Council duties of Care re Landfill fumes

The request was successful.

Dear Staffordshire County Council,

Please provide a list of any special arrangements by departments in regards to their statutary duty of care regarding Walleys Quarry Landfill fumes.
Including but not limited to:
1 Fostering of Children
2 Planning applications
3 Recruitment of Staff
4 Financial budgetary special allocations

Yours faithfully,

Gary Pearce

Staffordshire County Council

Dear Gary Pearce,
 
Thank you for your request for information received by Staffordshire
County Council on 01/06/2021.
Your request is being dealt with under the terms of the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 and will be answered within twenty working days. 

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if there is likely to be a delay in being able to provide the information
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If you have any queries about this request do not hesitate to contact us.
Please remember to quote the case reference number above in any future
communications.
Yours sincerely,
 
Access Team

Portch, David (Corporate), Staffordshire County Council

Dear Gary Pearce

Thank you for your request for information held by Staffordshire County Council.

Please can you provide clarification to enable us to appropriately deal with your request.

By 'fumes' do you mean odours/smells originating from the site?

By duty of care do you mean, for example, have our statutory duties been impacted by the 'fumes' so we have had to introduce special arrangements in any departments?

If not, and you do mean Statutory duty of care, then to whom are you referring e.g. duty of care to employees or the public?

The Freedom of Information Act and the Environmental Information Regulations require us to deal with requests within 20 working days. However, we are not required to include time waiting for clarification of a request. We will continue to process your request as soon as we receive clarification that enables us to do so.

Please send your clarification to [Staffordshire County Council request email]

If we do not receive clarification within 20 working days we will cancel your request.

Regards
  
David Portch

Access Team
Staffordshire County Council
1 Staffordshire Place
Stafford
ST16 2DH

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Dear Portch, David (Corporate),

Thanks for the clarification request. For avoidance of doubt,

Clarification

1. By "Fumes" The requested meaning is, inclusive of all odours but not limited to odours, emmitted gases ( all mixed gaseous emmisions uncluding health affecting gasses )

2. " Duty of Care " yes the supplied interpretation is OK and will suffice

3 The scope of Duty of care in context of request to include both departmental duty of care
and also to CC employees

Thank you

Yours sincerely,

Gary Pearce

Portch, David (Corporate), Staffordshire County Council

I am currently out of the office.

 

If your email relates to an access to information or disclosure requests
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[Staffordshire County Council request email]

 

Otherwise I will contact you as soon as possible when I return.

During the current situation we will try to respond to requests and to
meet the statutory deadlines for processing access to information
requests. However, it is likely that resources will need to be diverted
away from access to information work to deal with priority public
services.

Please be patient if you experience delays during the pandemic. Where
practicable, I will try to notify you if there is likely to be a delay in
being able to provide the information you have requested or an appropriate
response.

Please do not re-submit your request. If you do not hear back from me
within a reasonable period you can contact the Access Team by email if you
have any questions about our processing of your request:
[1][Staffordshire County Council request email]

 

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Dear Staffordshire County Council,

Waiting patiently

Yours faithfully,

Gary Pearce

Portch, David (Corporate), Staffordshire County Council

Dear Gary Pearce

Thank you for your further request for information about Walleys Quarry site (Copied below).

Firstly, please accept my apologies. I should have notified you sooner but due to absence I was not able to do so. Please be assured that your request is being dealt with as thoroughly and quickly as practicable.

As your request is complex and is potentially for a large amount of information we consider that it is impractical to comply with your request, or decide to refuse your request within 20 working days.

I am writing to inform you that we need more time to respond and as permitted by the Environmental Information Regulations (Reg. 7(1) the deadline has been extended to 40 working days to enable us to locate information and either provide requested information to you (If held) or notify you of refusal.

We will aim to provide you with a response as soon as practicable within the extended 40 working day deadline.

If you have any comments relating to how your request has been handled by our authority you should contact us in the first instance. Send your comment or complaint to:

Access Manager, Access Team, Staffordshire County Council, 2 Staffordshire Place, Stafford ST16 2DH or email [Staffordshire County Council request email]

If you then have any further comments relating to how your request has been handled by our authority, please contact the Information Commissioner, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF, or Make a complaint | ICO

Regards

David Portch

Access to Information Team
Staffordshire County Council
1 Staffordshire Place
Stafford
ST16 2DH

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Portch, David (Corporate), Staffordshire County Council

Dear Gary Pearce

Further to my earlier email and having chased up services for information please find our response below.

1 Fostering of Children - There is no specific policy decision not to place children.

2 Planning applications - From a Planning Regulation perspective the service can confirm that we have no special arrangements in place relating to Walleys Quarry Landfill fumes and no additional financial budget has been allocated to us for this purpose.

3 Recruitment of Staff - No. We have not taken on / laid off any staff specifically because of 'fumes' from the site.

4 Financial budgetary special allocations - We have contributed £5k to the cost of air quality monitoring.

If you have any comments relating to how your request has been handled by our authority you should contact us in the first instance. Send your comment or complaint to:

Access Manager, Access Team, Staffordshire County Council, 2 Staffordshire Place, Stafford ST16 2DH or email [Staffordshire County Council request email]

If you then have any further comments relating to how your request has been handled by our authority, please contact the Information Commissioner, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF, or Make a complaint | ICO

Regards
  
David Portch

Access to Information Team
Staffordshire County Council
1 Staffordshire Place
Stafford
ST16 2DH

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