Heritage Lottery Bid
Dear Guildford Borough Council,
In light of the failed Heritage lottery bid reported at http://www.guildford-dragon.com/2015/04/...,
1. Please could let me know how much money has been spent on this bid
A) Staff time
B) Consultancy fees
C) Other costs and commitments made by Council.
2. Who approved the document that was sent to the Heritage Lottery?
3. Has the bid been published? If so where can it been seen, and if not, please could you send me a copy.
4. Please could you publish all correspondence, and minutes of meetings, between Heritage Lottery and the Council about the performance of the bid.
Yours faithfully,
Scott Rivers
Dear Mr Rivers
Thank you for your email of 14 July, asking about our Heritage Lottery
Bid, as reported in the Guildford Dragon 2015 04 16. As you made your
request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (The Act), the format of
this response is formal in order to meet our legal requirements.
To reply to each of your points in turn:
1a Guildford Borough Council does not hold information about
officer time spent preparing the Heritage Lottery Bid
1b Consultancy fees for this application totalled £15,328
1c There were no other costs or commitments made by the Council
2. The document was approved by the Council’s Lead Councillor for
Economic Development, Gordon Jackson
3. The bid has not been published but I am attaching a copy of the
submission as requested. This includes the Heritage Lottery Fund
application form and a number of supporting documents that were included
as appendices. These are:
· First–round application form (submitted Nov 2014)
· Annex A – Feasibility plans and costs
· Revised site plan
· Annex B – Letter from Council Leader indicating the
Council’s financial support for the project
· Annex C – Audience research
· Annex E – Creating a heritage hub for Guildford -
activity plan narrative
· Annex F – Letter from English Heritage giving
feedback on plans
· Supporting document 4 – Project costs breakdown
· Supporting document 6 – Parts 1 & 2 – contractors’ /
consultants’ briefs for development
· Supporting document 7 –Job descriptions for new
posts
· Selection of illustrative images (these will be
provided in a second email due to the file size)
Although we have agreed to provide the majority of the information covered
by your request, you will see that some information has been redacted.
The redacted information is as follows:
Identification of individuals
This is personal information, which we believe is exempt from disclosure
by Section 40(3) The Act. The consequence of placing direct contact
details into the public domain in response to a request is that the
officers concerned are likely to receive marketing communications at work,
which even though business-related is an increasingly disruptive challenge
faced by council officers. Given the likely impact on officers’ working
life, we believe disclosure would be likely to contravene Schedule 1 Part
1, the first data protection principle in that we do not have permission
to disclose the officers’ personal information and there is no legitimate
public interest in doing so.
You will see that we have also redacted identifying features of
individuals in photographs included with the bid. This is because we did
not obtain consent at the time for any public use of their images and to
do so would contravene the first data protection principle, which requires
us to use personal information fairly and lawfully. This information is
therefore also withheld under s.40(3) of The Act
Outline fundraising strategy
We have withheld Annex D – Outline fundraising strategy. This includes
names and background information of “proposed individuals of high
net-worth” and other proposed campaign members. These are individuals
whom the Council would have considered approaching for financial or other
support for the project. Once again, this is personal information, which
we believe is exempt from disclosure by Section 40(3) of The Act.
Disclosure of personal information in response to a Freedom of Information
must comply with the eight data protection principles. In this case we
believe disclosure would contravene the first data protection principle of
fairness and lawfulness. Disclosure would be unfair because the
individuals concerned will not know that their names were put forward (as
the Council would have contacted them only if the bid had been
successful). As a result of disclosure it is likely that they may face
media attention and even pressure to support the project. Therefore
disclosure of the names is likely to have a significant impact on these
individuals.
We are also of the opinion that the disclosure of the outline fundraising
strategy would prejudice the Council’s commercial interests. We believe
disclosure of this report would be prejudicial as we expect to use it as a
fundraising scheme for other projects. This is a commissioned document
intended to give us a competitive edge. Making it available would allow
others to exploit our research and plans and, if that were to happen, the
Council would be disadvantaged. Therefore we are of the opinion that
Section 43(2) of The Act applies to this document because releasing the
information would prejudice the Council’s commercial interests.
Our use of S.43(2) is reliant on the results of a public interest test. We
must consider whether the balance of public interest lies in withholding
or disclosing the information.
Arguments for disclosure
There is always an underlying argument for transparency, which favours
disclosure
Arguments against disclosure
There is a public interest in the Council securing funding to help to
improve its services to the public, including the Museum and heritage
sites
The contents of the document is unlikely to add anything of value to
public discussion of the museum that would justify the prejudice to the
commercial aspects of bidding for funding
As a result of the above consideration we are of the opinion that the
public interest favours the withholding the outline funding strategy. I
must therefore confirm that we are refusing to provide this document at
this time. However, we are disclosing the remainder of the bid.
4. I attach a copy of a letter from the Heritage Lottery Fund
rejecting the bid and providing feedback to the Council.
I trust the above addresses your enquiry. However, if you do not agree
with the way I have dealt with your request, you may write to ask the
Council to review my decision. Another officer will carry out a review and
they will then write to you, letting you know whether they agree with my
decision or whether they have reached a different conclusion.
You should write to, Customer Services, Guildford Borough Council,
Millmead House, Millmead, Guildford GU2 4BB ([1][Guildford Borough Council request email]). It
is important that you clearly state that you are asking for an Internal
Review and provide a copy of your correspondence with the Council about
this request. We recommend that you include the FOI reference number and
“Internal Review” in the email or letter header to help avoid delays.
Your right to appeal to the Information Commissioner
You also have the right to contact the Information Commissioner if you
believe we have failed to meet our obligations to deal with your request
for information. Please remember that they will usually only consider
appeals after the Council has had the opportunity to carry out an internal
review. More guidance about your rights is available on the Information
Commissioner’s website at [2]www.ico.org.uk.
I hope this provides the information you were seeking.
With regards
Jill Draper
Jill Draper
Heritage Manager
Environment
Telephone 01483 444752
[3]www.guildford.gov.uk
Guildford Borough Council
Guildford Museum
Castle Arch
Guildford
GU1 3SX
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Dear Mr Rivers
Further to my previous email I am now attaching the final document from
our HLF bid:
· Selection of illustrative images
With regards
Jill Draper
Jill Draper
Heritage Manager
Environment
Telephone 01483 444752
[1]www.guildford.gov.uk
Guildford Borough Council
Guildford Museum
Castle Arch
Guildford
GU1 3SX
[2]facebook [3]twitter
Experience Guildford Customer Service Awards
We are proud to announce we have two venues in this category.
Using the free Text Please vote for either the Museum 'SERVICE 6' to 82055
or The Guildhall
'SERVICE 9' to 82055 as best customer service provider
(All texts are free and are entered in a draw to win you £1000)
[4]http://www.runaroundtech.com/wp-content/...
[6]twitter-logo[7]www.twitter.com/guildford_s
Guildford Borough Council UNCLASSIFIED EXTERNAL
References
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2. https://www.facebook.com/pages/Guildford...
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5. https://www.facebook.com/pages/Guildford...
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