Thank you for your request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 for information about Executive meetings.

Under the Council's Constitution (part 4D - Executive Procedure Rules) the Executive can meet collectively as follows:

“5.1 Decisions shall only be made by the Executive as a whole in these circumstances:

1. The Executive is required by law to meet together to make a decision; or

2. The Leader decides that an executive decision should be made by the Executive as a whole; or

Since May 2002, the Executive has met once per year under clause 3. above. There have been no meetings convened falling under Clause 1. or 2. If a meeting of the Executive is called at which executive decisions are to be made, notice must be given in accordance with the Council's Access to Information Procedure Rules (part 4B of the Constitution).

This is the only meeting of the Executive at which decisions are made and are in accordance with the provisions of the Council's Constitution on decision-making.

The meeting referred in your email and mentioned by the Leader of the Council in October 2008, would have been one of two types of meeting either:

If this was the case, the meeting was in effect a sub group of the Liberal Democrat Group. Political group meetings are not local authority meetings and fall outside the scope of public access requirements. Any decisions taken at such meetings would not bind the local authority.

Under the Council's Member/Officer Protocol (Constitution part 5C) paragraph 3.8 refers to:

“The Chief Executive and Directors may attend collectively to brief meetings of those members making up the Executive……on forthcoming issues”.

Some of the information you requested has been withheld because an exemption applied.

The Minutes and agendas of these meetings could not be supplied because they are covered by the exemptions in section 36 (2) (b) (i) and (ii) of the Act “likely to inhibit the free and frank provision of advice or free and frank exchange of views for the purpose of deliberation.” This exemption is subject to a public interest test.

The Council's Monitoring Officer has considered the public interest test and has decided that the public interest lies in withholding the information under exemptions 36 (2) (b) (i) and (ii) because there should be an opportunity for the Executive to receive private advice on future options from the Council's senior managers and disclosure of such information which reveals internal thinking processes may be detrimental to the ultimate quality of either policy-making and may lead to less candid and robust discussions in future.

If you are not happy with the way in which your request has been dealt with please contact Rob Hammond, the Council's Chief Executive. His email address is [email address].

You may also contact the Information Commissioner if you are still not happy with the way your request has been dealt with. The Information Commissioner's address is:

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire SK9 5AF