Parking Policy Development Group

Request for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000

Thank you for your request for information received at this office on  27
July 2009.  This has been considered as a request under the Freedom of
Information Act 2000.

Your request may take up to 20 working days to be processed.

If an exemption applies to the information that you have requested, the
statutory period may be exceeded in accordance with the provisions of that
Act.

If a charge is applicable to your request, we will advise you of this in
due course.

Should you have any queries, please contact me.

_________________________________________________
Carl Wiper  LLM MCLIP

Corporate Information Manager
Bolton Council, Room 320, Town Hall, Bolton BL1 1RU tel: 01204 331031,
mobile: 0778 903 1512

[email address]

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Dear Mr Moss

I am writing further to your request for information received at this
office on 27 July to advise you that the information you requested is
being withheld under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 ("the Act").
Under the Act, Bolton Council has a duty to supply any information it
holds on request, unless there is an exemption. It is the Council's policy
only to apply the exemptions where there is a genuine risk of harm or
prejudice.

You requested:

copies of the minutes from the meetings of the Parking Policy Development
Group back to January 2006 to present day.

In this case, we consider that the exemptions under sections 36 2(b) and
(c) of the Act apply to this information because, in the opinion of the
`qualified person' (in this case the Monitoring Officer), to provide it
would be likely to inhibit the free and frank exchange of views for the
purpose of deliberation and the effective conduct of public affairs.

By their nature Policy Development Group meetings involve a frank and open
discussion of issues and options. They provide the Council with a 'space
to think' about issues in a confidential setting. If the minutes of those
meetings were made public it would inhibit those discussion as it would
not be possible for views to be aired and discussed freely. The
confidential nature of these discussions is important to the Council's
decision making process and so to disclose the information would prejudice
the effective conduct of public affairs. This is particularly the case
because you have requested the minutes of all the meetings from January
2006.

Section 36 is a qualified exemption and requires us to consider the
balance of public interest. In this case we consider that there is no
specific public interest in the minutes of all these meetings being
published, whereas there is a strong public interest in the Council being
able to consider issues freely and objectively as part of its decision
making process.

Should you disagree with our decision, you may appeal to:

The Director of the Chief Executive's Department, Bolton Council, Town
Hall, Bolton, BL1 1RU

Should you further disagree with the decision following the appeal you may
wish to contact the Information Commissioner:

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

Telephone: 08456 30 60 60 or 01625 54 57 45 Website: www.ico.gov.uk

I apologise for the delay in providing this information. Should you have
any other queries, please contact me.

Yours sincerely

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I am out of the office on 28 August 2009.

If you have an urgent enquiry regarding Freedom of Information or Data
Protection please contact my colleague [email address]

I will deal with other emails on my return on 1 September.

Thank you

This e-mail and any attached files are confidential and may also be
legally privileged. They are intended solely for the intended addressee.
If you are not the addressee please e-mail it back to the sender and then
immediately, permanently delete it. Do not read, print, re-transmit, store
or act in reliance on it. This e-mail may be monitored by Bolton Council
in accordance with current regulations. This footnote also confirms that
this e-mail message has been swept for the presence of computer viruses
currently known to Bolton Council. However, the recipient is responsible
for virus-checking before opening this message and any attachment. Unless
expressly stated to the contrary, any views expressed in this message are
those of the individual sender and may not necessarily reflect the views
of Bolton Council. http://www.bolton.gov.uk

Your request for an internal review regarding your recent request under
the Freedom of Information Act was received in this office on 28 August
2009.

                      

This has been referred to the Monitoring Officer, who will look into the
matter and make a decision on this. 

We aim to reach a decision within 20 working days from the receipt of your
request for a review. If that is not possible, we will let you know the
progress we have made in the review and when you can expect to receive a
final response.

    

Should you have any queries in the meantime, please contact me.

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Please find attached response to your request.

Julie Fletcher

On behalf of Alan R Eastwood

Director of Chief Executive's Department

(Direct Line: +44 (0) 1204 331101

Fax No. +44 (0) 1204 331040

e-mail: julie.fletcher[1]@bolton.gov.uk |

Room 106- First Floor, Bolton Council,Victoria Square,

Town Hall, Bolton, BL1 1RU

If you have received this message in error, I apologise for the
inconvenience. If so, please destroy this message and contact me to tell
me about the error.

This message and any attachment is intended for the sole use of the person
named in the address and it may contain privileged or confidential
information, disclosure of which is prohibited by law. If you are not the
addressee, you must not copy or deliver this message to anyone. Thank you
for your co-operation.

This e-mail and any attached files are confidential and may also be
legally privileged. They are intended solely for the intended addressee.
If you are not the addressee please e-mail it back to the sender and then
immediately, permanently delete it. Do not read, print, re-transmit, store
or act in reliance on it. This e-mail may be monitored by Bolton Council
in accordance with current regulations. This footnote also confirms that
this e-mail message has been swept for the presence of computer viruses
currently known to Bolton Council. However, the recipient is responsible
for virus-checking before opening this message and any attachment. Unless
expressly stated to the contrary, any views expressed in this message are
those of the individual sender and may not necessarily reflect the views
of Bolton Council. http://www.bolton.gov.uk

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