Efficacy of "Well-B"

The request was refused by Canal & River Trust.

Dear Canal & River Trust,

I note from your website that you are now selling merchandise relating to your "Well-B" mascot. I understand you have developed this mascot to attract new supporters to the charity.

Please can the CRT provide me with the following:

- How much has been spent to date creating the character, expenditure on advertising
- Information about xxpenditure designing Well-B related merchandise
- Information about income through sales of merchandise
- Quantitative evidence of the impact of creating the character on donations and support

I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Yours faithfully,
Joshua Cole

Information Request, Canal & River Trust

Dear Joshua,

Request Reference: FOI 121/21

Thank you for your request for information

I can confirm this request was received on 26/07/2021 and I am dealing with it in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000. Under the terms of the Act you are entitled to a response within 20 working days of receipt.

If for any reason we are unable to meet this deadline we will keep you fully informed of the reasons for this and will tell you when you can expect a response.

In the meantime if you have any queries about this email, please do not hesitate to get in contact. Please remember to quote the reference number above in any future communications.

Kind Regards
Joshua

Joshua Fellows
Information Governance Administrator
Legal & Governance Services

E: [email address]

Canal & River Trust
Canal and River Trust, Aqua House, 20 Lionel Street, Birmingham, B3 1AQ

canalrivertrust.org.uk
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@canalrivertrust

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Information Request, Canal & River Trust

Dear Joshua Cole,

Ref: FOI 121/21

Thank you for contacting the Canal & River Trust with your request for information. The Trust has treated your request as a request for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Your Request For Information:

Dear Canal & River Trust,

I note from your website that you are now selling merchandise relating to your "Well-B" mascot. I understand you have developed this mascot to attract new supporters to the charity.

Please can the CRT provide me with the following:

- How much has been spent to date creating the character, expenditure on advertising
- Information about expenditure designing Well-B related merchandise
- Information about income through sales of merchandise
- Quantitative evidence of the impact of creating the character on donations and support

Response:

-How much has been spent to date creating the character, expenditure on advertising?
- Information about expenditure designing Well-B related merchandise?
- Information about income through sales of merchandise?

A: The Information requested is being with held under Section 12 – Freedom Of Information Act.

Section 12 states that public authorities don’t have to comply with requests where they estimate that the cost of compliance will exceed the appropriate limit, Which is £450 which calucates staff time at £25.

In Estimating the cost we have considered the time it would take to establish if the information is held, locate the information, retrieve the information and extract the information for the three requets above.

Costs of more than one request can be aggregated if they are on the same or a similar subject and are received from the same person or a campaign within 60 working days,
Different questions within a single piece of correspondence count as separate requests for this purpose.

To bring your request within the acceptable limit try to narrow down your request to a specific time period or a specific category of expenditure instead of costs in creating the character and expenditure on advertising as a whole.

- Quantitative evidence of the impact of creating the character on donations and support
A: The freedom of information act covers recorded information which includes printed documents, computer files, letters, emails, photographs, and sound or video recordings.
The Trust does not hold any information on the quantitative evidence of the impact of creating the creating the character on donations and support. The freedom of information act does not require the Trust to create new information in order to satisfy a request.

If you are dissatisfied with the handling of your request, you have the right to ask for an internal review. Internal review requests should be submitted within two months of the date of this email and should be sent by email to [email address] or by post to Information Governance Team,National Waterways Museum Ellesmere Port, South Pier Road, Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, England, CH65 4FW. You are also able to contact the Information Commissioner by telephoning 0303 123 1113 although please note they would usually expect you to have gone through our internal review procedure before contacting them.

Kind Regards
Joshua

Joshua Fellows
Information Governance Administrator
Legal & Governance Services

E: [email address]

Canal & River Trust
Canal and River Trust, National Waterways Museum Ellesmere Port, South Pier Road, Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, England, CH65 4FW

canalrivertrust.org.uk
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@canalrivertrust

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Dear Joshua,

Thank you for your response.

