Agreement with Brock PLC for reduced waste prices

I will be out of the office starting 14/10/2011 and will not return until
26/10/2011.

**********************************************************************
Opinions advice, conclusions and other information in this
message that do not relate to the official business of
Flintshire County Council shall be understood as neither
given nor endorsed by it or on its behalf, and consequently
Flintshire County Council shall bear no responsibility
whatsoever in respect thereof.
Deellir na fydd unrhyw safbwyntiau, na chynghorion, na
chasgliadau nac unrhyw wybodaeth arall yn y neges hon,
nad ydynt yn berthnasol i waith swyddogol
Cyngor Sir y Fflint, yn cael eu cynnig na'u cadarnhau ganddo
nac ar ei ran, ac felly ni fydd Cyngor Sir y Fflint yn derbyn
unrhyw gyfrifoldeb am y rhannau hynny o'r neges.
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Dear Mr Jones,

Thank you for your e-mail of today's date. According to our database your
request was logged on the 24 October and a response is not due until the 23
November. Your request is being dealt with by our Environment Directorate
and I have forwarded your e-mail to them for their information.

Please quote the above reference number on any future correspondence
relating to this request. Many thanks.

Regards,

Lavinia Stockham
Democratic Services/Gwasanethau Democrataidd
Flintshire County Council/Cyngor Sir y Fflint
Tel/Ffôn: (01352) 702304

David Jones
<request-90285-67
ab3e9a@whatdothey To
know.com> [email address].u
k
18/11/2011 08:35 cc

Fax to

Subject
Re: Lavinia M Stockham is out of
the office
between ........-.............
. Nid yw Lavinia Stockham yn y
swyddfa rhwng ........
- .............

Dear Flintshire Council,

I regret to note that you have not responded within the legally
required time frame to my fair and reasonable request.

Can you please detail why you have not complied with the law and
when you intend to do so?

Yours faithfully,

David Jones

show quoted sections

Mr David Jones Eich Cyf/Your Ref
Ein Cyf/Our Ref R004015
Dyddiad/Date 23/11/2011
Gofynner am/Ask for Tracey Cunnew
Rhif Union/Direct Dial 01352 703283

Dear Mr Jones

With regard to your request for information under the Freedom of
Information Act, I can confirm that as we are currently awaiting legal
advice we are not in a position to respond at this time.

We will respond to you as soon as possible.

Yours sincerely

Tracey Cunnew

**********************************************************************

Opinions advice, conclusions and other information in this

message that do not relate to the official business of

Flintshire County Council shall be understood as neither

given nor endorsed by it or on its behalf, and consequently

Flintshire County Council shall bear no responsibility

whatsoever in respect thereof.

Deellir na fydd unrhyw safbwyntiau, na chynghorion, na

chasgliadau nac unrhyw wybodaeth arall yn y neges hon,

nad ydynt yn berthnasol i waith swyddogol

Cyngor Sir y Fflint, yn cael eu cynnig na'u cadarnhau ganddo

nac ar ei ran, ac felly ni fydd Cyngor Sir y Fflint yn derbyn

unrhyw gyfrifoldeb am y rhannau hynny o'r neges.

**********************************************************************

Dear Mr Jones,

I apologise that you have not been contacted with regard to the above
enquiry.

I can advise you that under EIR regulations we have extended the time to
deal with it to 40 days and the expiry date is now December 21st.
The reason for this is that we have requested legal advice.

Please accept my apologies once more that you were not informed of this.

Regards

Tracey Cunnew
Admin Assistant
General Office
Flintshire County Council
Environment Directorate
County Hall Mold
Phone no - 01352 703283

David Jones To [email address]
<[FOI #90285 email]> cc
Fax to
19/12/2011 08:39 Subject Re: FOI Enquiry: R004015

     Dear Flintshire Council,
   
    I regret to note that you are now seriously overdue with your
    response as required by law.
   
