Blocking an email address

Dear Stockton on Tees Council,

From 4pm on Friday 28 May the Council have imposed a block on my
email address. This is due to a complaint I made in 2006 which was
not investigated until 2009 relating to safeguarding in a
Billingham care home. My complaint is now with the Local Government
Ombudsman.

The reason the Council give for the block is the inappropriate
content and frequency. I am only repeating the same questions as
they refuse to answer me.

What I would like to know is, can the Council legally block my
email address to all departments as I have no issues with any other
department only Children Education and Social Care.

Yours faithfully,

Michelle Sowerby

Dear Stockton on Tees Council,

I have not received a response to my FOI request. Could you please
contact me to explain the reason for the delay. Thank you.

Yours faithfully,

m sowerby

Dear Stockton on Tees Council,

For the attention of Ged Morton

I am in receipt of your letter which says:-

"Firstly as a matter of clarification, I should confirm that the
Corporate Director has not blocked your email account or asked your
internet service provider to block your account, in the sense of
directly preventing you from using it. They would not have the
power to do this. What the Corporate Director has however put in
place is a measure so that your incoming email is not delivered to
any individual email inbox within the Council."

Letter from Jane Humphreys 28th May 2010 reads:-

"In light of this and following legal advice I am writing to inform
you that I have asked our IT department to impose a block on all
emails from your email address from 4 p.m.(today).

Please Ged Morton, can you show me where in my FOI request I have
said that the Corporate Director has blocked my email account or
asked my internet service provider to block my account.

I would like a reply to this today as you are already breaking the
law by not replying to my FOI request within the 20 working days.

Yours faithfully,

m sowerby

Dear Stockton on Tees Council,

Please reply to my request through this site and not by post. The
public have a right to know how Stockton Council handle
complainants.

My complaint concerned safeguarding in a care home for vulnerable
people and the Customer Services Manager's refusal, the Contracts
Manager's refusal and the Care Manager's refusal to investigate.
The Registered Manager of the care home denied all knowledge of the
member of staff I was concerned about and put this in writing to
the CSCI, Social Services and the service user's next of kin.

My concern, first raised in 2006 was eventually investigated in
2009. It is now with the Local Government Ombudsman.

Yours faithfully,

m sowerby

Dear Stockton on Tees Council,

Just to be clear, I cannot send an email to any department at
Stockton Council, rather than blocking my address to CESC I am
blocked from all of Stockton Council Departments. I have no issues
with any other department.

Enclosed with the letter I received today is a booklet on how the
Council handle complaints, it states that the complainant must be
told that the situation will be reviewed in either 3, 6 or 12
months time, or whatever timescale is deemed appropriate. It is one
month since Jane Humphreys informed me of the block and this is the
first I know of the review period today 30 June.

This block was imposed despite the fact that Margaret Madden the
Customer Services Manager was aware of my grief for the service
user who passed away in January this year and she had even made
enquiries within the Council for grief counselling for me. She
emailed me with details.

Yours faithfully,

m sowerby

Dear Stockton on Tees Council,

Mr Morton also says in his letter that I had made unfounded
accusations, could you confirm which accusations he is referring
to, that the Home employed a thief and allowed her unsupervised
access to the residents' rooms or that the Registered Manager had
been refused a reference from her former employer.

Yours faithfully,

m sowerby