Blue badge disabled parking permits

The request was partially successful.

BBC Shared Data Unit

Good afternoon,

I hope you are well. I would be grateful if you would treat this correspondence as a formal request for disclosure of the following information, under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 ("FoI").

Description of information sought:

How many regular car parking bays are there in all of the council-owned car parks across the council area?

How many disabled car parking bays are there in all of the council-owned car parks across the council area?

How many people held a blue badge disabled parking permit issued by the council as at 30 August 2019?

How many applications for blue badge disabled parking permits has the council received since 30 August 2019?

How many of these applications for blue badge disabled parking permits received since 30 August 2019 has the council:
1. Approved
2. Directly refused
3. Refused due to an incomplete request

How many applications for blue badge disabled parking permits has the council received from applicants with hidden/non-visible disabilities (https://www.gov.uk/government/news/peopl...) since 30 August 2019?

How many of these applications for blue badge disabled parking permits received from applicants with hidden/non-visible disabilities (https://www.gov.uk/government/news/peopl...) since 30 August 2019 has the council:
1. Approved
2. Directly refused
3. Refused due to an incomplete request

Could the council please provide the answers to all of the above questions by downloading this read-only Googlesheet https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1... and filling out its answers in one row of the download, re-saving it and it sending it back as an attachment in response in a .csv file format?

If you need any clarification about my request, or if you cannot provide all of the data I have requested, please contact me to discuss what information you could supply at the earliest opportunity on +443030823927.

If I am mistaken and the information requested is already in the public domain, please direct me to where I can find it.

If it is not, and you feel you cannot provide all of this information, please provide what information you can in the spirit of Section 16 of FoI, to ‘provide advice and assistance, so far as it would be reasonable to expect the authority to do so, to persons who propose to make, or have made requests for information’.

Please provide me with a summary of the information I have requested.

I look forward to hearing from you promptly, and at any rate, within the statutory time limit of 20 working days from your receipt of this request.

Whilst writing, I take this opportunity to remind you of the Information Commissioner's public statements, in which he has stated that there is a "presumption of disclosure" under FoI.

Please note that if this request for FoI disclosure is refused, I reserve the right to take up the matter with the Information Commissioner and/or to pursue all legal avenues of appeal. I trust this will not be necessary.

Thanks in advance for your help, kind regards,

Alex Homer

Senior Journalist
BBC Shared Data Unit

FOI (Isles of Scilly), Council of the Isles of Scilly

Information Classification: CONTROLLED

Dear requester,

We have noted your FOI request, but before we take it forward we want to confirm with you that you actually are aware of what and who we are, and how our data actually might not be of much value to you, and could even adversely affect your data-set.

We are the smallest unitary authority in England and Wales. We are a small group of islands 28 miles off the coast of Cornwall, with a population of around 2,400 people.

We do have the mechanisms of a unitary authority though, but obviously on a much smaller scale than other local authorities, and we even run additional services like an airport, and as of 1 April 2020 our water and sewerage provision changed when it came under the control of South West Water.

Here are some facts that may help with your enquiry:

We have no local authority-run schools here, only the Five Islands Academy
We have no kennels.
We have no zoos
We have three ‘A’ roads, in total 12 miles of roads
We have no high-rise buildings (max 4 stories)
We have no local authority bus service
We have no taxi licensing
We have no casinos
We have no nightclubs
We have no car parks from which we collect fees or charges
We have one local authority care home
We have no assets of community value

If you are enquiring about public health funerals, please contact Cornwall Council FOI.

If you are enquiring about IT provision or phone contracts, please contact Cornwall Council FOI.

If you are enquiring about financial services or finance software, please contact Cornwall Council FOI

Our Council officers are busy and have small teams, and this also is true of the FOI department where we field enquiries every day, some of which are obviously national circulars to all local authorities, but sometimes our data is not of use to them due to our obviously unique situation, which they may not have been aware of at the time of sending their request.

As such, if you do wish to proceed with your FOI request, I ask that you reaffirm to us that this is the case. Simply respond to this email that you do intend to proceed. If we don't hear from you then we'll presume that you do not wish to proceed.

Also bear in mind that the Covid 19 pandemic is still affecting our ability to get FOIs completed on time, and that your request may take slightly longer than the statutory deadline.

Much of the local authority is still operating from home currently, and our Council meetings have been taking place virtually. So far there have been no recorded cases of Covid 19 on the islands, though this can change at any time.

With best wishes, from the FOI team on the Isles of Scilly
(3 Aug 2020)

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BBC Shared Data Unit

Dear FOI (Isles of Scilly),

Thank you for your response.
We would like to confirm that we do wish to proceed with the FOI to the Isles of Scilly council, as an authority that administers the blue badge scheme.
Questions that are not applicable may be marked as such.
Thank you for your help.

Yours sincerely,

BBC Shared Data Unit

FOI (Isles of Scilly), Council of the Isles of Scilly

Information Classification: CONTROLLED

Dear requester,
Your request is now being processed with the relevant department.

Please allow additional time for a response at this moment, as many local authorities are under-resourced as a result of the Covid 19 Pandemic.

We cannot guarantee completion within 28 days, and the ICO understand this, and have issued a statement on their website.

Your FOI request number is…. 6995

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Tean Roberts, Council of the Isles of Scilly

1 Attachment

Information Classification: CONTROLLED
Dear requestor,
 
We have completed your FOI request, and the response is as follows:
 
Please see our replies below in pink. Apologies they are not on the
Googesheet you sent – my explintaion for this is below also.
 
Description of information sought:
 
How many regular car parking bays are there in all of the council-owned
car parks across the council area? - We don't have any Council owned car
parks, so it is a nil response to  both questions.
 
How many disabled car parking bays are there in all of the council-owned
car parks across the council area? - as above.
 
How many people held a blue badge disabled parking permit issued by the
council as at 30 August 2019? - 46
 
How many applications for blue badge disabled parking permits has the
council received since 30 August 2019? - 14
 
How many of these applications for blue badge disabled parking permits
received since 30 August 2019 has the council:
 
1. Approved - 14
 
2. Directly refused - 0
 
3. Refused due to an incomplete request - 0
 
How many applications for blue badge disabled parking permits has the
council received from applicants with hidden/non-visible disabilities
([1]https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlo...)
since 30 August 2019? 
 
I can confirm that we hold the information you have requested. However,
after considering your request we have unfortunately found it necessary to
refuse your request as the information in question is subject to an
exemption in Part II of the Freedom of Information Act.
As you know from our previous response, we are an extremely small
authority with a close-knit community and so, if we were to release the
information to you it might be possible to identify vulnerable individuals
based off that information.
I’m sorry we aren’t able to be more helpful with you research but trust
you understand the sensitive nature of the material concerned.
 
How many of these applications for blue badge disabled parking permits
received from applicants with hidden/non-visible disabilities
([2]https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlo...)
since 30 August 2019 has the council:
 
1. Approved
 
2. Directly refused
 
3. Refused due to an incomplete request
 
I can confirm that we hold the information you have requested. However,
after considering your request we have unfortunately found it necessary to
refuse your request as the information in question is subject to an
exemption in Part II of the Freedom of Information Act.
As you know from our previous response, we are an extremely small
authority with a close-knit community and so, if we were to release the
information to you it might be possible to identify vulnerable individuals
based off that information.
I’m sorry we aren’t able to be more helpful with you research but trust
you understand the sensitive nature of the material concerned.
 
Could the council please provide the answers to all of the above questions
by downloading this read-only Googlesheet
[3]https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlo...
and filling out its answers in one row of the download, re-saving it and
it sending it back as an attachment in response in a .csv file format?
 
Afraid not. Googlesheets are frustratigly blocked by our network:
 
 
So apologies for that – but I trust you’ll be able to easily transfer the
informatuon I have provided yourself, as the numbers are not too gigantic.
 
 
Please let us know if there is anything else you need from us,
Kind regards,
 
Isles of Scilly Council FOI Team
 
 
 

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