    I will therefore refer this to the information commissioner due to
    your total disregard of the law.
   
    Yours faithfully,
   
    David Jones
   
   

show quoted sections

Mr David Jones Eich Cyf/Your Ref
Ein Cyf/Our Ref R004015
Dyddiad/Date 16/01/2012
Gofynner am/Ask for Lesley Matischok
Rhif Union/Direct Dial 01352 703448

Dear Mr Jones

Thank you for your request for information where you have asked for the
following information:

Details of the agreement entered into between AD Waste and Brock PLC on
the 25th June 2010. I would note that AD Waste was an "in house " part of
FCC at this time and therefore this should be public information.

Details of the agreement for Brock PLC to take over the planning
application for Pinfold Lane and Stoney Beach Quarries from AD
Waste that had been paid for by AD Waste and therefore FCC tax payers

The contents of this communication and any enclosed documents are subject
to copyright protection.  It has been sent to you for your information and
you may use it for any non-commercial research you may be doing or
undertaking.  Its contents can also be used for the purposes of news
reporting.  Any other re-use, for example, commercial publication or
publication on a website, requires the permission of this Council.  If you
wish to re-use this information please contact us, letting us know how you
wish to re-use it and what the intended audience will be so that we can
consider your request.  This information should be sent to:  The Records
Manager, Flintshire County Council, County Hall, Mold, Flintshire  CH7
6NB, or [email address]

I hope this answers all the points raised in your request

Yours sincerely

Lesley Matischok

ENVIRONMENTAL INFORMATION REGULATION
COMPLAINTS PROCEDURE

This procedure is exclusively for dealing with complaints in relation to
the operation of the Environmental Information Regulations (EIR) within
Flintshire County Council (Council).

This procedure applies to any person who considers that their request has
not been properly handled or who is otherwise dissatisfied with the
outcome of the consideration of their request made under the EIR

Before making a complaint you are encouraged to contact the officer
dealing with your request in case there has been any misunderstanding or
oversight which can quickly be rectified.

The stages of the complaints procedure:-

Any complaint should be made in writing addressed to the EIR complaints
officer, Democratic Services, County Hall, Mold or by e-mail to
[email address] giving full details of your complaint.  It must be
made within 40 working days of the alleged failure to comply with the EIR.

Your complaint will be referred to a complaints officer to investigate and
carry out an internal review of the original response to your request.
 This person will not have made the original decision on your request and
will be a senior officer of the Council.

The first task of the complaints officer having read your complaint is to
send you a written acknowledgement with a target date for a decision on
it.  If the review has not been completed by the target date, at that time
you will be written to explaining the reasons for this and giving a
revised target date.  The complaint will be dealt with as quickly as it
can be and in any event within 40 working days of when the complaint was
received.

Following a thorough internal review you will receive a written response
to your complaint which will advise you of your right to appeal to the
Information Commissioner if you remain dissatisfied.

The intention of this complaints procedure is to provide an internal
review process that is fair, impartial, clear and simple and carried out
quickly.

**********************************************************************

Opinions advice, conclusions and other information in this

message that do not relate to the official business of

Flintshire County Council shall be understood as neither

given nor endorsed by it or on its behalf, and consequently

Flintshire County Council shall bear no responsibility

whatsoever in respect thereof.

Deellir na fydd unrhyw safbwyntiau, na chynghorion, na

chasgliadau nac unrhyw wybodaeth arall yn y neges hon,

nad ydynt yn berthnasol i waith swyddogol

Cyngor Sir y Fflint, yn cael eu cynnig na'u cadarnhau ganddo

nac ar ei ran, ac felly ni fydd Cyngor Sir y Fflint yn derbyn

unrhyw gyfrifoldeb am y rhannau hynny o'r neges.

