Environmental Impact of Olympic Equestrian Games in Greenwich Park

Mr Bettelley,

Thanks for your FOI enquiry.

I have passed it to our FOI team for a response.

Dick Seamons
Enquiry Service
Natural England
Northminster House
Peterborough
0845 600 3078

show quoted sections

<<Acknowledgement letter.doc>>

Dear Mr Bettelly

Please find our acknowledgement letter for your FOI request which we
received on 22 July 2009.

Kind regards

Juliet Melvin-Sparks

Knowledge Adviser
Knowledge Management and Information Services
Natural England
Riverside Chambers
Castle Street
Taunton
TA1 4AP

This email and any attachments is intended for the named recipient only. If
you have received it in error you have no authority to use, disclose, store
or copy any of its contents and you should destroy it and inform the sender.
Nothing in the email amounts to a legal commitment on our part unless
confirmed by a signed communication. Whilst this email and associated
attachments will have been checked for known viruses whilst within the
Natural England systems, we can accept no responsibility once it has left
our systems. Communications on Natural England systems may be monitored
and/or recorded to secure the effective operation of the system and for
other lawful purposes.

Dear Mr Bettelley

Access to Information Request – RFI No 545

Thank you for your request for information about Olympic Equestrian Games
in Greenwich Park which we received on 22 July 2009. Your request has been
considered under the Environmental Information Regulations (EIR) 2004.

1          Details of the scope of investigations you are
carrying out into the environmental impact of the proposed Olympic
equestrian events in Greenwich Park in 2012?

Natural England has not carried out any investigations into the
environmental impact of the proposed Olympic equestrian event in 2012. It
is the responsibility of the London Organising Committee of the Olympic
Games (LOCOG) to carry out these investigations as part of the an
Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). The EIA will accompany the planning
application which will be submitted to Greenwich Council in due course.
Natural England’s role is as a  statutory consultee which means that
the Council has a duty to consult us about any planning application which
requires an EIA. All documents submitted to the planning authority and
representation made regarding them are in the public domain through
Greenwich Council. As yet no formal submissions have been made.   

3          The cost of these investigations, and who is paying

With reference to our response to question 1 above, there have been no
investigations, therefore there has been no associated costs for Natural
England. Therefore, under the Environmental Information Regulation
12(4)(a), we are unable to tell you what the costs were, as we do not hold
this information.

2          Copies of any draft and final reports

I’m also writing to advise you that the time limit for responding to
part of your request for information under the Environmental Information
Regulations, needs to be extended.

The Regulations allow us 20 working days to respond to your request from
the date of its receipt. However, it is occasionally necessary to extend
the 20 working day time limit for issuing a response. In this case, I
regret that we must extend the time limit for responding because of the
complexity of this part of your request. A number of documents are in
scope of this question and Natural England are consulting externally on
the release of this information and requires more time to complete this.

If you are unhappy with the service you have received in relation to your
request and wish to make a complaint, please contact me and I’ll arrange
for a colleague to conduct an internal review. Under Regulation 11(2) this
needs to be done no later than 40 working days after the date of this
letter.

If you are not content with the outcome of your complaint, you may apply
directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. Generally, the
Commissioner cannot make a decision unless you have exhausted the
complaints procedure provided by Natural England. The Information
Commissioner can be contacted at: The Information Commissioner's Office,
Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF. Telephone: 01625
545 700, [1]www.ico.gov.uk.

If you have any queries about this letter, please contact me.

Yours sincerely

Darren Green

_____________________________________________________________

Darren Green, Delivery Leader - Knowledge and Information

(Information Access and Security)

Natural England, Block B, Government Buildings,

Whittington Road, Worcester, WR5 2LQ

T: 01905 363431     F: 01905 363429

[2][email address]

[3]www.naturalengland.org.uk/foi/default.htm

____________________________________________________________

show quoted sections

I will not be available to respond to emails until 1 September 2009.

If you have an information security query please contact Jim Mycock on
0300 060 0402 or [email address].

If you are trying to make a request for a copy of your personal
information under the Data Protection Act 1998, or a request for
information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 or Environmental
Information Regulations 2004, please contact the Enquiry Service on 0845
600 3078 or [Natural England request email].

If your enquiry is dealt with elsewhere please recall it from my inbox or
send an email to say you no longer need me to respond. Otherwise I will
respond as soon as I am able to on my return.

