Saturday, February 25, 2006

Hiding environmental information made not-so-easy

In our series "How to...... In Rugby"

We present : Town Hall in Shock as Freedom of Environmental Information Act bites!

"Hiding environmental information made not-so-easy" at Rugby Borough Council.

It might appear to casual observers that RBC spend more time, and more of our money, going to great lengths to hide information, than they would in just making the information "freely available" as they are required to do, by Law.

* Is this Best Value for Council Tax Payers?

* Do you feel a bit sorry for them, as after all it must be an enormous shock to "the system" after all these years of saying to the Public "we are not going to tell you because we do not have to!" - and now being obliged to.

Click here to read more

But the crux of the matter is below:

Case Ref: FS50072105
Date: 13/02/06
Public Authority: Rugby Borough Council
Summary: The complainant requested information about a planning application, and the Commissioner has found this request was not dealt with within 20 working days. Additionally, information was withheld from the response to the request without a valid reason, and without the issuing of a valid refusal notice. Therefore the Decision Notice requires the public authority to supply all information that was withheld without valid reason. In addition the complainant also alleged that the Council had not provided the information in the form requested, the Commissioner found no evidence of this and so this aspect of the complaint has not been upheld.
Section of Act/EIR & Finding: EIR r.5(1) Upheld, EIR r.5(2) Upheld, EIR r.6(1) Not Upheld, EIR r.14 Upheld.
Full transcript of Decision Notice FS50072105

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