Dear Sir or Madam,

Please could you supply me with information about how the Council
has spent the budget set aside for the upgrading of disability
access facilities?

Thank you.

Yours faithfully,

Grace Filby FRSA, Churchill Fellow, Reigate

on behalf of the Reigate and Banstead Access Forum
www.fabrab.org.uk

Thankyou for your e-mail to Customer Services.
This reply has been automatically generated to confirm that your message
has reached Reigate & Banstead Borough Council and will be dealt with.

Where a response is required you should receive one within seven days.
Customer Services Manager

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Dear Sir or Madam,

Please could you supply me with information about how the Council
has spent the budget set aside for the upgrading of disability
access facilities?

Thank you.

Yours faithfully,

Grace Filby FRSA, Churchill Fellow, Reigate

on behalf of the Reigate and Banstead Access Forum
www.fabrab.org.uk

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Dear Ms Filby,

Thank you for your email. This has been passed to our Freedom of
Information officer for his attention and reply.

Regards
Dawn Hopson

Customer Services Adviser
Reply to : [Reigate & Banstead Borough Council request email]
Telephone Help Line : 01737 276000

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19:00 >>>
Dear Sir or Madam,

Please could you supply me with information about how the Council
has spent the budget set aside for the upgrading of disability
access facilities?

Thank you.

Yours faithfully,

Grace Filby FRSA, Churchill Fellow, Reigate

on behalf of the Reigate and Banstead Access Forum
www.fabrab.org.uk

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Thank you for your request for information and I apologise for the delay
in acknowledging it. I am dealing with it under the terms of the
Freedom of Information Act 2000 and will contact you again as soon as I
have the information you have requested.

David Akehurst - Information Officer
Reigate & Banstead BC
1 October 2008

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19:00 >>>
Dear Sir or Madam,

Please could you supply me with information about how the Council
has spent the budget set aside for the upgrading of disability
access facilities?

Thank you.

Yours faithfully,

Grace Filby FRSA, Churchill Fellow, Reigate

on behalf of the Reigate and Banstead Access Forum
www.fabrab.org.uk

show quoted sections

Dear Grace,

Thank you for your information request and I apologise for not
responding sooner.

I have discussed your request with the Head of Engineering Services at
Reigate & Banstead BC(RBBC) and he needs clarification from you
regarding your request. He has told me that it would difficult to
provide you with sums of money that have spent specifically on the
upgrading of disabled access facilities by RBBC as they are normally
part of larger projects and the money spent on them would be difficult
to identify. The figures we would give would not be particularly
accurate as they would be estimates.

We can, however, give you a list of all the improvements that have
been made within the Borough in the last 2 years regarding disabled
access. Would this be what you are looking for? Please let me know.

Thank you.

David Akehurst - Information Officer
Reigate & Banstead BC
10 October 2008

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19:00 >>>
Dear Sir or Madam,

Please could you supply me with information about how the Council
has spent the budget set aside for the upgrading of disability
access facilities?

Thank you.

Yours faithfully,

Grace Filby FRSA, Churchill Fellow, Reigate

on behalf of the Reigate and Banstead Access Forum
www.fabrab.org.uk

show quoted sections

Dear David,

Thank you - I will check with my colleagues and then send you a
reply.

My understanding was that there is a specific budget set aside for
upgrading access so it would need to be accounted for.

Yours sincerely,

Grace Filby

Dear David,

I can now clarify the question.

In 2004, Surrey County Council agreed to send just over £200,000
(spread over 4 years to 2008) to be spent on improving access in
the town centres. It was as a result of a Working Party in Reigate,
Redhill, Banstead and Horley. The County Council Officer was very
keen and he persuaded SCC to provide this extra money.

The members of Reigate & Banstead Access Forum
(http://www.fabrab.org.uk) want to be sure that the money has now
been received, and spent wisely and appropriately.

Please send us a list of whatever items you have spent the money
on. This would not include Reigate Priory Park because that was a
separate project and funded with Lottery money.

It would be improved access to shops, car parks, offices and
general services in the town centres since 2004 to the value of the
figure provided by Surrey County Council.

Many thanks,

Yours sincerely,

Grace Filby

Dear David,

Here is a bit more information: the total amount was 228,000
pounds. It was as a result of the 'Disabled Access Review Panel' as
recorded in the Minutes of the RBBC Overview and Scrutiny Committee
in 2004.

Yours sincerely,

Grace Filby

Thanks, Grace. I will research further into your request with the
additional information.

David Akehurst - Information Officer
Reigate & Banstead BC
14 October 2008

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12:44 >>>
Dear David,

Here is a bit more information: the total amount was 228,000
pounds. It was as a result of the 'Disabled Access Review Panel'
as
recorded in the Minutes of the RBBC Overview and Scrutiny
Committee
in 2004.

Yours sincerely,

Grace Filby

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Dear Grace,

Apologies for the delay in completing your request. I have received
some information from the Head of Engineering but I want to check to see
if there is further data in the Finance section. I will get back to you
as soon as I can.

David Akehurst - Information Officer
Reigate & Banstead BC
29 October 2008

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12:44 >>>
Dear David,

Here is a bit more information: the total amount was 228,000
pounds. It was as a result of the 'Disabled Access Review Panel'
as
recorded in the Minutes of the RBBC Overview and Scrutiny
Committee
in 2004.

Yours sincerely,

Grace Filby

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Dear Grace,

Further to my recent e-mail, I have been unable to find any more recorded information in relation to your information request within our Finance department. However, the Head of Engineering Services has been able to provide me with the attached Word document that gives details of the projects and finance given to disabled access in the Borough in the past few years.

I did retrieve a copy of the Overview and Scrutiny committee minutes mentioned in your e-mail, it was for the 1st July 2004. The minutes indicate that Surrey County Council were the holders of the budget, and I suspect it may well have been available to all local authorities in Surrey. It would be worthwhile submitting an FOI request to Surrey to see if they still have details of the £228, 000 budget, and to which authorities it was distributed. Their contact details are:

FOI Officer
Legal Services
Room G81, County Hall
Penrhyn Road
Kingston upon Thames
SURREY, KT1 2DN
Tel: 020 8541 7969
Email: [email address]
Fax: 020 8541 9005

If I can be of any further assistance please contact me. Thanks.

David Akehurst - Information Officer
Reigate & Banstead BC
30 October 2008

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Dear David,

Here is a bit more information: the total amount was 228,000
pounds. It was as a result of the 'Disabled Access Review Panel' as
recorded in the Minutes of the RBBC Overview and Scrutiny Committee
in 2004.

Yours sincerely,

Grace Filby

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Dear David,

Thank you for sending the information. I shall circulate it amongst
the members of the Access Forum including the helpful summary that
RBBC have therefore spent just over £50,000 in the last few years.

I was assured that the money was specifically for this Borough, so
it sounds as if there is a lot of spare money waiting to be spent.

If it does eventually turn up somewhere, I hope they will ask us
what we would like it spent on!

Thank you again for all your help.

Yours sincerely,

Grace Filby