Coul Links proposed Golf Course application correspondence: EIR Review

Information requested

Original request 202600517045

"Correspondence seeking or justifying, and permitting a further delay” in relation to “Post Report Consultation of parties” in respect of the Called In Planning Application for the Construction Of An 18 Hole Golf Course, Etc, At Land 1700m North West Of Embo Community Centre, Embo (Coul Links) (Ref. NA/270/010).

Response

Further to my letter of 11 June, I have now completed my review of our response to your request under the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs) for post inquiry conduct for the called in Planning Application for the Construction Of An 18 Hole Golf Course, Etc, At Land 1700m North West Of Embo Community Centre, Embo (Coul Links) (Ref. NA/270/010).

I have concluded that a different decision should be substituted.

I have concluded that Regulation 6(1)(b) was incorrectly applied as the information was made publicly available at the time of responding to you. The information which was published should have been included in the response to you before being published online. However, this would not have resulted in a different outcome as the information was publicly available to you at the time of receiving our response.

Turning to the information you believe to have been excluded from our original response, I requested that further searches were undertaken and the relevant information has been identified, which is now enclosed. This includes:

• Email of 15 April from Ness Planning – seeking confirmation of next steps
• Email of 28 April from Ness Planning – request for extension
• Letter from Ness Planning of 3 May 2026 seeking extension of deadline to 1 July 2026

The letter of 3 May referred to in your request for a review is already publicly available at: Scottish Government - DPEA - Document. Under regulation 6(1)(b) of the EIRs, we do not have to give you information which is already publicly available and easily accessible to you in another form or format.

However, I have attached a copy to my response to you for ease of reference.

An exception under regulation 11(2) of the EIRs (personal information) also 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. 

Finally, you have stated in your request for a review that the exceptions in the EIRs do not, justify the omission of officials' in-house reasoning or justification for agreeing to the requested extensions. Your request was interpreted as requesting correspondence between the applicant and Scottish Government and did not include any internal discussion of whether the extension should be granted or not. I have considered this point and have concluded that this was a reasonable interpretation of your request. Information relating to the in-house justification for permitting the extension would require the submission of a new request.

However, it may be helpful to explain that requests for extensions from applicants/agents are handled by the principal planner on a case by case basis and there may not necessarily be any recorded discussion or justification, particularly where the requirement for an extension allows for the submission of additional information which is required to determine the case.

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 202600521208 - Information Released -Documents

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