Faversham War Memorial Group meeting minutes

Swale Borough Council did not have the information requested.

Dear Swale Borough Council,

Please provide the complete and unredacted minutes of the Faversham War Memorial project group meetings on 21 April 2015 and 27 May 2015.

Yours faithfully,

Richard Fleury

FOI (SBC), Swale Borough Council

Dear Sirs

I write to confirm receipt of your Freedom of Information request received in this office on 17 January 2019. Under the provisions of the Act, the Council has 20 working days in which to respond, therefore a response will be sent to you by 14 February 2019.

Yours faithfully




Sharon Dormedy
Swale Borough Council
01795 417321

Sharon Dormedy | PA to Director of Regeneration | Swale Borough Council
Swale House East Street Sittingbourne Kent ME10 3HT | Tel: 01795 417321 | Fax: 01795 417327 | Email: [email address]| Web: www.swale.gov.uk
                         

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Lyn Newton, Swale Borough Council

2 Attachments

FAO Mr. R. Fleury

 

Please find response in respect of FOI 769.  Kind Regards.

 

 

 

 

 

Lyn Newton | ECS Manager| Swale Borough Council

Web:  [1]www.swale.gov.uk | Email:  [2][email address]

Call: 01795 417420

Swale House, East Street, Sittingbourne, Kent ME10 3HT

 

 

This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity they are addressed. If you have received this email in error please notify [email address]

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Dear Swale Borough Council,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Swale Borough Council's handling of my FOI request 'Faversham War Memorial Group meeting minutes'.

I do not consider it democratically acceptable that a committee led by and consisting primarily of Swale Borough Council members and officers, whose objectives are supported, enabled and part-funded with public money by Swale Borough Council should seek exemption from due transparency under freedom of information legislation by claiming that they not a 'formal' committee of the council.

This has been the response to several requests for information about the group of councillors calling themselves the Faversham War Memorial Project Group, from it's leading officer, Swale Borough Council's Lyn Newton: "As I said in my previous correspondence with you relating to FOI 567 (19 November 2018) this group is not a committee or formal group of the Council and is made up of individuals and group representatives. Notes of meetings were not taken and were not distributed by any Officer of this public body but by others from the group. I have provided you with all notes of meetings that I hold for this particular work stream. It is possible that meetings may have been postponed and re-arranged or indeed cancelled or simply that I was not invited to a meeting purely on the basis of an administrative oversight and therefore I was inadvertently excluded from circulation of notes thereafter. As I have explained, this group largely comprised representatives from community and voluntary organisations providing their services voluntarily. You may wish therefore to approach the group direct."

This is not meant as a criticism of Ms Newton personally, who has politely responded to my requests and provided incomplete and heavily redacted minutes of some of the group's meetings where possible for her.

As she suggested, I approached the committee's leader, Coun Mike Cosgrove via the SBC media office but he has so far refused to provide any information, or even respond to questions.

To conceal the activities of Swale Councillors and officers from the public by simply describing a committee spending SBC public money on SBC-owned public spaces as 'informal' makes a mockery of any claim to transparency and runs against the spirit of current FOI legislation.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/f...

Yours faithfully,

Richard Fleury
favershameye.co.uk

FOI (SBC), Swale Borough Council

Dear Mr Fleury

I write to confirm receipt of your email received on 11 March 2019 requesting a review of your FOI 769 request 'Faversham War Memorial Group meeting minutes'. Under the provisions of the Act, the Council has 20 working days in which to respond, therefore a response will be sent to you by 8 April 2019.

Yours faithfully



Sue Revell
Swale Borough Council
01795 417269

Sue Revell | Resources PA | Swale Borough Council
Swale House East Street Sittingbourne Kent ME10 3HT | Tel: 01795 417269 | Email: [email address] | Web: www.swale.gov.uk

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Dear FOI (SBC),

Your response to my request for an internal review is now overdue. Since by law, under all circumstances, the authority should have responded by now, I will prepare a complaint to the information commissioner if I do not receive a response today 9th April 2019.

Yours sincerely,

Richard Fleury

Donna Price, Swale Borough Council

Dear Mr Fleury

I write further to your request for an internal review of FOI 769. Please accept my apologies for not responding to your request for review sooner, unfortunately I have been away from the office for personal reasons.

