FOI Request - Review of 101003627210 Flood Elevation Costs Newmill Village

Request 101003640075

Review of 101003627210 Flood Elevation Costs Newmill Village

Under the appeal process I am asking for clarity and further investigation of your stated point two.

I do not accept point 2. You are stating that you do not know the owner of land that you upgraded and improved to the sum of £1,494,000 with taxpayers’ money? You upgraded lands of a private landowner who neglected to keep drainage clear on their land at the expensive of the Moray taxpayer? So, if I flood my neighbours you will pay? Is this the formula for Moray taxpayers? This landowner has said “Thank you very much” now I will sell the land that Moray Council has fixed and walk away with a fortune. Which they are currently doing. The Moray Council has a recourse to recharge landowners who neglect to keep their land drained?

Response 04-10-2024

Following your request for a review (our ref: 101003640075) of your Freedom of Information (FOI) Request – Flood Elevation Costs Newmill Village 101003627210, a review meeting was held on 30th September 2024. In attendance were the Information Governance Manager and Data Protection Officer, Consultancy Manager,  Senior Engineer, Senior Solicitor, and, Information Co-ordinator.

Your FOI Request from 23rd August 2024 was discussed, and we reviewed our response of 12th September 2024.

It was found that our original response to question 2 still stands. We uphold our use of exemption Section 17 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 - Information not held, since no such financial details were part of the Flood Alleviation Scheme. We can confirm that the Flood Alleviation scheme at Newmill was focused on providing protection to properties in Newmill, and not about upgrading or providing repairs to land owned by any individual; the alleviation scheme was designed and built in line with the practice of that time, and, statutory and legal process were followed in line with duty and good practice.

In order to be helpful we would like to highlight that information on ownership of land can be found by searching the Land Register ( https://www.ros.gov.uk/services/search-property-information ).