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Dear Mr Tweedy

Re: Request for Internal Review - Request 4684

Thank you for your correspondence regarding the apparent lack of response to your recent request to the Council (our ref: 4684).

In your you asked for an internal review of the handling of your Request. I have summarised the details of your appeal below:

I am sorry that you are dissatisfied with our handling of your requests and I have investigated your complaints under Stage 1 of the Council's Corporate Complaints Procedure. Further details of our procedure can be found on our website:

http://www.westminster.gov.uk/services/councilgovernmentanddemocracy/councils/contactsconsultationandfeedback/complaints-and-compliments/complaints/

Response

Your original request for this information was made via on 7^th October 2009 and was logged as request 4479 by the council. The council refused this request on 28^th October 2009 as it was determined that, combined with other requests already submitted by you, responding would exceed the appropriate limit set by the Government. On 1^st December 2009 you resubmitted the same request to the council. This was logged by the council and allocated reference number 4684. You have contacted the council on a number of occasions since expressing concern that you have not received a response to this request. This included a query with regard to 4479 as to "when the 60 working days would be up" so that you could resubmit the request without it being aggregated with other requests.

Having reviewed the correspondence regarding this request, I am satisfied that its original refusal was correctly applied - that is to say that the request was received within 60 working days of other requests made by you regarding the same/similar information (in this case, the council's motorcycle parking scheme), and that to respond to the requests in aggregate would exceed the appropriate limit. With regard to the 60 working days, this is not a definite start/end date. Rather, any requests received within 60 working days of each other, can be reviewed to see if they meet the criteria for aggregation.

Your request was resubmitted on 1^st December 2009 and therefore remained subject to the aggregation with other requests submitted by you i.e. other requests made within 60 working days. As the text of the request was also identical to one which had been previously responded to, this was a repeated request as defined by section 14(2) of the Freedom of Information Act. However, you should have been informed that this was the case and therefore you complaint is partially upheld.

With regard to the information you have requested, given the length of time that has passed and the fact that we have not contacted you to keep you informed of developments with your request, I have asked the Parking Department to provide you with the information the fulfils your request by the end of next week.

Advice and Guidance

I note also that you have submitted identical requests on several occasions from different email addresses on WhatDoTheyKnow. As explained previously, WhatDoTheyKnow is not associated with the council and the council has its own system for logging requests for information that it receives. These requests posted via WhatDoTheyKnow are repetitions of request 4479/4684 and are to chase the lack of response to this request rather than new requests for information. Consequently, these emails do not constitute new requests and have not been logged as such by the council.

This completes the internal review into the handling of your Request under the Council's complaints procedure. Should you be dissatisfied with our response, you are entitled to contact the Information Commissioner under Section 50 of the Freedom of Information Act. For your reference, I have provided his contact details below:

Information Commissioner's Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

Tel: 08456 30 60 60 or 01625 54 57 45
Fax: 01625 524510

Web: www.ico.gov.uk

I hope this fulfils your request. Should you have any queries, please contact me at the address above.

Yours sincerely,

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Under the Data Protection Act 1998, Data Subjects have rights to challenge, alter or erase the inaccurate and unlawful processing of their information. In the first instance please contact The Data Protection Officer, Information Services, 101 Orchardson Street, London NW8 8EA. If you are not satisfied with our response you may contact The Information Commissioner: Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF