Velo South - Public Documents

The request was partially successful.

Matt Alsbury-Morris

Dear West Sussex County Council,

I would like copies of all documents that are a matter of public record in relation to the Application for a Road Closure Order for Velo South, occurring on 23rd Sept 2018.

Yours faithfully,

Matt Alsbury-Morris

Freedom of Information Act,

Dear Mr Alsbury-Morris,

Thank you for your enquiry, which has been forwarded to the appropriate officers for a response. The usual timescale for a response is twenty working days, that is by or on 22nd August.

If for any reason the Council needs to extend this timescale you will be notified in accordance with the relevant legislation.

Please note that in 2012 the County Council adopted a position in principle that FoI and EIR requests to West Sussex County Council and the Council's responses may be published on the Council's website in a suitably anonymised form. This is in addition to the individual response to the requestor, and in line with the Council's commitment to transparency and open data.

Yours sincerely,

Kerry Rickman

Kerry Rickman, Freedom Of Information, Communities Directorate | West Sussex County Council | Location: County Hall, Chichester PO19 1RQ | E-mail: [email address]

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CI Group FOI,

5 Attachments

Reference: Confirm no 327991/ FormBuilder ref 1076138

Dear Mr Aylsbury-Morris

I refer to your request dated 25/07/2018, which has been dealt with under theFOIA.

Your request related to Velo South Public Documents.

We have now completed a search for the information which you requested.
I am now able to respond to you with the following:

Please find attached the following:
1. Velo South TTRO
2. Latest Route Plan
3. Original Route Plan
4. Velo South A5 Main Map
5. Velo South Road Closure Map

The information supplied to you continues to be protected by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. You are free to use it for your own purposes, including any non-commercial research you are doing and for the purposes of news reporting. Any other reuse, for example commercial publication, would require the permission of the copyright holder. Most documents supplied by us will be copyright of West Sussex County Council.

Information you receive which is not subject to WSCC continues to be protected by the copyright of the person, or organisation, from which the information originated. You must ensure that you gain their permission before reproducing any third party (non WSCC) information.

The information that has been redacted from the disclosed material constitutes third party personal data and therefore the Authority declines to disclose it. The exemption in s40(2) Freedom of Information Act 2000 has been applied as we consider none of the conditions in Schedule 2 of the Data Protection Act 1998 have been met. If you have any queries about any of this information, please contact me.
If you are unhappy with the way your request has been handled, you may wish to ask for a review of our decision via the ‘FOI inbox’.

If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you may apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. Generally, the ICO cannot make a decision unless you have exhausted our internal review procedure. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:
The Information Commissioner's Office,
Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF.

Please remember to quote the reference number above in any future communications.

Kind Regards

Jackie Boxall
Customer Service Officer
Communities Directorate
West Sussex County Council

Location: Highways Customer Service Hub, Durban House, Durban Road, Bognor Regis, West Sussex, PO22 9RE
Contact: External: 01243 642105 | E-mail: ci.group.[West Sussex County Council request email]

Did you know you can follow West Sussex Highways on Twitter? @WSHighways
We’ve launched our new website: www.westsussex.gov.uk

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Matt Alsbury-Morris

Dear CI Group FOI,

Please consider this reply a complaint regarding your response to my FOI request.

Could you please confirm why the Risk Assessment for the event was not disclosed? Surely this is a matter of public record?

I also believe that details of public record have been redacted, your own form on your website you make it clear in the TTRO application process that the applicants details will be disclosed on request, yet you have redacted them in my request, on what legal basis have you done this?

Yours sincerely,

Matt Alsbury-Morris

Linda Spanner,

3 Attachments

Dear Mr Ayslbury-Morris

 

Re: FOI Request 327991/1076138 – Internal Review BS803.214(23)

 

I have been asked to carry out a review of the way in which your Freedom
of Information Request was dealt with.

 

You made a request dated 25^th July and asked:

 

“I would like copies of all documents that are a matter of public record
in relation to the Application for a Road Closure Order for Velo South,
occurring on 23rd Sept 2018”

 

A response was sent in which you were provided with copies of the
following:

 

1. Velo South TTRO (redacted)

2. Latest Route Plan

3. Original Route Plan

4. Velo South A5 Main Map

5. Velo South Road Closure Map

 

On 28^th September you complained about the response you had received and
the matter was therefore referred to me to undertake an internal review. 
In particular, you asked “why the risk assessment for the event was not
disclosed, as you believe this is a matter of public record” and you also
asked “why the applicant’s details were redacted from the TTRO document”
which was disclosed to you. 

 

I am instructed that a risk assessment is not currently a mandatory
requirement for TTRO applications. The application received by the
Authority from CSM did not contain a risk assessment.  In the
circumstances, a risk assessment was not published as part of the
application and is not therefore a matter of public record. I also note
that your request was for ”all documents that are a matter of public
record in relation to the Application for a Road Closure Order for Velo
South, occurring on 23rd Sept 2018”.  Having reviewed this matter I am
satisfied that the risk assessment you have referred to in your request
for an internal review was not part of your original request and you were
provided with copies of all documents falling within the scope of your
request.  I am therefore satisfied that this part if your request was
properly responded to.

 

Whilst I am satisfied that the response to this part of your request was
appropriately responded to, I have nevertheless gone on to consider as
part of my internal review the new element of your request, which is a
request for a copy of the risk assessment document.  I confirm that the
Authority holds the information, however I have applied the following
exemptions:

 

Section 41  – Information Provided in confidence

 

o The detail within documentation was provided to the council in
confidence for the purpose of planning the event in question. This
information is not otherwise in the public domain and disclosure would
constitute an actionable breach of confidence against the Authority.

 

Regulation 43 - Commercial confidentiality    

 

o The documentation requested contains confidential operational
information and detail behind the delivery and management of a large
scale, closed road cycling event and this is considered by CSM to
their intellectual property.
o It is also asserted by CMS that disclosure would be likely to
prejudice their commercial interests and that information disclosed
could be used for by others for their own commercial gain.

 

In applying the section 43 exemption I have had regard to the public
interest test. I am of the view that although there is always a strong
public interest in being open and transparent and in enabling local
communities to enter into debate about a public event, the impact of
commercial prejudice upon CMS support the case for non-disclosure and
outweigh the arguments in favour of putting this information in the public
domain.

 

With regard to the redacted information from the TTRO disclosed to you, I
note that the response dated 28^th September applied the section 40(2)
exemption on the basis that the redacted data was third party personal
data.  As part of my review I have looked at both the un-redacted and
redacted copies of the TRRO to establish exactly was information has been
removed.  I am of the view that the information redacted does not have the
quality of personal data and should not therefore have been removed.  I
therefore enclose an un-redacted version of the TTRO for your information.
I apologise that this part of your request was not approached in the
correct way.

 

If you are not content with the outcome of your complaint, you may apply
directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. Generally, the
ICO cannot make a decision unless you have exhausted our complaints
procedure.

 

The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: 

 

The Information Commissioner's Office,

Wycliffe House,

Water Lane,

Wilmslow,

Cheshire

SK9 5AF. 

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Linda Spanner

 

 

 

 

 

 

Linda Spanner | Solicitor| West Sussex County Council

Telephone: 033022 22748 

Email: [email address]

Address: Room 202, 2^nd Floor, County Hall, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19
1RQ

DX: 157410 Chichester 8

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Council,

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