Green Flag Award meetings and correspondence

The request was partially successful.

Dear Sir or Madam,

Please can you provide me with Cardiff councils
1. correspondence with the green flag award people and the judges
2. details of and when/where the meetings took place plus minutes of the meetings with the green flag award judges
3. the correspondence and meetings and information given to the green flag award judges on the issues surrounding the development of the park during their assessment.
4. Correspondence and meetings plus minutes of meetings
with parks management and green park award officials/judges during their assessment.

5. what if any correspondence between
Paul Todd Green Flag Award Scheme Manager @
Keep Britain Tidy
Elizabeth House
The Pier
Wigan

Email: [email address]
Web site: greenflagaward.org.uk

Yours faithfully,

Anne Greagsby

Cardiff Council

Dear Anne Greagsby,

Thank you for your Freedom of Information request.

Details have been forwarded to the Freedom of Information Officer within
the relevant department who will be dealing with your request and will
contact you in due course.

If you have any further queries, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Sincerely,

Paula Franklin

C2C Records Officer
Connect to Cardiff
Cardiff County Council
County Hall
Atlantic Wharf
Cardiff
CF10 4UW

email [1][email address]

Annwyl Anne Greagsby,

Diolch am eich cais Rhyddid Gwybodaeth.

Mae’r manylion wedi cael eu danfon at y Swyddogion Rhyddid Gwybodaeth
yn yr adran berthnasol. Byddent yn delio gyda’ch cais a byddent yn
cysylltu â chi yn fuan.

Os oes gennych chi unrhyw ymholiad bellach, cysylltwch â fi os gwelwch
yn dda.

Yn gywir,

Paula Franklin

Cysylltu â Chaerdydd
Cyngor Caerdydd

e-bost: [2][email address]

Dear Sir or Madam,

Please can you provide me with Cardiff councils 1. correspondence

with the green flag award people and the judges 2. details of and

when/where the meetings took place plus minutes of the meetings

with the green flag award judges 3. the correspondence and meetings

and information given to the green flag award judges on the issues

surrounding the development of the park during their assessment. 4.

Correspondence and meetings plus minutes of meetings with parks

management and green park award officials/judges during their

assessment.

5. what if any correspondence between Paul Todd Green Flag Award

Scheme Manager @ Keep Britain Tidy Elizabeth House The Pier Wigan

Email: [email address] Web site:

greenflagaward.org.uk

Yours faithfully,

Anne Greagsby

show quoted sections

Jones, Keeley, Cardiff Council

Your Ref: CLP0012

Dear Ms Greagsby

Thank you for your request for information about correspondence regarding
the green flag award, which we received on 7th August 2009 and which falls
under the Environmental Information Regulations 2004.

We are considering your request under the terms of the Environmental
Information Regulations 2004. You should receive the information requested
within 20 working days. However under Regulation 7 we can extend the
timescale for a response if the information is exempt, we require
additional time to consider whether disclosure is in the public interest
or the information requested is complex and additional time is needed for
collation.

Cardiff Council*s policy is to carry out the spirit and requirements of
the Environmental Information Regulations 2004, in a manner which:

- recognizes the duty to inform as the essential principle underlying the
legislation;

- discloses to requesters the maximum information possible which is not
injurious to the public and private interests identified in the exemptions
in the regulations and does so in the most timely and consistent manner
given the nature and scope of the request;

- ensures that fees permitted under the regulations are kept to an
absolute minimum whilst safeguarding our position as a non-profit making
organisation

We will try to supply information in electronic format by email, but if
this is not possible we will let you know. If you have any special
requirements e.g. language, audio, large print, etc. please let us know.

The Regulations define a number of exceptions which may prevent the
release of information. If any exceptions apply to your information
request they will be considered prior to disclosure. If any of the
exemption categories do apply an explanation for non-disclosure will be
included in the Decision Notice response you will receive, included in
this notice is your right to appeal against our decision.

If the information you request contains reference to a third party then
they may be consulted prior to a decision being taken on whether or not to
release the information to you. We will keep you informed if this issue
arises.

In some circumstances a fee may be payable for the information you have
requested, we will inform you of the details if and when appropriate. In
these circumstances you will have to pay the fee before we process and
release the information. The 20 working day time limit for responses will
not start until we receive your payment.

If you have any queries or concerns regarding the EIR please do not
hesitate to contact me.

You can find out more about the Act from the Information Commissioner at:

Information Commissioner's Office (Wales)

Cambrian Buildings

Mount Stuart Square

Cardiff

CF10 5FL

[1]http://www.informationcommissioner.gov.u...

