This email  from Heather Reid, Convener of the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority (LLTNPA), is not included in the Ethical Standards Commissioner’s report into her complaint about six emails Sid Perrie sent between 26th and 28th August 2024 (see here) and (here). When Dr Reid submitted her complaint on 29th August, in an attempt to prevent Sid, the locally elected member for Balloch, from attending the special board meeting on Flamingo Land, her complaint was not just about the content of his emails:

“but also because who he has copied them to (variously Government Ministers, MSPs and the Community Council) making these statements public criticisms of the National Park Authority and in so doing revealing personal email addresses of Board members”. 

So did Heather Reid also inform Ethical Standards Commissioner that she too had revealed the personal email addresses of Board Members to Ross Greer, Jackie Ballie and Scottish Ministers?  If not, why not?

(NB. Contrary to what Heather Reid claimed in her complaint, Sid Perrie never actually copied Balloch and Haldane Community Council into any of these emails – his second email was addressed directly to them and they were not included in any other email).

I discovered this email after writing my first two posts in this series and while trying to make further sense of the evidence included in the report of the Ethical Standards Commissioner (ESC).  I have been comparing the information provided by the LLTNPA  in response to Sid’s Subject Access Request (SAR) with that in the ESC’s report and trying to fill in the gaps.  (Under data protection laws people have a legal right to obtain the information an organisation holds about them by making a SAR). There are 536 pages of material, none of it in date order and all jumbled up, so this is a very time-consuming task.

Among the other information in the SAR, but not in the ESC’s report to the Standards Commission, is a letter to Heather Reid dated 19th December 2024 agreeing to investigate most of her complaints further.  In it the ESC also stated they they did not intend to investigate two aspect of the complaint further.  First, Heather Reid’s claim that Sid Perrie had breached Section 3.7 of the Code of Standards for Public Life by interfering in the operational management of the National Park – he clearly hadn’t as all six emails were addressed to Board Members not staff.  Second, the ESC explains they have no remit over alleged breaches of data protection laws:

I don’t know if Heather Reid has complained to the Information Commissioner’s Office but if Sid breached data protection laws by copying in Scottish Ministers, Ross Greer MSP and Jackie Baillie MSP to his first email, then the email Heather Reid sent in response did so too!

This small example illustrates the deceit and hypocrisy behind Heather Reid’s attempt to use data protection laws and the Code of Conduct for Board Members to prevent Sid Perrie, as the locally elected member for the Balloch area, from raising concerns about the planning process behind Flamingo Land.  Like many other public authorities,  the LLTNPA is now trying to weaponise rules, which were originally intended to protect the public, to shut down local democracy and put officials above the law.