Dear D Reid,

 

Information enquiry reference EIR-18-0181 – Kingsford Stadium.

 

Thank you for your recent request for information, which we received on 30
January 2018.   

 

The scheduled date for our response to your request for information is on
or before 27 February 2018.

 

As your multiple requests are nearly identical in nature (with the only
difference being the officers requiring to provide the information), we
have grouped your requests into one:

 

I would like to request all e-mails, notes, diary entries, letters and any
other correspondence (including internal correspondence) , reports , draft
reports and any other  communications:

 

Between all ACC Employees including - ACC officer / manager/ employee/
executive/councillor, the Planning Department and any other department or
internal person, the Roads Development Management Department and any other
department or internal person, the Economics department and any other
department or internal person and the Environmental Department and any
other department or internal person and Aberdeen Football Club or any of
their representatives, to include:

 

Halliday, Fraser Munro

Burness Paul

Fairhursts

Stewart Milne

George Yule

Raymond Edgar

 

In relation to planning application 170021 - AFC Football stadium at
Kingsford

Between the dates of 1st January 2017 & 29th January 2018.

 

However, we have concerns that the scope of your request is too broad and
it is likely to be considered manifestly unreasonable to respond to your
information request, breaching Section 12 – Excessive Cost of Compliance –
of the FOISA.

 

After discussion with the relevant service, they have advised that your
request will probably be manifestly unreasonable to respond to. This is
because of the number of officers that will require to search their
correspondence and identify those relevant to your request. As your
request stands, we would need to ask every officer within ACC to search
their electronic and hardcopy records to identify whether they hold any
information in relation to your request. As you can imagine, this will be
a significant task and one which ACC may consider manifestly unreasonable
to undertake.

 

To ensure your request is not refused on the grounds outlined above, we
would ask you to consider whether you could specify a certain team/officer
and ask for the relevant correspondence received by them regarding this
planning application. For example, you may wish to revise your request to
only correspondence received by the Case Officer/the Head of Planning and
Sustainable Development etc. This will not only narrow down the scope of
the request but will also help you to get access to the information you
are looking for. Please see below the contact details of the relevant Head
of the Service and Case Officer who you can contact directly in relation
to your request should you wish to discuss:

 

o Eric Owens (Head of Planning and Sustainable Development):
[1][email address]
o Gavin Evans (Case Officer): [2][email address]

 

I would also like to highlight that a significant amount of information
regarding the Kingsford Stadium is published on our website, through our
planning application portal which can be found here:

 

[3]https://publicaccess.aberdeencity.gov.uk...

 

The Kingsford Stadium application can be found by searching for
‘Kingsford’.

 

We have also responded to previous requests for information regarding
Kingsford Stadium. These can be found on our Disclosure Log:

 

FOI-17-0545 – Kingsford Stadium:

[4]https://www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/sites/ab...

 

EIR-17-0748 – Kingsford Stadium:

[5]https://www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/sites/ab...

 

EIR-17-0846 – Kingsford Stadium:

[6]https://www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/sites/ab...

 

EIR-17-1428 – Kingsford Stadium:

[7]https://www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/sites/ab...

 

EIR-17-1440 – Kingsford Stadium

[8]https://www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/sites/ab...

 

EIR-17-1877 – Kingsford Stadium Funding

[9]https://www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/sites/ab...

 

It may also be beneficial to you to read over the attached guidance note,
Tips for Requesters. This note was produced by the Scottish Information
Commissioner and provides handy tips on the best way to request
information.

 

Please do not hesitate to contact us should you have any queries in the
meantime.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Grant Webster

Information Compliance Officer

 

 

Information Compliance Team
Customer Service
Corporate Governance
Aberdeen City Council
3rd Floor North

Business Hub 17
Marischal College
Broad Street
ABERDEEN AB10 1AQ

[10][Aberdeen City Council request email]

Tel 03000 200 292

 

*03000 numbers are free to call if you have ‘free minutes’ included in
your mobile call plan.

Calls from BT landlines will be charged at the local call rate of 10.24p
per minute (the same as 01224s).