Telephone: 029 2044 8044

Fax: 029 2044 8045

Email: [2][email address]

Please remember to quote the reference number above in any future
communications.

Yours Sincerely

Keeley Jones

Development Officer / Swyddog Datblygu

Community Development & Research Team / Tîm Datblygu Cymunedol ac Ymchwil

Culture, Leisure and Parks / Diwylliant, Hamdden a Pharciau

029 2087 3940

P STOP! Do you really need to print this email? Please save the
Environment.

Arhoswch eiliad! Oes rhaid i chi brintio*r e-bost hwn? Gofalwch am yr
Amgylchedd.

show quoted sections

Mae'n bosibl bod gwybodaeth gyfrinachol yn y neges hon. Os na chyfeirir y
neges atoch chi'n benodol (neu os nad ydych chi'n gyfrifol am
drosglwyddo'r neges i'r person a enwir), yna ni chewch gopio na
throsglwyddo'r neges. Mewn achos o'r fath, dylech ddinistrio'r neges a
hysbysu'r anfonwr drwy e-bost ar unwaith. Rhowch wybod i'r anfonydd ar
unwaith os nad ydych chi neu eich cyflogydd yn caniatau e-bost y Rhyngrwyd
am negeseuon fel hon. Rhaid deall nad yw'r safbwyntiau, y casgliadau a'r
wybodaeth arall yn y neges hon nad ydynt yn cyfeirio at fusnes swyddogol
Cyngor Dinas a Sir Caerdydd yn cynrychioli barn y Cyngor Sir nad yn cael
sel ei fendith. Caiff unrhyw negeseuon a anfonir at, neu o'r cyfeiriad
e-bost hwn eu prosesu gan system E-bost Gorfforaethol Cyngor Sir Caerdydd
a gallant gael eu harchwilio gan rywun heblaw'r person a enwir.

**********************************************************************

.

References

Visible links
1. http://www.informationcommissioner.gov.u...
2. mailto:[email address]

Parks, Cardiff Council

1 Attachment

My Ref: MAT(P)/SD/2059/CLP0012 G00158

14 August, 2009

Anne Greagsby

[FOI #16595 email]

Dear Ms Greagsby

ELECTORAL DIVISION: CATHAYS

GREEN FLAG JUDGING OF BUTE PARK

Thank you for your request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 about
correspondence relating to the Green Flag judging of Bute Park in 2009
received on 7^th August 2009.

We have considered your request and enclose the following information:

Various emails between Council officers and the judging team, and the
itinerary for the judging visit.

Most of the documents that we provide in response to Environmental
Information Regulations 2004 requests will be subject to copyright
protection. In most cases the copyright will be owned by Cardiff Council.
The copyright in some documents may be owned by another person or
organisation, as indicated on the documents themselves.

You are free to use any documents supplied for your own use, including for
non-commercial research purposes. The documents may also be used for news
reporting. However, any other type of re-use, for example by publishing
the documents or issuing copies to the public will require the permission
of the copyright owner.

Details of the arrangements for reusing the material owned by Cardiff
Council can be found on our website at or by contacting the Information
Manager, Room 111, County Hall, Cardiff CF10 4UW (Phone 029 2087 3346).

For documents where the copyright is not owned by Cardiff Council, you
would need to apply to the copyright owner to obtain their permission for
re-use.

We supply this information based on your original request. If this
information does not answer your enquiry or if you feel we have not fully
understood your request, please contact me to clarify your exact
requirements.

If you have any queries or concerns or are in any way dissatisfied with
the handling of your request please do not hesitate to contact me.

Yours sincerely

Jon Maidment

Operational Manager

Parks

show quoted sections

Mae'n bosibl bod gwybodaeth gyfrinachol yn y neges hon. Os na chyfeirir y
neges atoch chi'n benodol (neu os nad ydych chi'n gyfrifol am
drosglwyddo'r neges i'r person a enwir), yna ni chewch gopio na
throsglwyddo'r neges. Mewn achos o'r fath, dylech ddinistrio'r neges a
hysbysu'r anfonwr drwy e-bost ar unwaith. Rhowch wybod i'r anfonydd ar
unwaith os nad ydych chi neu eich cyflogydd yn caniatau e-bost y Rhyngrwyd
am negeseuon fel hon. Rhaid deall nad yw'r safbwyntiau, y casgliadau a'r
wybodaeth arall yn y neges hon nad ydynt yn cyfeirio at fusnes swyddogol
Cyngor Dinas a Sir Caerdydd yn cynrychioli barn y Cyngor Sir nad yn cael
sel ei fendith. Caiff unrhyw negeseuon a anfonir at, neu o'r cyfeiriad
e-bost hwn eu prosesu gan system E-bost Gorfforaethol Cyngor Sir Caerdydd
a gallant gael eu harchwilio gan rywun heblaw'r person a enwir.

