· FOI/EIR · partially withheld
Correspondence/Paperwork: Transport assessment for Highland Council application: FOI release
Information requested
Re: FOI request about Transport Assessment for Highland Council Application 17/05667/FUL
A copy of all correspondence by letter, e mail (or copied into e mails), minutes of meetings, and transcriptions of phone calls, in connection with the above planning application and associated Transport Assessment by ARUP.
This would concern mainly TS staff and ARUP staff, but also any e mails or other correspondence (or copied into correspondence) or minutes of meetings with Highland Council staff and BEAR Scotland staff in connection with the above application and its TA. Dates are between December 2017 to date of this letter.
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.
Response
In response to your request, please see attached Annex A which contains all correspondence in which Transport Scotland hold in relation to the Transport Assessment for Highland Council Application 17/05667/FUL.
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 Schedule 1 to the Data Protection Act 1998. 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.
Detected exemption language
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.