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Communications between Southwark Council and property developer Delancey

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Charlie Macnamara

Dear Southwark Borough Council,

Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, please could you provide me with all communications between the property developer Delancey (including its subsidiaries) and Southwark Borough Council (including Southwark Borough Council planning officers, and Southwark Borough Council councillors).

Yours faithfully,

Charlie Macnamara

Regeneration, Southwark Borough Council

Southwark Council - Information request

Our reference: 887403

show quoted sections

Charlie Macnamara

Dear Martyna,

I stated I would like to see "all communications" - so I would like to receive all of them, not only those in reference to a specific development.
If this will be a problem, please let me know promptly and with reasons, and please immediately in the meantime begin providing me with all communications relevant to the Elephant and Castle shopping centre development.

The time period should be 1 March 2016 - 2 March 2018.

Thank you.

Charlie Macnamara

CEXaccessinfo, Southwark Borough Council

Link: [1]File-List

Dear Mr Macnamara,

 

Re: Your request for information: 887403

Thank you for your request for information that was received on 8 February
2018 in which you requested:

 

Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, please could you provide me
with all communications between the property developer Delancey (including
its subsidiaries) and Southwark Borough Council (including Southwark
Borough Council planning officers, and Southwark Borough Council
councillors).

 

Subsequently to our request for clarification you requested the following
information:

 

I stated I would like to see "all communications" - so I would like to
receive all of them, not only those in reference to a specific
development.

 

Your request has been dealt with under Environmental Information
Regulations (EIR) 2004.

Please note that the information you requested is withheld in accordance
with exception 12 (4) (b) of Environmental Information Regulations 2004 –
manifestly unreasonable request.

 

Reliance upon an exemption under the EIR is always subject to the
requirement under Regulation 12(1) (b) that the public interest in
maintaining the exception outweighs the public interest in disclosing the
information. 

 

In arriving at this view, the council has considered the following factors
both for and against the release of this information:

 

Factors in favour of release:

·               Regulation 5 of the Environmental Information Regulations
states where a public authority holds environmental information; it shall
make it available on request and, as a starting point, the council is
required to apply a presumption in favour of disclosure.

·               The council has a duty to ensure that planning information
is available to the public to ensure the planning process is open and
transparent

 

Factors in favour of withholding:

 

Please note that a number of areas of the council have been involved in a
number projects/schemes with the developer in the last 6 years and
therefore it would need to be located and retrieved from multiple sources
across the organisation. Hence, providing this information would place an
unreasonable strain on the council’s resources.

 

In addition, it would divert officers from providing other services and
answering other requests.

 

Please also note that majority of information relating to historic
planning applications is already in the public domain and available to be
obtained from the planning register at:

[2]http://planbuild.southwark.gov.uk:8190/o...

 

It is, therefore, the council’s assertion that the factors in favour of
withholding this information outweigh the factors in favour of release and
in accordance with Regulation (14) of EIR this letter acts as a refusal
notice. 

 

If you narrow the scope of your request, we will consider it again and aim
to provide you with the information. Any reformulated request we receive
from you will be treated as a fresh EIR request.

 

If you are unhappy with the service you have received in relation to your
request and wish to make an appeal for a review of our decision, you
should write to the Corporate Freedom of Information Manager at:

Corporate Freedom of Information Officer

The Governance Team (2^nd floor)

PO Box 64529
London

SE1P 5LX
Email: [3][Southwark Borough Council request email]

 

If you are not content with the outcome of your appeal, you may apply
directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. Generally, the
Information Commissioner cannot make a decision unless you have first
exhausted our internal appeal procedure and you should contact him within
2 months of the outcome of your internal appeal.

Further information on the Freedom of Information Act is available through
the Information Commissioner at the:

Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire

SK9 5AF
Telephone: 0303 123 1113
Internet: [4]www.ico.org.uk

 

Yours sincerely,

 

 

Martyna Plewniak

System Information Project Officer

 

 

 

 

 

The email you received and any files transmitted with it are confidential,
may be covered by legal and/or professional privilege and are intended
solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed.
If you have received this in error please notify us immediately. If you
are not the intended recipient of the email or the person responsible for
delivering it to them you may not copy it, forward it or otherwise use it
for any purpose or disclose its contents to any other person. To do so may
be unlawful. Where opinions are expressed in the email they are not
necessarily those of Southwark Council and Southwark Council is not
responsible for any changes made to the message after it has been sent.

References

Visible links
1. file:///tmp/cid:filelist.xml@01D3C784.1AECBF90
2. http://planbuild.southwark.gov.uk:8190/o...
3. mailto:[email address]
4. http://www.ico.org.uk/

We don't know whether the most recent response to this request contains information or not – if you are Charlie Macnamara please sign in and let everyone know.