 

[11]www.aberdeencity.gov.uk

 

 

 

IMPORTANT NOTICE: This e-mail (including any attachment to it) is
confidential, protected by copyright and may be privileged. The
information contained in it should be used for its intended purposes only.
If you receive this email in error, notify the sender by reply email,
delete the received email and do not make use of, disclose or copy it.
Whilst we take reasonable precautions to ensure that our emails are free
from viruses, we cannot be responsible for any viruses transmitted with
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obligation. Aberdeen City Council's incoming and outgoing email is subject
to regular monitoring.

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
2. mailto:[email address]
3. https://publicaccess.aberdeencity.gov.uk...
4. https://www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/sites/ab...
5. https://www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/sites/ab...
6. https://www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/sites/ab...
7. https://www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/sites/ab...
8. https://www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/sites/ab...
9. https://www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/sites/ab...
10. mailto:[Aberdeen City Council request email]
11. http://www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/

Dear D Reid,

 

Thank you for your information request of 30 January 2018.  Aberdeen City
Council (ACC) has completed the necessary search for the information
requested.

 

I would like to request all e-mails, notes, diary entries, letters and any
other correspondence (including internal correspondence) , reports , draft
reports and any other  communications:

 

Between all ACC Employees including - ACC officer / manager/ employee/
executive/councillor, the Planning Department and any other department or
internal person, the Roads Development Management Department and any other
department or internal person, the Economics department and any other
department or internal person and the Environmental Department and any
other department or internal person and Aberdeen Football Club or any of
their representatives, to include:

 

Halliday, Fraser Munro

Burness Paul

Fairhursts

Stewart Milne

George Yule

Raymond Edgar

 

In relation to planning application 170021 - AFC Football stadium at
Kingsford

Between the dates of 1st January 2017 & 29th January 2018.

ACC is unable to provide you with information on all e-mails, notes, diary
entries, letters and any other correspondence (including internal
correspondence), reports, draft reports and any other  communications
between all ACC Employees and Aberdeen Football Club or any of their
representatives in relation to planning application 170021 between the
dates of 1st January 2017 & 29th January 2018 as it is excepted from
disclosure. In order to comply with its obligations under the terms of
Regulation 13 of the EIRs, ACC hereby gives notice that we are refusing
your request under the terms of Regulation 10(4)(b) – Manifestly
Unreasonable - of the EIRs.

 

In coming to this decision, it is noted that, potentially the following
officers, Directorates and Services could hold correspondence –

 

- the Chief Executive and support staff,

- the interim Director of CHI and support staff,

- the interim Head of Planning and Sustainable Development (P&SD) and
support staff,

- potentially all/or at least several officers within the following P&SD
teams – Development Management, Environmental Policy, Development
Planning, Roads Development Management, Applications Support Team, Public
Transport Unit, Transportation Strategy & Programmes

- Numerous other Council Services including Economic Development,
Environmental Health, Contaminated Land Unit, Flooding & Coastal
Protection, Asset Management, Waste Strategy, City Centre Masterplan Team,
Legal & democratic Services and Committee Services

- All Elected Members (this could also potentially include correspondence
held for Elected Members who did not return to office after the May
elections)

 

It would potentially be an onerous task to search for all correspondence
from the external organisations identified in the Request. It would not be
as simple as searching emails for, for example, “Burness Paull” or
“Fairhurst”. We would need to know the name of the person who sent the
emails, otherwise it could involve searching through the whole of an
officer’s mailbox. Keywords, such as “Kingsford” might find the
correspondence, but not necessarily.

 

The reasoning for this decision is as follows –

 

A scoping exercise was undertaken in the areas identified in the request.
It was identified that the scope of the request would cover all persons
within ACC. ACC then identified that the most likely officers would be in
the  Directorates and Services identified above. As such, every member of
staff within those areas could hold correspondence and would therefore
have to search their correspondence for the words, ‘Pittodrie’,
‘Kingsford’, ‘stadium’ etc. These documents would need to be compiled,
emails which were not relevant would need to be identified and deleted,
and those left would need to be checked prior to release, removing any
sensitive information such as personal information to avoid a breach of
the data protection act.

