Correspondence with Arch Directors
Dear Northumberland County Council,
Under the terms of the freedom of information act I would be grateful if you could furnish me with the following;
A) All correspondence from the dates of 4th May 2017 and 21st July 2017 between Councillor Richard Wearmouth, Councillor Wayne Daley and John Woodman and the following;
i) Jacqui Kell?
ii) Paul Czerepok?
iii) Robin Beveridge?
iv) Michael Black?
v) Duncan Bowman?
vi) Lee Farrier?
vii) Anthony Crabb?
viii) Paul Littlefair?
ix) Julie Dodds?
x) John Moran?
B) All correspondence from Councillor Richard Wearmouth relating to the following;
i) Mitford Estates Acquisition (Commercial elements)?
ii) Mitford Estates Acquisition (Residential elements)?
iii) Howdon Green?
iv) 9 Wentworth Way?
v) Empire Court?
C) All papers relating to the decisions to cancel the following schemes;
i) Mitford Estates Acquisition (Commercial elements)?
ii) Mitford Estates Acquisition (Residential elements)?
iii) Howdon Green?
iv) 9 Wentworth Way?
D) All papers relating to the decision to continue with Empire Court scheme?
Yours faithfully,
Mavis Skillerton
Our Ref: 4232
Dear Enquirer,
INFORMATION REQUEST
Thank you for your request for information which will be dealt with under
the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 / Environmental
Information Regulations 2004.
In some circumstances a fee may be payable and if that is the case, we
will let you know the likely charges before proceeding.
If you have any queries about this matter please contact us. Please
remember to quote the reference number above in any future communications.
Kind regards
Information Governance Office
Northumberland County Council
County Hall
Morpeth
Northumberland
NE61 2EF
Tel: 0345 600 6400
Email: [Northumberland County Council request email]
Web: http://www.northumberland.gov.uk
Our Ref: 4232
Dear Enquirer,
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST
I refer to your Freedom of Information request in which you asked:
Under the terms of the freedom of information act I would be grateful if
you could furnish me with the following;
A) All correspondence from the dates of 4th May 2017 and 21st July 2017
between Councillor Richard Wearmouth, Councillor Wayne Daley and John
Woodman and the following;
i) Jacqui Kell?
ii) Paul Czerepok?
iii) Robin Beveridge?
iv) Michael Black?
v) Duncan Bowman?
vi) Lee Farrier?
vii) Anthony Crabb?
viii) Paul Littlefair?
ix) Julie Dodds?
x) John Moran?
B) All correspondence from Councillor Richard Wearmouth relating to the
following;
i) Mitford Estates Acquisition (Commercial elements)?
ii) Mitford Estates Acquisition (Residential elements)?
iii) Howdon Green?
iv) 9 Wentworth Way?
v) Empire Court?
C) All papers relating to the decisions to cancel the following schemes;
i) Mitford Estates Acquisition (Commercial elements)?
ii) Mitford Estates Acquisition (Residential elements)?
iii) Howdon Green?
iv) 9 Wentworth Way?
D) All papers relating to the decision to continue with Empire Court
scheme?
This request is being handled under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
I am writing to ask you to clarify your request. This is because we expect
your request to breach the cost/time limit stipulated in the FOI Act. We
would therefore request that you refine your request, for example by
giving a subject matter or more details on the addresses given.
Please contact me by the above email address if you need assistance with
this.
If we do not receive your clarification within 3 calendar months from
today we will close your request. If after the 3 month period you then
provide clarification, your request will be logged as a new request.
Yours sincerely
FOI Co-ordinator - People Services
Information Governance Office
Northumberland County Council
County Hall
Morpeth
Northumberland
NE61 2EF
Tel: 0345 600 6400
Email: [Northumberland County Council request email]
Web: http://www.northumberland.gov.uk
Dear Northumberland County Council,
On 24th May 2018 I was asked to clarify my request because it was expected that my initial queries would breach the cost/time limit stipulated in the FOI Act. With that in mind I request the following information;
A) All correspondence from the dates of 4th May 2017 and 21st July 2017 between Councillor Richard Wearmouth and the following;
i) Jacqui Kell?
ii) Paul Czerepok?
iii) Robin Beveridge?
iv) Michael Black?
v) Lee Farrier?
B) All correspondence from Councillor Richard Wearmouth from 4th May relating to the following;
i) Mitford Estates Acquisition (Commercial elements)?
ii) Mitford Estates Acquisition (Residential elements)?
iii) Howdon Green?
iv) 9 Wentworth Way?
v) Empire Court?
Yours faithfully,
Mavis Skillerton
Dear Mavis
Thank you for refining your request, we are now progressing this. Please
can you clarify the timescales for part 2 of your request? Do you require
information from 4th May 2017 to 21st July 2017, or to date?
Regards
Nathan
FOI People Services
Northumberland County Council
Dear Nathan,
Thank you for your email. I am concerned that you are deliberately delaying the response to this perfectly reasonable Freedom of Information request.
Having highlighted this concern I am happy to confirm the request is as written. All correspondence on those items to date.
I trust your response will be speedy
Yours sincerely,
Mavis Skillerton
Dear Mavis
I can assure you were are not deliberately delaying the request. We simply
needed to clarify as it was not clear.
We will not action this and response in due course.
Regards
Nathan
Our Ref: 4232
Dear Enquirer,
INFORMATION REQUEST
I refer to your request for Information in relation to correspondence.
Please accept our apologies for the delay in providing your response. Due
to the complex nature of your request retrieval of this data is taking
longer than anticipated. We will keep you updated with the progress of
your request.
Yours sincerely
FOI/EIR Coordinator - People Services
Information Governance Office
Northumberland County Council
County Hall
Morpeth
Northumberland
NE61 2EF
Tel: 0345 600 6400
Email: [Northumberland County Council request email]
Web: http://www.northumberland.gov.uk
Dear Northumberland County Council,
By law, under all circumstances this request should have been answered by Now. I am now formally requesting an internal review.
Yours faithfully,
Mavis Skillerton
Dear Ms Skillerton,
Your request will be dealt with as an Information Complaint as we can only
conduct Internal Reviews on completed requests.
The Information Complaint will be dealt with by Steve Smith the Digital
Design and Delivery Manager who will contact you directly.
Please find attached the Information Complaints Policy which will explain
the procedure.
kind regards,
Julia
Information Governance Office
(t) 0345 600 6400
(e) [1][email address]
Our Ref: 4232
Dear Enquirer,
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST
I refer to your Freedom of Information request as detailed further below
in this email.
Right of Access
Section 1(1) of the Act provides any person making a request for
information to a public authority is entitled.
(a) to be informed in writing by the public authority whether it holds
information of the description specified in the request (which Section
1(6) of the Act designates as the "duty to confirm or deny"), and
(b) if that is the case, to have that information communicated to him.
The right is to obtain access to the information itself and not to the
document or record which contains it.
The Act creates a general right of access to information held by public
authorities subject to various exemptions.
Under the terms of the freedom of information act I would be grateful if
you could furnish me with the following;
A) All correspondence from the dates of 4th May 2017 and 21st July 2017
between Councillor Richard Wearmouth, Councillor Wayne Daley and John
Woodman and the following;
i) Jacqui Kell?
ii) Paul Czerepok?
iii) Robin Beveridge?
iv) Michael Black?
v) Duncan Bowman?
vi) Lee Farrier?
vii) Anthony Crabb?
viii) Paul Littlefair?
ix) Julie Dodds?
x) John Moran?
B) All correspondence from Councillor Richard Wearmouth relating to the
following;
i) Mitford Estates Acquisition (Commercial elements)?
ii) Mitford Estates Acquisition (Residential elements)?
iii) Howdon Green?
iv) 9 Wentworth Way?
v) Empire Court?
C) All papers relating to the decisions to cancel the following schemes;
i) Mitford Estates Acquisition (Commercial elements)?
ii) Mitford Estates Acquisition (Residential elements)?
iii) Howdon Green?
iv) 9 Wentworth Way?
D) All papers relating to the decision to continue with Empire Court
scheme?
Duty to confirm or deny
The public interest test requires Northumberland County Council to confirm
that we hold certain information relating to your request.
However, the time and cost involved in extracting the requested
information would exceed our statutory obligation to comply with the
request; e.g. 2.5 days and/or £450. It would take approximately 22 hours
to locate, retrieve and extract the information.
