rate payers money spent on council meetings wine/food

S Davis (Account suspended) made this Freedom of Information request to Kent County Council

Waiting for an internal review by Kent County Council of their handling of this request.

From: S Davis (Account suspended)

4 June 2009

Dear Sir or Madam,

How much of the rate payers money is spent on a yearly basis on
wine/food for councillors attending meetings such as 'full
council'.Are staff/officers also included in these gatherings?

Are members of the public who are also entitled to attend public
meeting like 'full council' also entitled to participate in the
spoils; after all they are not paid expenses or allowances/wages to
attend like councillors or staff/officers or are these considered
perks.

Yours faithfully,

S Davis

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Kent County Council

24 June 2009

Dear S Davis

Thank you for your email. All Kent County Council and Cabinet meetings and
almost all committee meetings are held in public, so yes anyone can
attend. A calendar of meetings is available on our website
[1]http://democracy.kent.gov.uk/uuCoverpage... and some of these
meetings are also broadcast live on the web
[2]http://www.kent.gov.uk/council-and-democ....
There are also other ways to make your opinion
known [3]http://www.kent.gov.uk/council-and-democ....

However, the Council is of the opinion that the other element of
your latest communication (cost of refreshments for councillors at public
meetings), when considered in conjunction with all the other requests you
have submitted, is a deliberate attempt to disrupt the Council's
operations and is therefore manifestly unreasonable. The Council has no
obligation to respond to requests that are perceived to be either
vexatious or repeated under section 14 (1) & (2) of the Freedom of
Information Act respectively and collectively, your requests fall into
this category. The Council will review this position in three months time
but until then, no further requests from you will be considered.
Nevertheless, the Leader's office can confirm that they have no record of
receiving any complaint on any subject from the person you specify.

If you disagree with this stance, you can appeal direct the Information
Commissioner, who oversees compliance with the Freedom of Information Act
2000. This is because there is no-one sufficiently senior within the
Authority that could conduct an independent internal review of this
decision which was made at the highest level. Details of what you need to
do, should you wish to pursue this course of action, are available from
the Information Commissioner's website .
[4]http://www.ico.gov.uk/complaints/freedom...

Best regards

Caroline Dodge
Corporate Access to Information Coordinator, Chief Executive's Department
Kent County Council, Legal & Democratic Services, Room 1.94, Sessions
House, County Hall, Maidstone. ME14 1XQ.
Tel: 01622 221652 - Fax: 01622 694383
[5]http://www.kent.gov.uk/council-and-democ...

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From: S Davis (Account suspended)

28 June 2009

Dear Sir or Madam,

When viewed in conjunction with a council who is happy to answer
obvious fictitious requests by pseudos 'Madge' yet deny valid
requests, it is pretty obvious that in the light of MP's expenses
etc being hidden, that the council feels it can follow suit by
partially answering questions.

I really do feel this authority should wake up and smell the coffee
that the Public for whom a service is expected to be delivered,
will not be content and why should they, with such a shabby
dis-service.

Yours sincerely,

S Davis

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Things to do with this request

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