Locations of Underground Structures

2 June 2009

Our Ref: FOI3024

Thank you for your enquiry received on 29 May 2009, for information held
by the Council under the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act
2000.

In some circumstances a fee may be payable and if that is the case, we
will let you know. A fees notice will be issued to you, and you will be
required to pay before we will proceed to deal with your request.

If you require any further information or are not happy with our response
please do not hesitate to contact a member of our team on 0121 303 3912
quoting the reference number above in any future communications.

Yours sincerely

Dean Robinson
Freedom of Information and Data Protection Officer
Birmingham City Council
Development Directorate
Performance and Corporate Services
16th floor, Alpha Tower
Suffolk Street Queensway
Birmingham
B1 1TR

Tel: 0121 303 3912
Fax: 0121 303 2315
Email: [email address]

Data Protection Act 1998
The information you have provided within your Freedom of Information
request will be held on our database and may also be held within manual
records for a period of 2 years from the date Birmingham City Council
received your request. Any personal data that you provide to Birmingham
City Council will be held in line with the requirements set out within the
Data Protection Act 1998.
Re Use of Public Sector Information
Where Birmingham City Council is the copyright holder of any information
that may be released, re-use for personal, educational or non-commercial
purposes is permitted without further reference to the City Council. Where
the re-use is for other purposes, such as commercial re-use, the applicant
should notify the City Council in writing to seek approval or agree terms
for re-use.

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4 June 2009

Our Ref: FOI3024

Dear Michael
I am writing in respect of your recent enquiry for the following
information held by the Authority under the provisions of the Freedom of
Information Act 2000.

Please list all locations of underground structures larger than a
standard cellar within 5 miles of Birmingham City Centre.
Please also list the owners of the structures.

Birmingham City Council do not have records of this kind of information
specifically in the way your question is phrased. We hold approximately a
quarter of a million building plans which could in theory be search
individually for underground structures larger than a standard cellar, but
this search would involve a disproportionate amount of staff time and
resources. Therefore it would not be practical for us to carry out a
search. Building plans are also in the public domain and available to
view on request.

If you are interested in a particular site then it should be possible to
identify details of underground structures - depending on the survival of
relevant material. By relevant material I mean building plans and a whole
host of other records which might survive depending on the nature of the
site. If it is a City Council owned site we are more likely to have
further collections of plans etc although this is less likely for
privately owned sites. There is a significant body of unlisted material
which could be relevant, for example, a collection of plans relating to
World War II and Cold War Civil Defence which includes details of
underground structures, bomb shelters and the like, and these are not
indexed. Therefore these again would have to be searched by staff and
that collection alone would again exceed our threshold dealing with your
request so would be chargeable. So even for us to search a specific site
it will still involve the above difficulties in locating the information.

Our Planning Department can run a specific search query that could
identify underground structures. If this search did reveal some, the
information would be accessible in the public domain and outside the
provisions of the Freedom of Information Act, i.e. you would need to visit
the Planning Department's offices to view the information. If you would
like them to carry out this search please contact me at the address below.

If you are unhappy with the handling or the outcome of this request, you
are entitled to make a request for an internal review / appeal, such view
to be undertaken by Council officers not involved in the handling of your
request.

If you wish to take advantage of the internal appeal / review process,
this can be done by either contacting myself directly, or by contacting
the Corporate Information Manager at the following address quoting the
following reference FOI3024: -

The Corporate FOI Unit
First Floor
1 Lancaster Circus
Birmingham
B4 7AB

Tel No: 0121 303 4876
Email: [Birmingham City Council request email]
If, following the outcome of the internal review/appeal you are not
satisfied with Birmingham City Council***s response in relation to your
request, you are then entitled to apply to the office of the Information
Commissioner for an independent investigation/adjudication.

The Information Commissioner can be contacted by post at:

Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

or by telephone via their helpline: 08456 30 60 60
or via their online enquiries form which is available on their website
www.ico.gov.uk

Yours sincerely

Dean Robinson
Freedom of Information and Data Protection Officer
Birmingham City Council
Development Directorate
Performance and Corporate Services
16th floor, Alpha Tower
Suffolk Street Queensway
Birmingham
B1 1TR

Tel: 0121 303 3912
Fax: 0121 303 2315
Email: [email address]

Re Use of Public Sector Information
Where Birmingham City Council is the copyright holder of any information
that may be released, re-use for personal, educational or non-commercial
purposes is permitted without further reference to the City Council. Where
the re-use is for other purposes, such as commercial re-use, the applicant
should notify the City Council in writing to seek approval or agree terms
for re-use.

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Dear Michael

Thanks for the clarification. The Longbridge site was built from 1905
onwards. Can you specify which bit you are interested in?

Thanks

Dean Robinson
Freedom of Information Officer
Performance and Corporate Services
Development Management Service
16th floor, Alpha Tower
Suffolk Street Queensway
Birmingham B1 1TR
Tel. 0121 303 3912
Fax. 0121 303 2315
Email. [email address]

Michael To [email address]
<[FOI #12568 email]> cc
Subject Re: Freedom of Information
04/06/2009 14:29 request - Locations of
Underground Structures

Dear Sir or Madam,
Thank you kindly for your detailed response, I understand that
there may have been a large list of underground structures, however
I did not realise the extent of this.

The main Buildings I was interested in were the following:
The Council House, Victoria Square.
Victoria Square House.
103 Colmore Road (The Nat West Tower).
The Big Top Shopping Complex off Corporation st.
And Finally (a bit further afield) MG Motor UK Limited, Longbridge.
I hope this is more to the point than my last request.
Yours sincerely,
Michael

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I will be out of the office starting 25/06/2009 and will not return until
06/07/2009.

For urgent queries please contact a member of the Performance and Corporate
Services team on 303 3912. My emails will be checked daily.

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Dear Sir

Thank you for your email regarding your re-scoped request. We are still
in the process of locating the information you require. However, please
note that a fee may be payable due to the time already spent dealing with
your request. The scale of searching for this information was indicated
in my response dated 4th June however it may still require a
disproportionate effort to look for this further information.

I will notify you of our results as soon as I hear from the service
dealing with your request.

Yours faithfully

Dean Robinson
Freedom of Information Officer
Performance and Corporate Services
Development Management Service
16th floor, Alpha Tower
Suffolk Street Queensway
Birmingham B1 1TR
Tel. 0121 303 3912
Fax. 0121 303 2315
Email. [email address]

Michael To [email address]
<[FOI #12568 email]> cc
Subject Re: Freedom of Information
27/06/2009 01:18 request - Locations of
Underground Structures

Dear Sir or Madam,
I am further writing to request the information previously asked
for about the underground structures in and around Birmingham, in
particular:

The Council House, Victoria Square.
Victoria Square House.
103 Colmore Road (The Nat West Tower).
The Big Top Shopping Complex off Corporation st.
MG Longbridge East Works and West Works site The West works is the
part with the factory still active above. The East Works is the
area Bournville college are to build their new campus on

The time limit of the 26th of June has now past so I hope you can
reply with the information ASAP as by law, you should have replied
by now.

Yours sincerely,
Michael

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