**********************************************************************

Dear Sir or Madam,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of Cardiff Council's handling of my FOI request 'Green Flag Award meetings and correspondence'.

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

Yours faithfully,

Anne Greagsby

Bradshaw, Phillip, Cardiff Council

Dear Ms Greagsby

On reviewing this matter with a view to closure it appears that I
overlooked formally responding to your request for review received on 18
August . Please accept my apologies.

Although you requested a review Regulation 11 of EIR says "an applicant
may make representations to a public authority in relation to the
applicant's request for environmental information if it appears to the
applicant that the authority has failed to comply with a requirement of
these Regulations in relation to the request."

I note that you have not alleged any failure to comply with a requirement
of the Regulations. I must therefore determine the review solely on the
basis of the request of 7 August and responses of 10 and 17 August.

The Councils response was within the time limit and accordingly I find no
breach of Regulation 5.

I note from the disclosed information that certain personal data (as
defined by the Data Protection Act 1998) has been redacted. In the absence
of any representations from you I consider this to be a proper
application of the exception in Regulation 13 - see below.

I note however that the disclosure letter of 17 August did not contain the
following information required by Regulation 14 in respect of information
held but not disclosed:

* the reasons for not disclosing the information requested
* any exception relied on under regulations 12(4), 12(5) or 13

In that respect I uphold your complaint.

I must also formally accept that in dealing with this review we have
failed to comply with the time limit under Regulation 11(4)

For the purposes of Regulation 11 I accordingly confirm that in these
respects :
(a) the Council accepts that it failed to comply with the requirements of
Regulation 14(1) and Regulation 11(4) of the EIR

(b) on behalf of the Council I apologise for these errors and enclose
below the information which should have been provided on August 17 under
Regulation 14 . In addition this email will be copied to those who handled
the initial request as a reminder of the duty under Regulation 14

(c) no further action will be taken

The exception relied on in redacting information from the original
disclosure was Regulation 13. The information was personal data of which
you were not the data subject.

The reason it applies is that the data consists of the names of
correspondents and other parties involved in the Green Flag process.
Disclosure would breach the first data protection principle in the Data
Protection Act 1998 namely : "Personal data shall be processed fairly and
lawfully and, in particular, shall not be processed unless--(a) at least
one of the conditions in Schedule 2 is met ... ". We have not identified
any applicable condition and accordingly the Reg 13(1) exception is
engaged. This is an absolute exemption - we are not required to carry out
a public interest test.

If you are dissatisfied with this decision you may request the Information
Commissioner to investigate. The contact details are:

Information Commissioner's Office (Wales)
Cambrian Buildings
Mount Stuart Square
Cardiff
CF10 5FL

[1]http://www.informationcommissioner.gov.u...

Telephone: 029 2044 8044

Fax: 029 2044 8045

Email: [2][email address]

[3]Phil Bradshaw

Information Manager
Citizen & Democratic Service

Room CY4A, County Hall

EMail: [4][email address]

Phone: 029 2087 3346
[mobile number]

Fax:       029 2087 3349

Share a little Knowledge this Christmas

show quoted sections

Mae'n bosibl bod gwybodaeth gyfrinachol yn y neges hon. Os na chyfeirir y
neges atoch chi'n benodol (neu os nad ydych chi'n gyfrifol am
drosglwyddo'r neges i'r person a enwir), yna ni chewch gopio na
throsglwyddo'r neges. Mewn achos o'r fath, dylech ddinistrio'r neges a
hysbysu'r anfonwr drwy e-bost ar unwaith. Rhowch wybod i'r anfonydd ar
unwaith os nad ydych chi neu eich cyflogydd yn caniatau e-bost y Rhyngrwyd
am negeseuon fel hon. Rhaid deall nad yw'r safbwyntiau, y casgliadau a'r
wybodaeth arall yn y neges hon nad ydynt yn cyfeirio at fusnes swyddogol
Cyngor Dinas a Sir Caerdydd yn cynrychioli barn y Cyngor Sir nad yn cael
sel ei fendith. Caiff unrhyw negeseuon a anfonir at, neu o'r cyfeiriad
e-bost hwn eu prosesu gan system E-bost Gorfforaethol Cyngor Sir Caerdydd
a gallant gael eu harchwilio gan rywun heblaw'r person a enwir.

