Lands held by Sanquhar Common Good.

Fiona Cameron made this Freedom of Information request to Dumfries and Galloway Council This request has been closed to new correspondence. Contact us if you think it should be reopened.

The request was refused by Dumfries and Galloway Council.

Dear Dumfries and Galloway Council,

This request relates to lands in the possession of Sanquhar Common Good, or to which Sanquhar Common Good holds the rights, or the title.

Does Dumfries and Galloway Council hold current information on the extent and location of the lands to which Sanquhar Common Good has the rights or the title? Is there current information on which lands are in the possession of Sanquhar Common Good?

Where is it possible to see this information please?

In the event the information is not held by Dumfries and Galloway Council, who holds it and where is it kept? Is this available for inspection by the public?

Yours faithfully,

Fiona Cameron

Dumfries and Galloway Council

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION (SCOTLAND) ACT 2002

Thank you for your request for information which was received on 08/09/2017 which we are dealing with in terms of the above legislation. We have given your request the unique reference 276950 and we would appreciate it if you could quote this on all correspondence to us.

Under the terms of the legislation, we have an obligation to respond to your request within 20 working days from the day after your request was received. We will therefore aim to respond to your request by 06/10/2017.

Please be aware that, in some circumstances, a fee may be payable for the retrieval, collation and provision of the information you have requested. If this is the case, a fees notice will be issued, which would need to be paid in order to progress your request.

If your request for information is considered and deemed as a 'business as usual' request, it will be responded to by the appropriate Service within the Council.

If you have any queries in the meantime, please contact [email address].

Kind Regards

FOI Unit
Dumfries and Galloway Council

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Dumfries and Galloway Council

Please find below the Council's response to your request 276950 which was received on 08/09/2017.

Details of request: Does Dumfries and Galloway Council hold current information on the extent and location of the lands to which Sanquhar Common Good has the rights or the title? Is there current information on which lands are in the possession of Sanquhar Common Good?

Where is it possible to see this information please?

In the event the information is not held by Dumfries and Galloway Council, who holds it and where is it kept? Is this available for inspection by the public?

Response:

Dumfries and Galloway Council holds the following information which represents property within Sanquhar that has been confirmed as common good.

- Tolbooth Museum, High Street, Sanquhar, DG4 6BN
- Derelict Building, Cooper's Close, High Street, Sanquhar, DG4 6DZ
- Land, Buccleuch Estates, Sanquhar
- Customer Service Centre, 100-102, High Street, Sanquhar, DG4 6DZ

Please be aware that the Council holds the copyright, where applicable, for the information provided and it may be reproduced free of charge in any format or media without requiring specific permission. This is subject to the material not being used in a misleading context. The source of the material must be acknowledged as Dumfries and Galloway Council and the title of the document must be included when being reproduced as part of another publication or service.

If you require any further clarification, please contact us. However, if you are not satisfied with the way in which your request has been dealt with, you can request us to carry out an internal review of the decision by emailing [email address] or writing to us within 40 working days of receiving this response.

If you are dissatisfied with the outcome of the review, you have the right to apply to the Scottish Information Commissioner for a decision. Appeals to the Commissioner can be made online at www.itspublicknowledge.info/Appeal or in writing to: The Office of the Scottish Information Commissioner, Kinburn Castle, Doubledykes Road, St Andrews, Fife, KY16 9DS.

Kind Regards

FOI Unit
Dumfries and Galloway Council

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Any email message sent or received by the
Council may require to be disclosed by the
Council under the provisions of the Freedom
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Dear Dumfries and Galloway Council,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Dumfries and Galloway Council's handling of my FOI request 'Lands held by Sanquhar Common Good.'.

The question submitted asked for infromation on lands held by Sanquhar Common Good. This was not specific to Sanquhar and in view of this, all lands etc held by Sanquhar Common Good were covered by this request. It is known there are other areas where Sanquhar Common Good holds lands etc, these include Crawick and elsewhere. What is the position with regard to the holdings of information on the location of these lands?

To whom should a request be submitted for sight of papers on the holdings of all lands, titles etc?

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/l...

Yours faithfully,

Fiona Cameron

Dumfries and Galloway Council

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION (SCOTLAND) ACT 2002

Thank you for your request for a formal review which was received on 18/10/2017 and is being dealt with. We will respond within 20 working days from the day after the request was received. A response to your request will be sent promptly, and in any event not later than 15/11/2017.

If you have any queries in the meantime, please do not hesitate to contact [email address].

