Internal Review

Dear Mr Palmer,

Following your email dated 25 March 2009, I have been asked to carry out an review of a response sent to you by a member of my External Relations Team, Andy Goymer.

Your email dated 23 March 2009 requested transcripts of telephone conversations made between the Environment Agency and Elmbridge Borough Council regarding the Hampton Court / Jolly Boatmen development. Andy responded with the following comments by email on 25 March 2009;

“It is not our policy to keep transcripts of telephone conversations. I can therefore confirm that there are no transcripts on record between the Environment Agency and Elmbridge Borough Council regarding the Sequential Test for Hampton Court / Jolly Boatman.

You may wish to contact Elmbridge Borough Council direct as they may hold records of conversations relating to this matter.”

I have discussed this matter with the members of our Planning Liaison team that have been involved with site and I can concur with Andy Goymer's email of 25 March 2009 that we do not hold transcripts of conversations.

Mr Jack Hayes from our Planning Liaison Team has provided the following information relating to the telephone conversations in question;

“The conversation regarding the development proposal was part of a discussion related to the flood risk assessment and as part of our overall discussion related to our position on the development including elements such as the riverside design.

Following our email to the consultants working on the flood risk assessment we directed the Local Planning Authority (LPA) and the applicant to our advice on the website which outlined potential processes to work through depending on the circumstances of the site such as whether the site was allocated for development. The LPA always acknowledged that the process of the Sequential Test was their responsibility as part of their overall determination of the application as per Planning Policy Statement 25 (PPS25).

We referred to this discussion in our formal response so as to state that we had outlined this aspect of PPS25 as well as analysing the site specific considerations related to flood risk. We also included this in our formal response to state that as the LPA and applicant were satisfied with their analysis that it was not our responsibility to make final decisions and judgements on the sequential test, but rather to point the relevant parties toward the right policy.”

For your information, please find attached copies of our latest formal consultation responses which explain about the sequential test.

I have reviewed the information that has previously been sent to you under the Freedom of Information Act relating to the above site. I have no reason to doubt that you have now been supplied with all the relevant information held by us as requested.

If you are still not satisfied following this review, you can make an appeal to the Information Commissioner, who is the statutory regulator for Freedom of Information.

Details for the Information Commissioner can be found at http://www.ico.gov.uk/

Yours sincerely

Rhona Byrne

Team Leader

External Relations Department

Thames South East

Tel: 01276 454374

[email address]

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Environment Agency

Frimley Office, Swift House, Frimley Business Park, Camberley, Surrey, GU16 7SQ

General Enquiries: 08708 506 506 Website: www.environment-agency.gov.uk