Our Ref: Alison Brandwood Chorley Council

Your Ref: S Hardwicke Carruthers Civic Offices

Union Street

Chorley

PR7 1AL

17 September 2008

Dear Mr Hardwicke Carruthers

REQUEST FOR INFORMATON UNDER THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000

REGARDING COUNCIL FUNCTIONS

I can confirm that we have received your request for information under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. Unfortunately, it is estimated that it will cost more that the appropriate limit to consider your request. The appropriate limit is specified in regulations and for local government is £450. This represents the cost of one person working 2 ½ days in determining whether the Council holds the information and locating, retrieving and extracting the information. Consequently the Council is not obliged by the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to respond to your request.

To assist you I would recommend that you narrow the scope of your request to keep it within cost limits. As it stands your request is wide ranging asking for information that would be held by various Council Directorates spanning several years and in some cases not held by the Council at all. For example, many of your questions relate the employment of Councillors. However, Councillors are not employed by the Council but are paid allowances which cover their time; resources etc. (many of them take time off work to attend to their Council responsibilities). They do not have contracts of employment with, nor receive a salary from the Council.

It is also worth advising that the Regulations allow for requests to be aggregated when considering the appropriate limit. They state that two or more requests for information must have been made to the same public authority and they must either be from the same person, or from 'different persons who appear to the public authority to be acting in concert or in pursuance of a campaign' (section 12(4)(b) of the FOI Act); the requests must relate to the same or similar information; and they must have been received by the public authority within a space of 60 consecutive working days. This provision is intended primarily to prevent individuals or organisations circumventing the appropriate limit by splitting a request into smaller parts.

Can I also recommend that you visit www.chorley.gov.uk as some of the information you require may be available in the Council's published accounts. If you then wish to reformulate and resubmit your request to the Council, it will be considered as a fresh request.

The Council always aims to provide appropriate advice and assistance to requestors. If however, you are unhappy with the outcome, or the way in which Chorley Council has handled your request, you may wish to make an appeal. This can be done in writing to the Freedom of Information Officer, Chorley Council, Civic Offices, Union Street, Chorley, PR7 1AL, or by e-mail to: [Chorley Borough Council request email] clearly stating your reasons for dissatisfaction.

If your appeal is either not upheld or you remain dissatisfied with our decision, you can appeal to the Information Commissioner at: Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF, or by e-mail to [email address].

Yours sincerely

Alison Brandwood

Information Management Officer

Chorley Council

DD: 01257 515723

EMAIL: [email address]

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