Dear Mr Ancketill,

Information enquiry reference EIR-18-0283.

Thank you for your recent request for information, which we received on 12
February 2018.   

The scheduled date for our response to your request for information is on
or before 12 March 2018.

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

Yours sincerely,

Salomeh Kheyri Rad

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

[1][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).

[2]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. mailto:[Aberdeen City Council request email]
2. http://www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/

Dear Mr Ancketill,

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

I request a copy of the ACC Planning Departments recommendation/report for
Planning Application 170021 ( AFC @ Kingsford) from October 2017.

This recommendation was meant to have been made public but never was.

The Officers’ report on the application in question was presented to
members as part of the agenda pack for the Special Council Meeting of 29
January 2018 and can be found here:

[1]https://committees.aberdeencity.gov.uk/m...

Whilst it had previously been intended to refer the application to the
Council meeting in October 2017, the application was withdrawn from the
agenda at the applicants’ request, and no report was ever completed or
published at that time. Areas within the draft report which officers had
worked on in anticipation of referral to the October 2017 meeting were
extensively re-worked over time, reflecting the additional supporting
information submitted by the applicant and the further representations and
consultee responses received in the intervening period, as well as the
holding of a second pre-determination hearing, to become the final report
published ahead of the 29 January 2018 Special Council Meeting.

A number of sections from the draft report were included in the report
presented at the Pre-Determination Hearing on 13 September 2017 and in the
final report presented at the Special Council Meeting of 29 January 2018.
These sections are available on our website. Please see attached a
document which lists the published parts that make up elements from the
draft report, including links to where the reports are published.

As Sections of the draft report is otherwise accessible on our website at
the links and details provided in the attached document, it is exempt 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 6(1)(b)  - Information Already
Publicly Available - of the EIRs.

Unfortunately, there are some areas of the draft report that cannot be
released into the public domain. This is because we consider them to be
excepted from release under Regulation 10(4)(e) of the Environmental
Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004. Sections from the earlier draft
report are considered to represent ‘internal communications’ between
officers.

In making this decision ACC considered the following points:

Is the information requested an internal communication?

Yes, the information requested is an internal communication, being an
internal exchange of a draft report between officers for the purposes of
discussion, comment and refinement.

Under our duty to advise and assist, we have provided information on
elements of the draft report which were previously or have subsequently
been published and are available on our website. Please see our response
above and the attached document for more details.

What are the public interest arguments?

In applying the public interest test, it is recognised that there is
likely to be a public interest in the report being released on the basis
of transparency in decision-making. Nevertheless, it must be recognised
that any earlier draft versions of this report are incomplete and based on
an earlier point in time, prior to the submission of further supporting
information and associated consultation and representation (including the
second Pre-determination hearing). These factors mean that the benefit to
the public from releasing such draft reports is much reduced. The Planning
Authority should be permitted to make professional decisions freely and
frankly and Planning Officers should be permitted to make professional
recommendations freely and frankly based on the information on hand at the
time. Disclosure of draft reports could harm the ability of the planning
authority to apply its judgement freely, and officers are likely to
refrain from producing draft reports for internal consultation if they
believe that these will be made public at a later date. It is in the
public interest to ensure that the planning authority can produce high
quality reports effectively. It is also in the public interest that
reports are correct and accurate. In conclusion, it is considered that the
public interest in publishing internal communications such as draft
reports is outweighed by the greater interest in non-disclosure.

As such, we consider that elements of the draft report are excepted from
release under Regulation 10(4)(e) – Internal Communications - of the
Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004.

We would like to advise you 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:

[2]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 which may be of interest to you. These can be found on
our Disclosure Log:

FOI-17-0545 – Kingsford Stadium:

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

EIR-17-0748 – Kingsford Stadium:

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

EIR-17-0846 – Kingsford Stadium:

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

EIR-17-1428 – Kingsford Stadium:

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

EIR-17-1440 – Kingsford Stadium

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

EIR-17-1877 – Kingsford Stadium Funding

[8]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

[9][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).

[10]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://committees.aberdeencity.gov.uk/m...
2. https://publicaccess.aberdeencity.gov.uk...
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. https://www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/sites/ab...
9. mailto:[Aberdeen City Council request email]
10. http://www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/