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Any email message sent or received by the
Council may require to be disclosed by the
Council under the provisions of the Freedom
of Information (Scotland) Act 2002.

FOI, Dumfries and Galloway Council

Dear Ms Cameron

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION (SCOTLAND) ACT 2002 - REVIEW

I refer to your email on 18 October 2017 in which you requested a Review of the way in which the Council responded to your request for information. I can confirm that a Compliance Review was held on 9 November 2017 in relation to your request.

For your information, a Compliance Review will consider matters such as whether there should be a further search carried out for information, whether any exemptions used have been applied correctly, to establish if the statutory timescales have been adhered to and, generally, to review the manner in which a request has been handled.

I can advise that the outcome of the Review is that the Council provided all information it held in relation to your request. The properties/ lands listed are the only ones confirmed as owned by Sanquhar Common Good. The search was undertaken on the basis of all those owned by Sanquhar Common Good and not by area i.e. just Sanquhar. The example you have given (Crawick) is not listed as owned by the Sanquhar Common Good.

You can submit such requests (sight of papers on the holdings of all lands, titles etc) to the Registers of Scotland: https://www.ros.gov.uk/

I would hope that you are satisfied with this response and that the Council has appropriately considered and dealt with your Review. If, however, you are not satisfied with this decision, you are entitled to make representation to the Scottish Information Commissioner at:

Office of the Scottish Information Commissioner

Kinburn Castle
Doubledykes Road
St. Andrews
KY16 9DS

Subsequent to the appeal process and the Commissioner issuing her decision, you also then have the right to appeal to the Court of Session on a point of law against the Commissioner’s decision.

Yours sincerely

FOI Unit
Dumfries and Galloway Council

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Dear FOI,

Thank you for the response to my request for an Internal Review.

For your information, the official leaflet, "The Sanquhar Marches Walk" states, "The land, which forms the bank of the river is named Larsbrae, or Lawyer's Brae. It is still part of the McNab Leases. McNab was a rich landowner who lived in the Holm and also owned the low lying land on the far bank of the Crawick and he leased the land which overlooked his estate of Holm to prevent anyone looking down on him. He also wanted access to the coal which lay under the Burgh's lands. On McNab's death the leases were bought by the Duke of Buccleuch and even though they run for 999 years, they are still the property of The Royal Burgh".

There are therefore, lands in Crawick to which Sanquhar Common Good has the title although they are leased to another.

The lands held by Sanquhar Common Good under the McNab leases should be included in the information which was requested.

It is questionable how some of these lands eg Lawyer's Brae are being developed (and without planning permission) with the intention of selling the property subsequently. There has already been a property built in this area, plus other lands have been fenced off and building work is being undertaken. Since Buccleuch Estate has already sold lands belonging to Sanquhar Common Good, is this a regular occurrence?

Yours sincerely,

Fiona Cameron

Dear FOI,

I refer to my communication of 20 December 2017 and note you haven't responded to this.

The information you supplied in the reply to my request for an Internal Review is clearly incorrect and a further response is called for. Please provide this, or advise if you require a new FOI request specifically relating to this material.

Yours sincerely,

Fiona Cameron

Fiona Cameron (Account suspended) left an annotation ()

Since Dumfries and Galloway Council are reluctant to put this on a correct footing, a further FOI request has been sent to them to try and establish what is going on here. It appears that they have the power to obtain this information.

There is some concern that lands belonging to Sanquhar Common Good are being fenced off/transferred into the possession of others. This should not happen. In the case of Lawyer's Brae, this is shown as being developed by Buccleuch Estates with a dwelling for sale by them subsequently. How has Buccleuch Estates obtained the title to this land in order to do this?

In the past there have been lands sold by Buccleuch Estates for which Sanquhar Common Good held the title. It was said that this occurred in error (!!!) and very much later Buccleuch estates paid what appeared to be a derisory sum to Sanquhar Common Good for unlawfully selling their lands. This has an unpleasant odour to it and there is a need for investigation of what appear to be unlawful acts.

FOI, Dumfries and Galloway Council

Dear Ms Cameron,

My apologies for the delay in responding to your correspondence however, as per the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002, following an internal review response, your route of appeal is through the Scottish Information Commissioner's Office.

As you have annotated and we are aware, you have submitted a new request which is due a response by close of business on Monday next week (12 March).

I must however express that the service are confident that no incorrect information has been disclosed to you and rather, they have advised that some of the information you have provided us with is incorrect.

Regards,

FOI Unit
Dumfries and Galloway Council

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