor only a few hundred metres from Melrose Golf Course but outside the Eildon and Leaderfoot National Scenic Area. The application for felling permission FPA-12138 was registered on 9 January and issued on 26 February this year. Could you please confirm who the applicant was and provide a copy of the permission along with the felling and re-stocking plans. I'd also like to know who was consulted on the felling application and to see what they were sent as well as the consultation responses received by ScotFor.

Response

The information you requested qualifies as environmental information under the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs), we are required to process your request in accordance with those Regulations. We are applying the exemption under section 39(2) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA) so that we do not need to also handle 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, as 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 all the information we hold in relation to your request.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance, we are unable to provide some of the information you requested because an exception under Regulation 11 (2) of the EIRs (personal data relating to a third party) applies, as does an exception under Regulation 11 (1) of the EIRs (personal data of the applicant). These are absolute exceptions, and neither is subject to the public interest test.

You will be able to identify where personal data has been redacted in the released documents.

The public register link to the case is: casebook.forestry.scot/w/webpage/805BECBF1context_record_id=28395577&webpage_token=3714072eb22e696d01e420127a2ec9b3786a8e90be2bf4d8ffcb2b2b9b40f0a0

ANNEX A

REASONS FOR NOT PROVIDING INFORMATION

Personal data relating to the applicant

An exception under Regulation 11(1) of the EIRs(personal information of the applicant) applies to some of the information requested because it is your personal data and is therefore exempt from release. EIR disclosures are public information, and withholding your personal data is intended to protect you in the same way that withholding personal data of third parties (see below) is intended to protect them. This is an absolute exception that is not subject to the ‘public interest test’, so we are not required to consider whether the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exception.

Personal data relating to a third party

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 is an absolute exception that is not subject to the ‘public interest test’, so we are not required to consider whether the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exception.

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 202500499407 - Information released - Documents

File type

PDF

File size

1.5 MB