You have made a number of requests regarding minutes of the Faversham War Memorial project group meetings, the most recent being received on 17 January 2019 asked:

Please provide the complete and unredacted minutes of the Faversham War Memorial project group meetings on 21 April 2015 and 27 May.

A response was sent to you on the 1 February 2019 which stated:

As I said in my previous correspondence with you relating to FOI 567 (19 November 2018) this group is not a committee or formal group of the Council and is made up of individuals and group representatives. Notes of meetings were not taken and were not distributed by any Officer of this public body but by others from the group. I have provided you with all notes of meetings that I hold for this particular work stream. It is possible that meetings may have been postponed and re-arranged or indeed cancelled or simply that I was not invited to a meeting purely on the basis of an administrative oversight and therefore I was inadvertently excluded from circulation of notes thereafter. As I have explained, this group largely comprised representatives from community and voluntary organisations providing their services voluntarily. You may wish therefore to approach the group direct.

On 11 March 2019 you submitted your request for review the details of which are set out in your email below.

Part I of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 makes it clear that the public is only entitled to access information that is held by the Council, which includes information held by other organisations and authorities on behalf of the Council. There is no obligation for the Council to create or obtain information from other sources in order to respond to a request.

With regards to your request you have already been informed that the Council does not have in its possession a copy a complete copy of the information requested. In addition, paragraph 1.10 of the Freedom of Information Code of Practice states that Information is ‘held’ by the public authority if it is retained for the purposes of the public authority’s business. Purely personal, political, constituency, or trade union information, for example, will not be ‘held’ for the purposes of the Act and so will not be relevant for the purposes of the request. Where a public authority holds or stores information solely on behalf of another person or body that material will also not be ‘held’ by that authority for the purposes of the Act. Whilst elected members are part of the project group the group itself is not a committee of the Council and is not carrying out functions on behalf of the Council, therefore any information they hold, or that comes into our possession from them, does not amount to information held by the Council.

Having taken into account all of the facts I uphold the original decision and confirm that the Council is unable to provide the information requested as the information is not held. Nor do we have the authority to request that the information is provided to us so that it can be disclosed. As previously advised, should you require a copy of the documents you will have to request them directly from the Faversham War Memorial project group.

I trust this answers your request for review satisfactorily, however should you remain dissatisfied with the information provided you should send your complaint to the Information Commissioners Office at Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF

Kind regards

Donna Price | Information Governance Officer (Solicitor)
Swale Borough Council
Swale House, East Street, Sittingbourne, Kent ME10 3HT
Tel: 01795 417179 | [mobile number] |Web: www.swale.gov.uk
                         

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Donna Price, Swale Borough Council

Dear Mr Fleury

 

I write further to your complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office
regarding the Council’s response to FOI 769 and the subsequent review.  A
full response has been made to the ICO and they have asked me to notify
you of my additional findings.

 

The Council maintains its position that it does not hold the information
requested on the grounds set out in my review response, however, following
notification of the ICO’s investigation I asked all officers that had at
any time been invited to attend a meeting of the project group to again
check whether or not they had attended meetings on 21 April and 27 May
2015 and whether they had copies of the minutes (although I still submit
that these would not be held for the purpose of FOIA as they would be held
solely on behalf or another person). 

 

As a result of this additional search an officer discovered an email dated
16 April 2015 from the Town Clerk of Faversham Town Council (who I
understand initially carried out administration on the project groups
behalf) which cancels the meeting on 21 April 2015 and states in the
second paragraph “I would hope that we can meet again in June”.  As such,
it would appear that no such meetings took place on 21 April and 27 May
2015 which would explain why the officer did not have the minutes for
these meetings in her possession.  I cannot guarantee that there was not a
meeting as the project group is an entirely separate entity from the
Council and are not bound to inform the Council when they meet, I can
therefore only assume from the contents of the email that no such meetings
were arranged.  A full copy of the email has been supplied to the ICO.

 

As a result of the meetings not taking place the Council cannot hold the
information requested.  I apologise that this email was not located when
your original request was received.

 

I hope this now resolves the matter.

 

Kind regards

 

Donna Price | Information Governance Officer (Solicitor)

Swale Borough Council

Swale House, East Street, Sittingbourne, Kent ME10 3HT

Tel: 01795 417179 | [mobile number] |Web: [1]www.swale.gov.uk

 

 

This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity they are addressed. If you have received this email in error please notify [email address]

References

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