Northern Lighthouse Board
84 George Street
Edinburgh EH2 3DA
Switchboard: 0131 473 3100
Fax: 0131 220 2093
Website: www.nlb.org.uk
Email: [email protected]
25th January 2016
Freedom of Information Act 2000 – Request for Information
Thank you for your information request dated 4th January 2016. In that request you
asked us the following:
“You were kind enough to reply to an earlier FOI request that I made regarding likely
candidate properties from the Northern Lighthouse Board [NLB] that may be coming up
for sale.
I would be grateful if it might be possible to drill down a little further and ask a
supplementary FOI request please? Specifically in relation to the two former lighthouse
keepers' cottages at the NLB site by the Mull of Kintyre lighthouse compound.
Are you able to email me a copy of the NLB plan drawing with a red outline showing the
APPROXIMATE boundary of each building for sale? This is only for the purposes of very
generalised identification and NOT Land Registry title demarcation.
The clarification is needed as there are currently two former lighthouse keepers'
cottages* managed by the National Trust for Scotland and I would like to be absolutely
clear on whether it is these that are for sale, or alternate/different parts of the compound
being considered for sale?”
*Mull of Kintyre - Former lighthouse property: Hector's House and Harvey's House
Source: http://www.nts.org.uk/Holidays/Book/12301/
For the safety of all
Our reply
As I mentioned in my reply dated 9th December 2015, the Northern Lighthouse Board
owns and operates a number of important marine aids to navigation and this will
continue however like many other organisations providing a public service we are
mandated to do everything we can to reduce our overheads and the disposal of nonoperational property is a key component of this.
We do not have a plan drawing with a red outline showing the approximate boundary
of each building for sale however I can provide you with a plan of the site showing
the buildings that NLB will be retaining for operational purposes (attached). The
intention is to sell the cottages along with everything that is not explicitly marked on
the plan as to be retained with the exception of the helipad and redundant fog signal,
which are not owned by NLB. For information, the cottages ceased to be used as
holiday accommodation some time ago and are no longer available through the
National Trust for Scotland.
You will see that the plan contains minor redactions to omit the names of NLB
employees. This is under section 40 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, as the
information constitutes personal data relating to third parties. This section provides
that personal data relating to other persons is exempt if disclosure would breach any
of the data protection principles in the Data Protection Act 1998. In this case, I
consider that disclosure is likely to breach the first data protection principle which
states that personal data should be processed fairly and lawfully. It is the fairness of
this principle which would be breached by disclosure in my view as these members
of staff are not public facing individuals and they would not reasonably expect their
names to be made public.
I hope you find the information provided useful. However, if you are dissatisfied with
the response you have received you should write or email the Director of Finance at
the address below. Your request for internal review should be submitted within 40
working days of the date of this letter.
Director of Finance
Northern Lighthouse Board
84 George Street
Edinburgh
EH2 3DA
Email: [email protected]
If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you can apply directly
to the Information Commissioner for a decision. The Information Commissioner can
be contacted at:
Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
www.ico.gov.uk
Yours sincerely,
Suzie Bruce
Compliance Officer
Email: [email protected]
For the safety of all