Freedom of Information Request - 2022 £140,000 Nature Restoration Funding -Belleisle and Seafield Golf Courses Ayr
Date: 24 March 2025
Our ref: SIR179184/A5056109
Information Request – 2022 £140,000 Nature Restoration Funding -Belleisle and Seafield Golf Courses Ayr
Your Request
REQUEST: May I formally request an FOI submission for the project papers that relate to the above Nature Scot Funding Allocation to South Ayrshire Council’s Bellisle and Seafield Golf Course Project.
REQUEST CONTEXT: I cannot locate any project summary on the South Ayrshire Council Web Portal or the Nature Scot Nature Restoration Funding Scheme pages.
REASON FOR THIS REQUEST:
SOUTH AYRSHIRE COUNCIL (SAC) have a duty and responsibility under the provisions of SEA Environmental Reporting that currently sees them in breach of the duties placed upon them.
"That SAC continue to be in breach of their statutory duties under the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) legislation for evaluating the signiPcant environmental effects likely to arise from proposed development projects. Their only completed and published version is now 10+ years out of date. The current requirement for EIA in Scotland comes from the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Directive (2014/52/EU) which is implemented through The Town and Country Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) (Scotland) Regulations 2017, which came into force on 16 May 2017."
SAC continues to apply insecticide and pesticides on all of its managed Grass Land Amenity Areas at least twice annually in contravention to its published SEA EIA.
REQUEST INFORMATION AND OR DOCUMENTATION: To evidence that SOUTH AYRSHIRE COUNCIL OR ITS PROJECT REPRESENTATIVES HAVE CEASED CURRENT PESTICIDE SPRAYING IN THEIR MANAGED AMENITY AREAS - NAMELY BELLISLE AND SEAFIELD GOLF COURSES - AS WILL ENSURE COMP0LIANCE WITH THE SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT / NATURE SCOT GRANT FUNDING THAT IS CITED ABOVE.
REQUEST SPECIFIC INFORMATION “TOUCH POINTS”:
The Nature Scot Restoration Grant Scheme guidance cites a series of compliance points. I have highlighted 5-points below that I now seek information on please. These are set out below with numbers copied from Nature Scot”s guidance manual:
(A) The IPBES direct drivers of biodiversity loss are:
• Land and sea-use change
• Direct exploitation of organisms
• Climate change and its impacts
• Pollution
• Invasive non-native species (INNS)
The priority themes help to tackle these drivers:
• Habitat and species restoration: Management for enhancement and connectivity.
• Freshwater restoration, including restoration of natural flows in rural catchments
• Coastal and marine initiatives which promote restoration, recovery, enhancement or resilience
• Control of invasive non-native species (INNS) impacting on nature
• Urban: Enhancing and connecting nature across, and between, towns and cities.
(B) 3. Contract documents to be followed
(C) 4. Permissions and consents
(D) 6. Standard and sustainability of project
(E) 10. Maintenance and restoration’
Our Response
Following a search of the information we hold our response is attached separately.
South Ayrshire Council was awarded funding for wetland creation and pollinator corridors at Belleisle Golf Course as part of the ‘Edinburgh Process’ under the Nature Restoration Fund, which NatureScot assisted the Scottish Government in administering. The application sought to create a series of small ponds and a lake, within interconnecting wetland habitats, at Belleisle Golf Course.
Scottish Government requested the detailed information about the project, including the outcomes it would achieve, the detailed budget, milestones, and for a post project report. We do not hold this information, nor a copy of the conditions that apply to this funding. You can make an FOI request to the Scottish Government through their Request information webpage.
Please note, pesticide spraying is not a specific condition of NatureScot’s grant funding, we expect project grantees to follow the necessary regulations associated with their activities. As outlined above, we do not hold information on the funding conditions, or outcome, of the Scottish Government funded project to South Ayrshire Council for the creation of ponds at BelleIsle Golf Course.
The above project was envisaged to complement another local project, called “Irvine to Girvan Nectar Network” which was led by the Scottish Wildlife Trust and included work to create pollinator habitat at both golf courses mentioned in your enquiry. The grant award for the “Irvine to Girvan Nectar Network” project was made by NatureScot under the open competitive element of the Nature Restoration Fund, which we administer. The “Irvine to Girvan Nectar Network” project finished in 2024 and submitted an end of project report which is included for information. Further information on the project is also available from the Scottish Wildlife Trust website.
We have marked out (redacted) some personal data in the documents provided. Releasing the personal data into the public domain in response to an access to information request would breach the Data Protection Act 2018. We are therefore withholding the information under EIRs Regulation 11(2) (Personal data).
How We Handled Your Request
We believe you have asked for environmental information as defined in the Environmental Information (Scotland Regulations 2004 (‘the EIRs’), so we are dealing with your request under those regulations. To be able to use the EIRs, we must apply an exemption under section 39(2) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (‘FOISA’). The Scottish Information Commissioner’s guidance recommends that public authorities apply this exemption to environmental information and handle request under the EIRs.
If you would like to find out more about the access to information legislation, there is a guidance booklet available on the Scottish Information Commissioner’s website.
Review and Appeal
I hope this information meets your requirements, but if you are dissatisfied with how we have responded to your information request, please write to us within 40 working days explaining your concerns. You can contact us at Battleby, Redgorton, Perth, PH1 3EW or email us at [email protected]. We will carry out a review of our response and contact you with our findings within 20 working days.
If you are not satisfied following this, you can make an appeal to the Scottish Information Commissioner within 6 months. The Scottish Information Commissioner can be contacted at:
Scottish Information Commissioner
Kinburn Castle
Doubledykes Road
St Andrews
Fife
KY16 9DS
Telephone: 01334 464610
Yours sincerely
FOI Officer,
NatureScot
Document downloads
Due to accessibility issues the attached information, referenced above, is available on request by contacting the FOI team at [email protected]. Please reference the case number (starting with SIR).
