Fixed Penalty Notices for dog fouling

Response to this request is long overdue. By law, under all circumstances, Cornwall Council should have responded by now (details). You can complain by requesting an internal review.

Dear Cornwall Council,

This is a request under the Freedom of Information Act for the following information:

Please provide the following information:

1. The number of Fixed Penalty Notices for dog fouling in Penwith from 2008-2012.

2. The number of those given in St Ives, from 2008-2012.

Yours faithfully,

Penny Bunn

Cornwall Council

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Dear Cornwall Council,

By law, you should have responded to my Freedom of Information Request (dated 18th November 2013) by 17th December.

Can you now provide a prompt reply, providing the information I requested:

1. The number of Fixed Penalty Notices for dog fouling in Penwith
from 2008-2012.

2. The number of those given in St Ives, from 2008-2012.

Yours faithfully,

Penny Bunn

Public Health & Protection - Freedom of Information Mail, Cornwall Council

2 Attachments

Dear Ms Bunn

 

Please find attached a letter formally enclosing the Council’s response to
your request for information under the Environmental Information
Regulations 2004.  If you have difficulty in opening the attachment(s),
please contact me and I will send you a copy by post.

 

Kind regards

 

 

Lesley Penrose
Information Officer (DP/FoI Rep - PH&P) 

Business & Intelligence Unit
Community Safety & Protection Directorate
Cornwall Council

4th Floor North, County Hall, Treyew Road, Truro, TR1 3AY

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Dear Ms Penrose

Thank you for responding to my FOIA Request regarding Fixed Penalty Notices for dog fouling.

I am afraid you have not answered my query properly.

1) I cannot see why you are trying to respond to this FOIA request under the Environmental Information Regulations 2004. The query is in respect of penalty notices/fines served under either the Fouling of Land (Dogs) Act or the Clean Neighbourhoods Act and I want to know, please, how many prosecutions were brought under either of those Acts between the dates stipulated.

2) You MUST have records of where and when penalties were issued. Officers issuing those fines would have had to record the date, time and place where the offences took place. If monies were paid in respect of the fines, or if court action was taken to ensure they were paid, there will be full records which I am sure can be easily accessed.

3) I note that you have replied from Cornwall Council and therefore, you will have access to all this information, regardless of whether or not the parish council has it. The Defra guidelines for parish councils stipulate that correct and clear records should be kept:

"Regardless of who made the order, if the parish
council authorised officer issues a fixed penalty
notice for an offence against a dog control order
– be it a parish council or a district one – the
parish council keeps the receipts from the fixed
penalty notice or any costs awarded, should the
case end with a successful prosecution in the
magistrates’ court." (From 'Getting to grips with the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005 – a parish council guide to environmental enforcement' available at: http://archive.defra.gov.uk/environment/....

I am therefore struggling to see how you can argue that the local council doesn't have these records to hand.

Even if that is the case, Cornwall Council must be able to access a breakdown of when these penalties were issued and where, particularly since there were so few of them.

I therefore request that you please provide this information, in accordance with the law pertaining to the Freedom of Information Act and fines issued under either the Fouling of Land (Dogs) Act or the Clean Neighbourhoods Act.

Yours sincerely,

Penny Bunn

Dear Ms Penrose

I note that you still have not provided the information requested in this FOIA request.

This request is now very overdue and I would appreciate it if you could please provide the information.

When Fixed Penalty Notices are issued, the name and address of the individual being fined MUST be included on the paperwork.

If there were only 55 Fixed Penalty Notices issued in Penwith during in the time frame I have specified, it cannot take long, or much effort, to go through and identify which of those were issued in St Ives.

I'd therefore appreciate it please if you could provide the information as soon as possible.

Yours sincerely,

Penny Bunn

Freedom Of Information Mail, Cornwall Council

1 Attachment

Dear Ms Bunn

 

Please find attached the response relating to the review of your recent
Freedom of Information request. 

 

Please accept our apologies for the delay in sending this response.  If
you have any queries, then please do not hesitate to contact us.

 

Kind regards

Support Advisor
Freedom of Information
Chief Executives Directorate
Cornwall Council

Central number 01872 322223

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facilities to help with mobility, vision or hearing, or information in a
different format.  

Please consider the environment. Do you really need to print this email?

 

This e-mail and attachments are intended for above named only and may be
confidential. If they have come to you in error you must take no action
based on them, nor must you copy or show them to anyone; please e-mail us
immediately at [email address].

Please note that this e-mail may be subject to recording and/or monitoring
in accordance with the relevant legislation and may need to be disclosed
under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 or the Environmental Information
Regulations 2004.

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Dear Mr Mansell

Cornwall Council really is an utter disgrace; plainly hell-bent on refusing to give a straightforward answer to even the simplest of questions, presumably with the intent to frustrate the enquirer as much as possible.

1. I have NOT emailed you requesting an Internal Review and neither have I registered a complaint.

2. This response is neither a request for further internal review, nor a complaint.

3. Regarding your remarks, I am sure that Cornwall Council keeps automated records of the number of fines it has issued, to whom those fines were issued, the date they were issued and in what area of the County.

4. I am requesting information that will be held in automated form on Cornwall Council's computer system.

5. I am sure you must have some method of doing a 'search' on your computer system, for 'Fixed Penalty Notices 2008-2012'. Indeed,your staff member, Louise Mansell, has already confirmed that there were 55 Fixed Penalty Notices issued for dog fouling offences during the period specified.

6. I am sure that you can list those Fixed Penalty Notices on your computer screen and from that list, can identify the areas of the County in which these fines were given.

I therefore do not accept that you cannot access this extremely simple information and suggest that all you are trying to do is refuse to answer some extremely straightforward questions.

Can you please now provide me with the following information on the 55 Fixed Penalty Notices issued in Penwith from 2008-2012:

2. The number of those given in St Ives, from 2008-2012.

This FOIA request is now seriously overdue and I will, indeed, be complaining to the Information Commissioner's Office if you do not provide this information within seven days.

I will ALSO be complaining about the original FOIA request asking for the same information, which you again refused to answer and turned into a 'complaint'.

Yours sincerely,

Penny Bunn