Many thanks
Darren

This email and any attachments is intended for the named recipient only. If
you have received it in error you have no authority to use, disclose, store
or copy any of its contents and you should destroy it and inform the sender.
Nothing in the email amounts to a legal commitment on our part unless
confirmed by a signed communication. Whilst this email and associated
attachments will have been checked for known viruses whilst within the
Natural England systems, we can accept no responsibility once it has left
our systems. Communications on Natural England systems may be monitored
and/or recorded to secure the effective operation of the system and for
other lawful purposes.

Dear Mr Bettelley

Access to Information Request – RFI No 545

Thank you for your request for information about Olympic Equestrian Games
in Greenwich Park which we received on 22 July 2009. This response is for
the remaining information not sent in our previous reply on 19 August 2009
and to respond to some additional questions which we received on 1
September 2009. Your request has been considered under the Environmental
Information Regulations 2004.

2 Copies of any draft and final reports

We have attached our comments on the draft scoping opinion for the
Greenwich Park Equestrian Event.

<<Natural England response to draft scoping opinion.doc>>

However, we have decided to withhold the following documents which we hold
in relation to your request under Regulation 12(5)(f) of the Environmental
Information Regulations 2004 which relates to "…a public authority may
refuse to disclose information to the extent that-

(f) the request relates to material which is still in the course of
completion, to unfinished documents or to incomplete data;

. Appendix 6.1 Archaeological DBA May 2009

. Appendix 6.2 Historic Landscape Assessment

. Appendix 6.3 Built Heritage (June 2009)

. Appendix 8.1 Ecological Value A Desk Study (October 2007)

. Appendix 9.1 Ground Investigation Schedule (Feb 2009)

. Appendix 9.2 Method Statement

The appendices to the draft scoping report are properly regarded as drafts
still in the course of completion within EIR regulation 12(4)(d) because:

(a) the appendices are reports that are drafts subject to further
review by LOCOG and possible change before finalisation. The finalised
reports will form part of the full planning application to be submitted by
LOCOG in relation to Greenwich Park.

In applying this exception, we have to balance the public interest in
withholding the information against the public interest in disclosure.
Whilst Natural England believes in openness and transparency, we believe
in all the circumstances, the balance of public interest in this case
favours maintaining the exception in regulation 12(4)(d) and withholding
the drafts rather than disclosing the information because:

(a) The drafts are not a necessary or appropriate part of the Scoping
report (which is why they do not appear in the final version) and not
therefore necessary to understand and comment on the Scoping Report.

(b) The final versions will be available within a short timescale. The
documents concerned are being prepared as part of the full planning
application and the EIA that will accompany the planning application which
LOCOG intend to submit to London Borough of Greenwich (as the relevant
planning authority) at about the end of November or early December 2009.
Further, we understand that LOCOG will endeavour to release the final
versions of these reports even sooner, within the next few weeks.

(c) Public debate of drafts that may change serves no function since
they are not the actual documents by reference to which the planning
application will be determined. Circulating drafts can only risk causing
confusion, and hinder the public debate of the actual application and
waste resources dealing with premature inquiries based on the drafts.
Further, given the nature of these reports, it is not a situation where an
analysis of a previous draft is likely to assist in the informed public
debate of the merits of the eventual application.

(d) The draft Scoping Report was circulated in confidence for the
purpose of informal discussion and feedback prior to the formal submission
of the Scoping Report. In these circumstances, disclosing the draft risks
hindering open communication and consultation going forward by making
those involved more cautious in making information available informally at
an early stage.

(e) In the present case, there is no countervailing public interest in
having the drafts made available now.

We are also withholding the same documents under Regulation 12(5)(f) of
the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 which relates to "…a
public authority may refuse to disclose information to the extent that its
disclosure would adversely affect –

(f) the interests of the person who provided the information where that
person -

(i) was not under, and could not have been put under, any legal
obligation to supply it to that or any other public body;

(ii) did not supply it in circumstances such that that or any other
public body is entitled apart from these Regulations to disclose it;
and

(iii) has not consented to its disclosure;

Section 7.5.7.2 of the DEFRA Guidance states the intention behind this
exception:

“The purpose of this exception is to ensure the free flow of volunteered
information to government,… It could include information provided by
organisations and individuals who are not public authorities for EIR
purposes.”

