Noise pollution and neighbourhood anti social behaviour rates

Dear Ms Kenyon

I am emailing to confirm receipt of your FOI request to Wigan Council
and to ask for clarification. Wigan and Leigh Housing is a separate
legal organisation for FOI purposes, and as your request seems mainly
about their work, it is probably better if I forward the request to
them. Am I right in thinking that your questions 2 - 10 are specifically
about Wigan and Leigh Housing? If so, would you like me to forward your
request to them, and would you still like the answer to the first
question about complaints received by the Council?

Please let me know

Regards

Tim Turner
Data Protection / FOI Officer, Business Support Services
Wigan Council

External Tel: 01942 488354
External Fax: 01942 827093
Email address: [email address]
Postal address: Town Hall, Library Street, Wigan, WN1 IYN

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Dear Ms Kenyon

Thanks for your response.

Wigan and Leigh Housing and Wigan Council are legally separate
organisations and are separate public authorities under both the Freedom
of Information Act and the Environmental Information Regulations. They
have separate publication schemes, separate Data Protection
notifications and separate procedures. Therefore, for the purposes of
FOI and EIR requests, I believe that data held by Wigan and Leigh
Housing is held in its own right and not on behalf of the Council.

You have requested the following data:

1. The total number of complaints of neighbour induced anti social
behaviour and noise pollution made to the council every year since
January 2005.

2. The number of these complaints of neighbour induced anti social
behaviour and noise pollution which relate
specifically to tenants of housing provided by Wigan & Leigh Housing -
broken down by year since January 2005.

3. The number of cases which went to mediation and resulted in no
further complaints over 12 months after mediation.

4. The number of cases which went to mediation and were not resolved.

5. The number of evictions on the grounds of noise pollution and anti
social behaviour.

6. The average length of time taken to resolve a complaint.

7. The length of time specified in the council's own complaints policy
for dispute resolution.

8. The average cost and man time spent per complaint from start to
satisfactory outcome.

9. Full details of the policy decision as to why tenants of Wigan and
Leigh Housing may not use the services of the town's environmental
health department in respect of noise complaints.

10. Full details of the out of hours service available in cases of
neighbour induced noise pollution and ant social behaviour particularly
in respect of vulnerable groups.

I can accept your request for data held by the Council, and relating to
complaints made to the Council. Our response to questions 2, 3, 4, 5, 6,
and 8 would be based on complaints made to the Council or information
held by it, and not on complaints and information held by Wigan and
Leigh Housing. We would provide information in relation to question 9 if
such a decision was taken by the Council. I should also point out that
you have asked for averages in question 6 and 8 - we will only be able
to provide you with averages if they have already been calculated. The
FOI Act and Environmental Regulations relate solely to recorded
information and do not require public authorities to create new data
where it does not already exist. We may be able to provide you with the
raw data if we hold it.

I would be grateful if you could confirm whether you like your request
to go forward as a request for data held by the Council, and whether you
wish to me pass your request to Wigan and Leigh Housing for the data
held by them. I note that your request is intended to cover four and a
half years worth of data - we may need to estimate how long it will take
to find all of the information you have requested to see whether it will
breach the cost limits in FOI, but I will come back to you if that is
necessary.

Regards

Tim Turner
Data Protection / FOI Officer
Business Support Services
Wigan Council

External Tel: 01942 488354
External Fax: 01942 827093
Email address: [email address]
Postal address: Town Hall, Library Street, Wigan, WN1 IYN

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