**********************************************************************

Dear Mr Jones,

I understand that you have made a complaint to the Information
Commissioner's office about the way a request you made to the Council has
been dealt with. I am investigating the background to this and would like
first to clarify that I have a correct understanding of the request you
made and the response you received to it. According to our records on the
24 October we received a request from you seeking the following:-

"Details of the agreement entered into between AD Waste and Brock PLC on
the 25 June 2010. I would note that AD Waste was an 'in house' part of FCC
at this time and therefore this should be public information.

Details of the agreement for Brock PLC to take over the planning
application for Pinfold Lane and Stoney Beach Quarries from AD Waste that
had been paid for by AD Waste and therefore FCC tax payers".

It appears from our records that the only response you received to this was
an e-mail of the 16 January 2012 which repeated your request, thanked you
for it and went on to give a paragraph explaining about copyright
protection. I should be grateful if you could confirm or otherwise whether
my above understanding is correct.

If my understanding is correct I would like to apologise to you as it
appears there has been no substantive response to your request.

I understand that the response that was sent included details of the
Council's internal complaints procedure but I have no indication that you
sought to use this but if that understanding is wrong please could you let
me have details of any complaint you lodged with the Council and any
response to that complaint that you received.

Once I have a clear understanding of how your request and any internal
complaint was dealt with I intend to deal with your request and in doing so
will keep the Information Commissioner's office informed. On behalf of the
Council I also apologise for the time it has taken to deal with your
request. Once I have confirmation or otherwise as to my current
understanding I intend to send you a response within 20 working days at the
latest.

I am sending a copy of this e-mail to the Information Commissioner's office
for its information. Once again apologies for the way your complaint has
so far been dealt with.

Regards,

Peter Evans

Democracy & Governance Manager | Rheolwr Democratiaeth a Llywodraethu
Democratic Services | Gwasanaethau Democrataidd
Flintshire County Council | Cyngor Sir Y Fflint
County Hall | Neuadd y Sir
Mold | Yr Wyddgrug
CH7 6NA
________________________________________________________________
Tel|Ffôn | 01352 702304

**********************************************************************
Opinions advice, conclusions and other information in this
message that do not relate to the official business of
Flintshire County Council shall be understood as neither
given nor endorsed by it or on its behalf, and consequently
Flintshire County Council shall bear no responsibility
whatsoever in respect thereof.
Deellir na fydd unrhyw safbwyntiau, na chynghorion, na
chasgliadau nac unrhyw wybodaeth arall yn y neges hon,
nad ydynt yn berthnasol i waith swyddogol
Cyngor Sir y Fflint, yn cael eu cynnig na'u cadarnhau ganddo
nac ar ei ran, ac felly ni fydd Cyngor Sir y Fflint yn derbyn
unrhyw gyfrifoldeb am y rhannau hynny o'r neges.
**********************************************************************

Dear Mr Jones,

I am writing to you further to my e-mail of the 23 April and as I have not
heard from you I am taking it that the understanding I had of how your
original request was dealt with is correct. I have carried out a review of
your request and now respond to it in the way that I believe it should
initially have been responded to. Once again apologies for the way it was
initially dealt with.

In your initial request you refer to AD Waste being an 'in-house' part of
FCC at that time and I would point out that that was not in fact the case.
AD Waste Limited was a separate legal entity to Flintshire County Council.
I trust you will therefore appreciate that the information contained in the
legal agreement between AD Waste and Brock PLC is not public information.
Notwithstanding this I have recently consulted with Brock PLC to ascertain
if they have any objection to disclosing to you details of the agreement
they entered into on the 25 June 2010. In response they have made the
following points:-

1. The information in the agreement is self-evidently both commercial
and industrial in nature and should not be made available in the public
domain.

2. There is a duty of confidence provided by law and the general
public is not prejudiced by maintaining this duty to Brock PLC

3. The commercial interests of Brock PLC could be undermined by Mr.
D. Jones who is known to be a Director of a company competing with and
objecting to Brock PLC’s planning application. Confidentiality is required
to prevent this.

