Appeal to Scottish Information Commissioner re. FOI refusal by Western Isles Council on Whiteshore Cockles

 

Appeal filed with @FOIScotland over FOI refusal @cne_siar who claim that information on diseased salmon dumping illegally in North Uist is "exempt from disclosure" since it "would prejudice substantially the effective conduct of public affairs" #Bollocks https://t.co/JgLgSCIEIC pic.twitter.com/4rihjWCjng

— Don Staniford (@TheGAAIA) July 1, 2021

 

 

 

 

Read appeal in full online here

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Scottish Salmon Watch wrote to Comhairle nan Eilean Siar (Western Isles Council) this morning (1 June 2021):

 

From: Don Staniford <[email protected]>
Date: Thu, Jul 1, 2021 at 9:59 AM
Subject: Complaint vs Comhairle nan Eilean Siar re. failure to disclose information via FOI
To: Enquiries <[email protected]>
Cc: CNES FOI Team <[email protected]>, Tim Langley <[email protected]>, <[email protected]>, <[email protected]>, <[email protected]>, <[email protected]>, <[email protected]>, <[email protected]>, <[email protected]>, <[email protected]>, <[email protected]>, <[email protected]>, <[email protected]>, <[email protected]>, <[email protected]>, <[email protected]>, <[email protected]>, <[email protected]>, <[email protected]>

 

Please consider this an official complaint against Comhairle nan Eilean Siar (Western Isles Council) with respect to their failure to respond to FOI requests in a timely manner and their refusal to disclose public information on Whiteshore Cockles. 

 

Please pass this complaint onto the leaders of Comhairle nan Eilean Siar - I have copied various councillors into this complaint including members of the Audit & Scrutiny Committee and Sustainable Development Committee but please circulate to any council officials who may have worked to protect Whiteshore Cockles from public scrutiny and evade EU law for nearly two decades. 

 

 

Suffice to say that Scottish Salmon Watch today (1 July 2021) submitted an appeal to the Scottish Information Commissioner - details via: Appeal to Scottish Information Commissioner re. FOI refusal by Western Isles Council on Whiteshore Cockles

 

This appeal details the dichotomy between the transparency of the Scottish Government who disclosed information on Whiteshore Cockles on 24 June and posted it publicly on 29 June with the Comhairle nan Eilean Siar's refusal to disclose information and defend commercially confidentiality in their FOI refusal dated 22 June (email from Tim Langley enclosed below).

 

Further details on this public interest issue is published in today's Times newspaper via:  The Times: "Fish graveyard ‘severely hampers’ life for islanders, officials claim" 

 

And via:

 

FOI Lifts Lid on the Stench of Scottish Salmon: Government Legal Department Target Illegal Dumping of Diseased Salmon

Letter to Scottish Ministers on Illegal Dumping of Diseased Scottish Salmon in North Uist 

 

 

 

You can also follow this issue on Twitter via:

 

https://twitter.com/TheGAAIA/status/1410491814910517248

 

https://twitter.com/TheGAAIA/status/1410466641306173440

 

 

Scottish Salmon Watch questions why Comhairle nan Eilean Siar can continue to ignore FOI law.  Is it Comhairle nan Eilean Siar official policy to ignore FOI requests or has your Legal & Procurement Manager (Tim Langley is copied in here) gone rogue? 

 

You will see from Scottish Salmon Watch's appeal in May 2021 - read online here - that Comhairle nan Eilean Siar has previous 'form' on this issue and were forced by the Scottish Information Commissioner to disclose information on Whiteshore Cockles back in 2006.

 

Moreover, Comhairle nan Eilean Siarhas has failed to even reply to a FOI request on salmon farming mortalities and waste disposal filed by Scottish Salmon Watch on 19 March 2021.  Unless Comhairle nan Eilean Siar disclose the information requested this month that too will be subject of an appeal to the Scottish Information Commissioner (no doubt that Tim Langley has briefied Comhairle nan Eilean Siar on this issue as he has done so on Whiteshore Cockles). 

 

 

If you would like to meet in person to discuss this complaint I will be visiting Whiteshore Cockles later this month. 

 

A video of my visit to the illegal dump for diseased salmon in May is available via: https://vimeo.com/554460315 and https://vimeo.com/552724450

 

I also visited Stornoway and recorded a video outside the council's offices: https://vimeo.com/569269758

 

A tourist recorded the view from the beach next to Whiteshore Cockles in a video published last month: https://vimeo.com/562683501

 

Please let me know if you would like to go for a walk along the beach next to Whiteshore Cockles - apparently you may be able to see (and smell) rotting fish wastes leaching out into the sea so I would wear old shoes and bring a noseclip. I will invite Visit Scotland's chief executive Malcolm Roughead and chairman Lord Thurso to come along too - you will see from the Scottish Government's FOI disclosure that Visit Scotland received a complaint from a tourist back in 2018 following a BBC One Show investigation.  