Exemptions
The Freedom of Information Act sets out various exemptions to the right of
access.
In the present case the County Council takes the view that the information
relating to your request is exempt under the following provisions.
• Section 12(1) Exemption where cost of compliance exceeds appropriate
limit
Section 1(1) does not oblige a public authority to comply with a request
for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying with
the request would exceed the appropriate limit.
(2) Subsection (1) does not exempt the public authority from its
obligation to comply with paragraph (a) of section 1(1) unless the
estimated cost of complying with that paragraph alone would exceed the
appropriate limit.
(3) In subsections (1) and (2) "the appropriate limit" means such amount
as may be prescribed, and different amounts may be prescribed in relation
to different cases.
(4) The Secretary of State may by regulations provide that, in such
circumstances as may be prescribed, where two or more requests for
information are made to a public authority-
(a) by one person, or
(b) by different persons who appear to the public authority to be acting
in concert or in pursuance of a campaign,
the estimated cost of complying with any of the requests is to be taken to
be the estimated total cost of complying with all of them.
(5) The Secretary of State may by regulations make provision for the
purposes of this section as to the costs to be estimated and as to the
manner in which they are to be estimated.
Notice of Refusal
Please treat this letter as a Notice of Refusal as regards the information
covered by the Section 12(1) Exemption.
Advice and Assistance
The County Council recognises its statutory duty to provide advice and
assistance under Section 16 of the Act. Subject to the provisions of the
Freedom of Information Act, the Council is seeking to be transparent and
open in its response.
Complaints
If you are unhappy with the way your request for information has been
handled, you can request an internal review by writing within 2 months
from the date of this response to the Information Governance Office:
Information Governance Office
Northumberland County Council
County Hall
Morpeth
NE61 2EF
Email: [Northumberland County Council request email]
Information Commissioner
If you remain dissatisfied with the handling of your request, you have a
right by Section 50 of the Act to apply to the Information Commissioner
for a decision as to whether your request has been dealt with in
accordance with the requirements of the Act at:
The Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Tel: 01625 545 745 / Fax: 01625 524 510
Email: [email address]
There is no charge for making an appeal.
Yours sincerely
FOI Coordinator - Finance Group
Information Governance Office
Northumberland County Council
County Hall
Morpeth
Northumberland
NE61 2EF
Tel: 0345 600 6400
Email: [Northumberland County Council request email]
Web: http://www.northumberland.gov.uk
Dear Northumberland County Council,
Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.
I am writing to request an internal review of Northumberland County Council's handling of my FOI request 'Correspondence with Arch Directors'.
I am extremely concerned at the lengths the council appears to be prepared to go to in order to stop information being released into the public domain.
This FOI was submitted on 17th May 2018 and it has been refused on 23rd August under grounds that could have been explained much earlier in the process. This is more than four months after it was initially submitted and following a previous clarification which substantially reduced the time that would have been needed to process the FOI.
This previous clarification was completed on 6th June and as previously stated substantially reduced the work required. A further clarification took place on 3rd July where I raised my concerns that this was deliberately being delayed.
On 23rd August my FOI was refused and appears to use the initially submitted questions and the timing required to process this as a reason. It appears something is being covered up here.
I will also be asking the information commissioner to look into this complaint.
A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/c...
Yours faithfully,
Mavis Skillerton
Our Ref: 4232
Dear Enquirer,
INTERNAL REVIEW OF FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST
Thank you for your request for an internal review received 11.09.2018 into
the response to your Freedom of Information request received on
17.05.2018.
A Senior Officer independent of the original response will review all
correspondence and write to you with our final response by 09.10.2018.
Kind regards
Information Governance Office
Northumberland County Council
County Hall
Morpeth
Northumberland
NE61 2EF
Tel: 0345 600 6400
Email: [Northumberland County Council request email]
Web: http://www.northumberland.gov.uk
Dear Ms Skillerton
Please see the attached response.
Regards
Wendy Cunningham
PA to Graham Reiter, Service Director, Children's Social Care
Wellbeing and Community Health Services Group
Northumberland County Council
County Hall
Morpeth
Northumberland
NE61 2EF
Tel: 01670 622372
My current days of working are Tuesday to Thursday.
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