Firstly, I am surprised that you do not hold any evidence regarding the impact of this character on donations and support, but I thank you for confirming that this is the case.

Secondly, I am disappointed by your response to the first part of my request. My understanding is that you are implying that gathering the information for this request would take more than 18 hours of staff time (18 x £25 = £450) which strikes me as a long time for information which ought to be readily available within suitable financial records. However, I am willing to clarify my request to bring it within the acceptable limits:

- How much was spent on agency fees in 2018/19, 2019/20 and 2020/21 on projects related to the development of the character?
- How much was spent in 2018/19, 2019/20 and 2020/21 on media planning and buying for adverts/promotional material including the character? This should include spending on radio, TV, digital advertising and social media.
- How many Well-B cups, toys and keyrings have been sold since they became available to the public?

I would hope that the information above would be readily available and gathering it would fall well within the acceptable limits.

Yours sincerely,

Joshua

Information Request, Canal & River Trust

Dear Mr Cole

Request Reference: FOI 147/21

Thank you for your request for information.

I can confirm this request was received on… and I am dealing with it in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000. Under the terms of the Act you are entitled to a response within 20 working days of receipt.

Every effort will be made to comply with the statutory deadline, however if for any reason we are unable to meet this deadline we will keep you fully informed of the reasons for this and will tell you when you can expect a response.

In the meantime if you have any queries about this email, please do not hesitate to get in contact. Please remember to quote the reference number above in any future communications.

Regards

Jane Orange
Information Governance Advisor
Legal & Governance Services
T: 07766 248243
E: [email address]

Canal & River Trust

National Waterways Museum Ellesmere Port, South Pier Road, Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, England, CH65 4FW

canalrivertrust.org.uk
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@canalrivertrust

/canalrivertrust

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Information Request, Canal & River Trust

10 Attachments

Dear Mr Cole,

 

Please find attached response to your below Freedom of Information
request.

 

Regards

 

 

Jane Orange

Information Governance Advisor

Legal & Governance Services

T: 07766 248243

E: [1][email address]

 

[2][IMG] [3][IMG] [4][IMG] [5][IMG]  

 

Canal & River Trust

 

National Waterways Museum Ellesmere Port, South Pier Road, Ellesmere Port,
Cheshire, England, CH65 4FW

 

[6]canalrivertrust.org.uk

Sign up for the Canal & River Trust e-newsletter
[7]canalrivertrust.org.uk/newsletter

 

[8][IMG]      
[9][IMG] [10]@canalrivertrust
[11][IMG] [12]/canalrivertrust
[13]/canalrivertrust
   

 

 

 

 

 

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Dear Jane,

Thank you for your response. I am very disappointed that you have refused to provide the requested information, stating that:

"Having reviewed your initial request this falls outside of the scope of the Canal & River
Trust’s FOIA obligations due to the information forming part of our wider charitable
objects, rather than relating to any statutory function transferred from British Waterways
under the 2012 Order. "

I would contend that any expenditure by CRT does relate to your statutory functions - any money spent on wider charitable objects is money which could be spent on statutory functions and your ability to compartmentalise in this way is very peculiar.

I would also like to express my dissatisfaction with the following explanation:

"However, we can confirm on a voluntary basis that, as is the case with many charities, the
Trust relies on marketing and communications to reach new audiences and increase
awareness and support. The development of our Well-B character, and any subsequent
promotion, has been carried out using set annual marketing budgets and has not incurred
any additional costs for the Trust. The character is helping us to connect with a younger
demographic which is vital for our waterways’ future. During the time we have been using
Well-B we have continued to see the Trust’s brand awareness increase and our supporter
numbers grow "

Again, I would contend that your "set annual marketing budgets" are in fact "additional costs" and therefore disagree wholeheartedly with your implication that the creation of this character has somehow been cost-neutral.

I suggest that CRT could increase support by being more transparent about what money you spend and what has been achieved by specific projects.

Kind regards,
Joshua

Yours faithfully,

Joshua Cole