The response goes on to reserve the company's position to seek damages
against the County Council in the event of information being disclosed to
you.

I have considered the above points made by Brock PLC in coming to my
decision on your request. The initial decision I have come to is that your
request is governed by the Environmental Information Regulations rather
than the Freedom of Information Act. The agreement you are seeking
details of relates to Pinfold Quarries and Stoney Beach Quarries both at
Pinfold Lane, Alltami, Flintshire and the transfer of a planning
application from AD Waste to Brock PLC. This constitutes environmental
information within the definition in Section 2 of the Environmental
Information Regulations. It therefore falls under the exemption in Section
39 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and your request falls to be
dealt with under the Environmental Information Regulations.

Regulation 12 (5) (e) provides an exception to disclosure of information.
This provides that a public authority may refuse to disclose information to
the extent that its disclosure would adversely affect the confidentiality
of commercial or industrial information where such confidentiality is
provided by law to protect a legitimate economic interest. It is clear
from your request that you are aware of the purpose of the 25 June 2010
agreement and I do not believe that the exemption prevents me from
confirming your understanding of the agreement. I also do not believe that
there is any confidential, commercial or industrial information preventing
me informing you that the agreement contains the following details:-

Clauses relating to payments between AD Waste and Brock
Details relating to the transfer of a planning application from AD Waste
to Brock
Details of charges made by Brock to AD Waste for accepting permitted
waste for treatment or disposal
Details concerning Leachate Treatment
Details relating to termination of the agreement and dispute resolution.

I do however, believe that further details are covered by the above
exception. I also believe that disclosure of such further details would in
all the circumstances of the case not be in the public interest. In
reaching my decision in relation to the public interest I have considered
the need for transparency, the representations received from Brock PLC,
that AD Waste Ltd was a separate legal entity to the Council, that
Flintshire Council was not a party to the agreement.

The contents of this communication and any enclosed documents may be
subject to copyright protection. It has been sent to you for your
information and you may use it for any non-commercial research you may be
doing. Its contents can also be used for the purposes of news reporting.
Any other re-use, for example commercial publication or publication on a
website, requires the permission of this Council. If you wish to re-use
this information please contact us, letting us know how you wish to re-use
it and what the intended audience will be so that we can consider your
request. This information should be sent to: The Records Manager,
Flintshire County Council, County Hall, Mold, Flintshire CH7 6NB, or
[email address]

I have now completed my review of your request and whilst I hope you will
accept my decision, if that is not in fact the case, you may wish to pursue
the matter with the Information Commissioner's office and I set out below
the contact details. I am also sending a copy of this response to the
Information Commissioner's office in view of their previous involvement in
this matter.

The Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane,
Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF

Regards,

Peter Evans

Democracy & Governance Manager | Rheolwr Democratiaeth a Llywodraethu
Democratic Services | Gwasanaethau Democrataidd
Flintshire County Council | Cyngor Sir Y Fflint
County Hall | Neuadd y Sir
Mold | Yr Wyddgrug
CH7 6NA
________________________________________________________________
Tel|Ffôn | 01352 702304

**********************************************************************
Opinions advice, conclusions and other information in this
message that do not relate to the official business of
Flintshire County Council shall be understood as neither
given nor endorsed by it or on its behalf, and consequently
Flintshire County Council shall bear no responsibility
whatsoever in respect thereof.
Deellir na fydd unrhyw safbwyntiau, na chynghorion, na
chasgliadau nac unrhyw wybodaeth arall yn y neges hon,
nad ydynt yn berthnasol i waith swyddogol
Cyngor Sir y Fflint, yn cael eu cynnig na'u cadarnhau ganddo
nac ar ei ran, ac felly ni fydd Cyngor Sir y Fflint yn derbyn
unrhyw gyfrifoldeb am y rhannau hynny o'r neges.
**********************************************************************