 

Finally, when looking at your Committee Membership web-page it is disconcerting to see only middle-aged white males representing Comhairle nan Eilean Siar.  Did you all go to school with Angus Macdonald of Whiteshore Cockles?  Are you members of the same Masonic Lodge?

 

 

Thanks,

 

Don Staniford

 

Director, Scottish Salmon Watch

 

 

 

 

 

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Don Staniford <[email protected]>
Date: Thu, Jul 1, 2021 at 9:12 AM
Subject: Appeal re. Comhairle nan Eilean Siar's refusal to provide information on Whiteshore Cockles
To: Enquiries <enquiries@itspublicknowledge.info>
Cc: Tim Langley <[email protected]>, CNES FOI Team <[email protected]>

Please consider this a formal appeal against Comhairle nan Eilean Siar (Western Isles Council) refusal to provide information on Whiteshore Cockles:

 

Download appeal as a PDF online here

 

Also online via Appeal to Scottish Information Commissioner re. FOI refusal by Western Isles Council on Whiteshore Cockles

 

I have copied Comhairle nan Eilean Siar (Western Isles Council) into this appeal in the hope that the matter can be resolved informally with the information requested on Whiteshore Cockles disclosed by the end of this month (i.e. 31 July 2021).

 

Today's Times newspaper has more details via The Times: "Fish graveyard ‘severely hampers’ life for islanders, officials claim" 

 

If you need more information please do not hesitate to contact me.

 

Thanks,

 

Don Staniford

 

Director, Scottish Salmon Watch

 

 

 

Read more via:

• FOI Lifts Lid on the Stench of Scottish Salmon: Government Legal Department Target Illegal Dumping of Diseased Salmon
• The Times: "Fish graveyard ‘severely hampers’ life for islanders, officials claim"
• Daily Mail: "Dumped into the dunes....thousands of rotten, disease ridden salmon"
• Independent: "Scottish islanders raise a stink over vast salmon graveyard"
• Video Exposes Mass Graves of Millions of Diseased Scottish Salmon
• The Times: "Islanders raise a stink over vast salmon graveyard"

 

 

 

Today's Times: "The dumping of rotting fish in uncovered pits has 'severely hampered' quality of life at an island beauty spot" @thetimesscot https://t.co/H6pD4mg7Ye @cne_siar @marinescotland @MairiGougeon @MairiMcAllan @SSPOsays @APHAgovuk @VisitScotland @VisitScotNews @scotgp

— Don Staniford (@TheGAAIA) July 1, 2021

 

 

 

Addendum:

 

From: <[email protected]>
Date: Thu, Jul 1, 2021 at 10:00 AM
Subject: Acknowledgment of your application for a Decision by the Scottish Information Commissioner - 202100800
To: <[email protected]>

Our Ref          202100800
 
        
 
1 July 2021
 
Dear Mr Staniford
 
Application for Decision by the Scottish Information Commissioner
Public Authority: Comhairle nan Eilean Siar
 
Thank you for your received today, 1 July 2021, applying for a decision from the Scottish Information Commissioner about the way in which Comhairle nan Eilean Siar handled your information request.
 
Your application has been passed to me to check.  There are various legal requirements which must be fulfilled before the Commissioner has the power to conduct an investigation.  If an application is wrongly validated, the Commissioner would have no power to investigate or to enforce a decision (e.g. to order a public authority to disclose information).  The process of validation sometimes requires extensive correspondence with applicants to collate the details required to validate a case, e.g. dates of requests, reasons for dissatisfaction. 
 
The process of validation could take up to a month.
If we can investigate, we will send a copy of your email to the authority, so they know what you have asked us to investigate. 
 
More information about what we do with the personal information you give us can be found in our Privacy Notice: http://www.itspublicknowledge.info/home/privacy.aspx.  If you would like me to send you a hard copy of the notice, let me know.
 
If you used a pseudonym when you made the information request to the authority, please let us know so we can discuss the options open to you.
 
If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact me. 


Yours sincerely
 
Suzanne Jenkins
Validation Officer
 
Scottish Information Commissioner
Kinburn Castle
Doubledykes Road
St Andrews
KY16 9DS
 
E-mail: [email protected]nfo
www.itspublicknowledge.info