Dear Sir or Madam,

I would like to know the following information.

For each edition of Your Croydon from 1999 (or date of first
publication) to 2009 (including the most recent edition) a detailed
breakdown of the cost of producing the publication, including:

Staffing costs (including tax, HR and any other burden to council
of employment)
IT
printing
distribution
estimated cost of recycling (including doorstep collection and
actual recycling)
any other associated costs

And also, the breakdown, per edition, of advertising revenue,
including:

total revenue
cost of full page advert
cost of double page advert
cost of half page advert
cost of quarter page advert
full list of clients who advertised in each edition

Yours faithfully,

Jo Wadsworth
www.twitter.com/jowadsworth
www.jowadsworth.blogspot.com

Dear Ms Wadsworth

Thank you for your email dated 21 May 2009, in which you have requested
information in respect of, amongst other things, a breakdown of the
costs in producing the publication Your Croydon.

We are considering your request under the terms of the Freedom of
Information Act 2000, and hope to respond within the statutory 20
working days.

In some circumstances a fee may be payable and if that is the case,
either myself or a colleague will let you know the likely charges before
proceeding.

If you have any queries about this email, please contact me. Please
remember to quote the reference number above in any future
communications.

Yours sincerely

Chris Tanriverdi

Paralegal

Democratic & Legal Services

Chief Executives's Department

5th Floor South Side, Taberner House

Park Lane, Croydon CR9 3JS

Tel : 020 8726 6000 Ext: 63833

Fax: 020 8407 1322

Faxination:020 8633 9664

Email: [email address]

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Dear Christine Tanriverdi,

I have had no response to my request for information. By law, your
response had to be prompt and no later than June 19,2009. Under the
Freedom of Information Act, you should have replied by now, and you
are now breaking the law.

If I do not hear anything from in the next month, I shall refer my
enquiry to the Information Commissioner.

Yours sincerely,

Jo Wadsworth

I am away from the office returning on Monday 29 June. I will respond to your email on my return. if the matter is urgent in relation to Data Protection or Freedom of Information please contact my colleague James Derby on Ext 61359

For all other matters please contact Michelle Hughes on Ext 61964.
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Dear Ms Wadsworth

Thank you for your email dated 21 May 2009, in which you have requested amongst other things, a breakdown of the costs in producing the publication Your Croydon. We have considered your request under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA), and apologise for the delay in replying.

Your Croydon was first produced in October 2006. It became a monthly publication in 2008/09 and appeared in tabloid format for the first time in February 2009.

I can advise that to answer fully your request Council officers would have to sift through copious amounts of data and spend a substantial amount of time putting this in the form that you require. The cumulative time it would take for Council officers to provide the information you have requested would exceed the "appropriate limit".

The appropriate limit has been specified in the Freedom of Information (Fees and Appropriate Limit) Regulations 2004 and for local authorities it is set at £450. This represents the estimated cost of one person spending 2½ working days in locating, retrieving and extracting the information from where it is stored. Under Section 12 of the FOIA the Council is not obliged to comply with your request and we will not be providing information for the period requested.

However, in order to comply with the spirit of the legislation and to provide you with meaningful figures this response includes data for the most recent issue for which full costs have been processed. This is the May issue, delivered at the end of April.

150,000 copies of a 28pp newspaper were printed and distributed. This compares to 91,707 for the Croydon Guardian, 87,825 for the Croydon Post and 14,517 for the Croydon Advertiser series (Source: Jicreg data for the Croydon local government area).

Total production cost was £21,540 resulting in a unit cost of just 0.14p - or £1.68 per household the year out of a typical band D council tax payment of £1,138.

The highest component of the monthly expense is print and production - £13,887. Freelance photography amounted to £182.56 and external proof reading was £60.

Distribution is now undertaken by a specialist contractor rather than a free newspaper. This ensures greater penetration. Cost of distributing the May issue amounted to £7,410.

Costs are offset by acceptance of advertising. Indicative rates are published in the paper and are therefore already in the public domain and do not require an FoI for disclosure (Section 21 FOIA). Advertising income for the May issue was £284.

These figures are not untypical for producing a 28 pp newspaper. The annual cost therefore would be in the region of £258,480.

Although for presentational purposes, the paper refers to an 'editorial team', no council staff are employed exclusively on producing the publication. Copy is produced largely, but not exclusively, by staff within the strategy and communications division of the chief executive's department. Invariably material intended for the council publication will also have been produced for web purposes, internal communications or even stand alone publicity material. Likewise there is no IT that is exclusively used for publication production purposes. All communications staff have access to a computer.

Your Croydon is printed on totally chlorine free stock produced from a sustainable source. Households are encouraged to recycle the paper when finished - just like any other newspaper. It would not be cost-effective to apportion recycling costs to the council paper. However, its size would suggest it would consume considerably less recycling resource than either of the free newspapers circulating within the borough.

Local authorities are required to communicate with their local residents and the 1986 Local Government Act obliges councils to do so in the most cost-effective manner. Councils also have to be mindful of addressing performance indicators relating to satisfaction in terms of imparting information.

Croydon Council first introduced a publication for residents in 1983. Successive councils of differing political persuasions have subsequently evaluated costs and considered the expense to be a worthwhile contribution to keeping residents informed of the services and amenities which are funded through council tax. All council publications have to comply with local authority publicity legislation.

If you are unhappy with the way the department has handled your request under the Freedom of Information Act, you may ask for an internal review. You can do this by outlining the details of your complaint and either

* e-mailing us at [Croydon Borough Council request email]
* faxing us on 0208 760 5679
* writing to FOI Complaints, London Borough of Croydon, Democratic and Legal Services, Croydon, CR9 3JS

If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:

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

Yours sincerely

James Derby

Corporate Solicitor

Legal & Democratic Services

London Borough of Croydon

Taberner House

Park Lane

CR9 3JS

Tel: 020 8760 5768 Ext. 61359

Fax: 020 8760 5679

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