Section 7.5.7.3 goes on to say, “…It [the exception] recognises that
making such information available to the public could inhibit open and
constructive discussions between public authorities and third parties. It
is recognised therefore that the supply of volunteered information could
diminish if information is later published in response to EIR requests.”

This information was volunteered by LOCOG to Natural England. They were
under no obligation to supply it to us in draft form. The drafts was
supplied as part of a confidential informal consultation and LOCOG have
refused to give consent for release.

Although all three of the exception conditions have been met, there still
has to be an adverse affect (harm) to the interests of the complainant for
the exception to be engaged.

In this case, we believe that the release of some of the information
would:-

. would have an adverse affect on the interests of the person that
volunteered the information;

. would betray confidences requested by the provider.

. would adversely affect the relationship between the provider or
future providers and Natural England and the interests of nature
conservation.

We are satisfied that this exception is therefore engaged.

In applying this exception, we have had to balance the public interest in
withholding the information against the public interest in disclosure.
Natural England considers that the public interest will genuinely be
served, in this case by withholding the information as it would adversely
affect the relationship between the provider or future providers and the
interests of Natural England. This in turn could affect the free flow of
information to the public body, which it relies on in order to carry out
its regulatory and statutory functions under legislation. The release
would also betray confidences requested by the provider. We believe for
this case that it is in the public interest that confidences should be
preserved where necessary and that this outweighs any other public
interest which may favour disclosure.

4. Is Natural England advising or consulting LOCOG on their study?

LOCOG has consulted us on the scope of the studies that should be
carried out in order to assess the environmental impacts of the
proposal that relate to the ecology of the site. We have therefore
seen appendices containing the scope and preliminary results of some
of these studies. We have not designed the scope of these studies,
merely advised LOCOG informally as to whether we consider them to be
sufficient prior to the formal consultation period. You will find
attached our written response to LOCOG as a result of this informal
consultation.

5. If not, will you be seeing the study for the first time when it is
delivered to Greenwich Council for the planning application?

The scoping report (which is the first stage of the formal planning
application process) was sent to Greenwich Council at the end of
August 2009 and a copy was sent to us by LOCOG at the same time. We
have attached this scoping report and further details can be found on
the Greenwich Council website at

[1]http://onlineplanning.greenwich.gov.uk/a...

<<17724_2.pdf>>

Greenwich Council have asked us for our comments on this document
given our role as a statutory consultee for all planning applications
that require Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). This is the first
time that we have seen the scoping report itself although as
explained above we have been advising LOCOG on it scope of the
studies that should undertaken and ecological impacts that need to be
assessed as part of the EIA process. As a result we have commented
informally on some of the studies that LOCOG have been undertaking
and which are contained in the appendices discussed above.

6. If you are, can you please disclose what you are advising or
consulting on?

We were consulting LOCOG on the release of this information.

7. Would you please explain why you need to extend the 20 day limit
for response? What is the complexity you refer to? What are the documents
in the scope of my question? If it is information you hold which is
involved with producing an EI Study, surely you should be able to release
it? On a quick read of the EIR’s, I can’t see why this should be.

We need to extend the 20 day limit to allow us more time to discuss
the complex issue of whether the information requested could be
released. The documents in scope of your request are listed above. We
have an obligation to make information available unless it is subject
to an exception and the public interest test supports withholding the
information.

8. With whom are you consulting externally on the release of this
information, and why should it need more time?

We were consulting LOCOG on the release of this information. We
needed more time discuss the complex issue of whether the information
requested could be released.

If you are unhappy with the service you have received in relation to your
request and wish to make a complaint, please contact me and I’ll arrange
for a colleague to conduct an internal review. Under Regulation 11(2) this
needs to be done no later than 40 working days after the date of this
letter.

If you are not content with the outcome of your complaint, you may apply
directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. Generally, the
Commissioner cannot make a decision unless you have exhausted the
complaints procedure provided by Natural England. The Information
Commissioner can be contacted at: The Information Commissioner's Office,
Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF. Telephone: 01625
545 700, [2]www.ico.gov.uk.

If you have any queries about this letter, please contact me.

Yours sincerely

Darren Green

_____________________________________________________________

Darren Green, Delivery Leader - Information Access and Security

Natural England, Block B, Government Buildings,

Whittington Road, Worcester, WR5 2LQ

T: 01905 363431 F: 01905 363429

[3]www.naturalengland.org.uk/foi/default.htm

_____________________________________________________________

show quoted sections