FOI Request - Review of 101003820431 Sports Grounds and Playing Fields
Request 101003836384
Review of 101003820431 Sports Grounds and Playing Fields
I have looked carefully at the details set out on the Council's website. But the answer is incomplete and in some respects lacks adequate explanation.
• The list of properties is useful and appears to be comprehensive. But I do not entirely understand the listing in two sections, and the significance of whether particular facilities are "not bookable through Sport & Leisure section of the Council", while others are bookable through the Council. There is no clear explanation of this.
Does that mean the first (non-bookable) list is of all the grounds not owned or maintained by Moray Council (which does not seem correct or credible), while the second (bookable) list is of the Council-owned grounds? And are there no public sports facilities at all in Keith: the listing shows a blank, which seems to ignore Fife Park?
• point (3) in my original request asked for each site listed to show whether it was Common Good land or not. This information has not been provided.
• point (5) in my request asked for the Valuation Roll (VR) reference to be given for each property or sports ground which had been valued for rates purposes. No entry on the list shows a VR reference. Does that mean that none of these facilities has been valued for rates? Or has the information simply not been included in the response?
• point (7) asked for details of any buildings - eg clubhouse, pavilion, changing rooms, toilets, spectator seating etc - on each site. Those details have not been provided.
• point (8) asked about the owner or title-holder of each ground. Only two entries show such information. Fochabers Village cricket ground is listed as "privately-owned", apparently (though this is not totally clear) by the local cricket club. The field at Garmouth is "owned and managed by the local amenity association". The ownership of all other sports grounds is unstated. Does that mean all others are owned by Moray Council?
• similarly, point (9) asked for the names of the tenants/occupiers/users of each site. Most appear to have no tenants as such but are open to all for football or seven a side kickabouts. But in the case of five facilities (Buckie Lindsay Gordon Park, Forres Grant Park, Forres Andersons Playing Field, Fochabers Village Cricket Ground, and Elgin Cooper Park ) local organisations are listed - in each case, the local cricket, tennis or soccer-sevens club - without stating whether they are formal tenants or just the main or regular users. In each of these five cases, are there formal leases or tenancy agreements between the landowner and the occupier/users?
• finally, points (10) and (11) asked - for each site - who is responsible for the payment of any Non-Domestic Rates and - where relevant (Elgin may be the only location - or has the BID there lapsed?) - the liability for a BID Levy. The answer does not reveal this information.
I should therefore be grateful for a review of the response provided and for the information outlined above which was not included in the published answer to my request.
Response 09-09-2025
Following your request for a review (our ref: 101003836384) of your Freedom of Information (FOI) Request – Sports Grounds and Playing Fields (our ref: 101003820431) - a review meeting was held on 1st September 2025. In attendance were the Information Governance Manager and Data Protection Officer, Property Asset Manager, Solicitor, and Information Co-ordinator.
Your FOI Request (101003820431) from 14th July 2025 was discussed.
It was found that our original response was incomplete and did not provide all the answers required. This was owed to the fact that a number of officers were on annual leave due to the summer school holidays, as such some information was unintentionally missed. We apologise for any inconvenience and any confusion the previous response caused. Please see the revised response below:
Attached is a table with the properties listed on them. Please note that:
• column G identifies its use, without specifying which specific sport can be played on the site,
• column K confirms ownership as either Council (General Services), Common Good or Public Trust, and,
• column D confirms if the property has a valuation role reference.
For clarity, you have requested information in respect of “public playing fields and sports grounds”. We have considered this and the definition we have applied is that a public facility must be accessible to the public at no charge. On that basis the spreadsheet contains properties that are accessible at no charge. As we have identified only properties that are accessible to the public for no charge we are unable to advise who the users are, as this information is not held, and would therefore be exempt under section 17 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002: information not held.
Further from this spreadsheet we have removed the properties that we have stated as bookable, since they do not meet our definition of “public” stated above. It should be noted that all properties are owned or administered by Moray Council, as the council does not hold the information in relation to privately owned properties/land. Furthermore, as we have defined public playing fields and sports grounds as accessible at no charge, we have not provided any details of any buildings that may be on site, as they would be unlikely to be accessible without a charge.
In relation to business rates (Non-Domestic Rates) we can confirm:
• only one property is in the valuation role with Moray Council liable for payment.
• no properties have a BID levy, as there is no BID in Moray.