 

The volume required to be undertaken is considered to be excessive and
likely to cause a detrimental effect on the day to day work of the
officers involved in searching, extracting and compiling the information
for release. This will mean that other ongoing, time sensitive projects
will suffer delay. On this basis, ACC wish to refuse to respond to your
request under the terms of Regulation 10(4)(b) – Manifestly Unreasonable –
of the EIRS.

 

ACC would be happy to discuss ways in which you may refine your request,
so we can provide some information of interest to you within the maximum
cost limits. For example, by reducing the number of officers required to
search, perhaps focusing on one team (Development Management Team or Roads
Development Management Team, for example) or on one specific officer (i.e.
the relevant case officer or all senior managers, for example).

 

Please do contact the Information Compliance team, who will be happy to
advise you, if this is something you would like to pursue.

 

A significant amount of information regarding the Kingsford Stadium is
published on our website, through our planning application portal which
can be found here:

 

[1]https://publicaccess.aberdeencity.gov.uk...

 

The Kingsford Stadium application can be found by searching for
‘Kingsford’.

 

We have also responded to previous requests for information regarding
Kingsford Stadium. These can be found on our Disclosure Log:

 

FOI-17-0545 – Kingsford Stadium:

[2]https://www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/sites/ab...

 

EIR-17-0748 – Kingsford Stadium:

[3]https://www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/sites/ab...

 

EIR-17-0846 – Kingsford Stadium:

[4]https://www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/sites/ab...

 

EIR-17-1428 – Kingsford Stadium:

[5]https://www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/sites/ab...

 

EIR-17-1440 – Kingsford Stadium

[6]https://www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/sites/ab...

 

EIR-17-1877 – Kingsford Stadium Funding

[7]https://www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/sites/ab...

 

We hope this helps with your request.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Grant Webster

Information Compliance Officer

 

INFORMATION ABOUT THE HANDLING OF YOUR REQUEST

 

As the information which you requested is environmental information, as
defined under Regulation 2(1) of the Environmental Information (Scotland)
Regulations 2004 (the EIRs), ACC considered that it was exempt from
release through FOISA, and must therefore give you notice that we are
refusing  your request under Section 39(2) of FOISA (Freedom of
Information (Scotland) Act 2002).  However, you have a separate right to
access the information which you have requested under Regulation 5 of the
EIRs, under which ACC has handled your request. Please refer to the
attached PDF for more information about your rights under the EIRs.

 

 

Information Compliance Team

Customer Service

Corporate Governance
Aberdeen City Council
3rd Floor North

Business Hub 17
Marischal College
Broad Street
ABERDEEN AB10 1AQ

[8][Aberdeen City Council request email]

Tel 03000 200 292

 

*03000 numbers are free to call if you have ‘free minutes’ included in
your mobile call plan.

Calls from BT landlines will be charged at the local call rate of 10.24p
per minute (the same as 01224s).

[9]www.aberdeencity.gov.uk

 

IMPORTANT NOTICE: This e-mail (including any attachment to it) is
confidential, protected by copyright and may be privileged. The
information contained in it should be used for its intended purposes only.
If you receive this email in error, notify the sender by reply email,
delete the received email and do not make use of, disclose or copy it.
Whilst we take reasonable precautions to ensure that our emails are free
from viruses, we cannot be responsible for any viruses transmitted with
this email and recommend that you subject any incoming email to your own
virus checking procedures. Unless related to Council business, the
opinions expressed in this email are those of the sender and they do not
necessarily constitute those of Aberdeen City Council. Unless we expressly
say otherwise in this email or its attachments, neither this email nor its
attachments create, form part of or vary any contractual or unilateral
obligation. Aberdeen City Council's incoming and outgoing email is subject
to regular monitoring.

References

Visible links
1. https://publicaccess.aberdeencity.gov.uk...
2. https://www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/sites/ab...
3. https://www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/sites/ab...
4. https://www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/sites/ab...
5. https://www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/sites/ab...
6. https://www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/sites/ab...
7. https://www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/sites/ab...
8. mailto:[Aberdeen City Council request email]
9. http://www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/