**********************************************************************

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References

Visible links
1. http://www.informationcommissioner.gov.u...
2. mailto:[email address]
3. http://wikiweb/index.php?title=Informati...
4. mailto:[email address]

Dear Bradshaw, Phillip,

I can not understand your reply. Please could I have an answer in plain english?

Yours sincerely,

Anne Greagsby

Bradshaw, Phillip, Cardiff Council

Dear Ms Greagsby

I am sorry you were not able to follow my reply. If you can be more
specific as to which part is causing a problem I will try to help.

I am aware that the response does contain an amount of what may be
regarded as jargon.

However that cannot be avoided. I am required by regulations 11 and 14
to provide very specific information when responding to a review or
refusing to supply some information. That necessarily means that I must
use the technical language of the regulations, and, where the exemption
is the personal data exemption, the technical language of the Data
Protection Act.

As the exemption here was for personal data, rather than my trying to
explain how this works in more detail, may I refer you to the ICO's
explanatory guide which you will find at :

http://www.ico.gov.uk/upload/documents/l...
tailed_specialist_guides/personal_information.pdf

Although that refers to FOIA, the exception in Regulation 13 of the EIR
works in the same way for all practical purposes.

Phil Bradshaw

Information Manager
Citizen & Democratic Service

Room CY4A, County Hall

EMail: [email address]

Phone: 029 2087 3346
[mobile number]

Fax: 029 2087 3349

Share a little Knowledge this Christmas

show quoted sections

Anne Greagsby left an annotation ()

I can not understand why the identity of the green flag judges can not be disclosed! Why is there the need to keep this information secret? Judging parks is hardly something to be secretive about! Unless of course, if disclosed the judges would then be identified as having links to the Lib Dems or/and Plaid Cymru politicians in Cardiff. It is in the public interest to know who these judges are. It is in the public interest to know that the judges are impartial. My conclusion is that there is something to hide from the public.

Bradshaw, Phillip, Cardiff Council

Dear Ms Greagsby

I am disappointed to note that you have flagged this request as rejected.
It was not rejected and we provided the information you requested other
than the redaction of the names and contact details of the Green Flag
judges. At no time during the request or review did you make any
representations on this point.

I have sympathy with the point you make about knowing the identity of the
judges being in the public interest. However the exemption under FOI for
personal data is not subject to the public interest test.

The Council accepts that you have a legitimate interest in requesting this
information. Nevertheless we consider that disclosing it is unwarranted
having regard to the prejudice to the rights freedoms and legitimate
interests of the judges.

Award judges are unpaid volunteers and in our view we should respect their
expressed wishes for anonymity. Our understanding is that they receive
appropriate training and guidance from the Green Flag organisation and
would be expected to disqualify themselves if there was any suggestion of
conflict of interest.

I am sure that the Department for Communities and Local Government can
provide you with further information about their procedures and processes
on request.

Phillip Bradshaw

Information Manager
Democratic Services

Room CY4A, County Hall

EMail: [1][email address]

Phone: 029 2087 3346
[mobile number]

Fax:       029 2087 3349

Information is the Currency of Democracy

show quoted sections

Mae'n bosibl bod gwybodaeth gyfrinachol yn y neges hon. Os na chyfeirir y
neges atoch chi'n benodol (neu os nad ydych chi'n gyfrifol am
drosglwyddo'r neges i'r person a enwir), yna ni chewch gopio na
throsglwyddo'r neges. Mewn achos o'r fath, dylech ddinistrio'r neges a
hysbysu'r anfonwr drwy e-bost ar unwaith. Rhowch wybod i'r anfonydd ar
unwaith os nad ydych chi neu eich cyflogydd yn caniatau e-bost y Rhyngrwyd
am negeseuon fel hon. Rhaid deall nad yw'r safbwyntiau, y casgliadau a'r
wybodaeth arall yn y neges hon nad ydynt yn cyfeirio at fusnes swyddogol
Cyngor Dinas a Sir Caerdydd yn cynrychioli barn y Cyngor Sir nad yn cael
sel ei fendith. Caiff unrhyw negeseuon a anfonir at, neu o'r cyfeiriad
e-bost hwn eu prosesu gan system E-bost Gorfforaethol Cyngor Sir Caerdydd
a gallant gael eu harchwilio gan rywun heblaw'r person a enwir.

**********************************************************************

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References

Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]

Rhys Wynne left an annotation ()

@Mr Bradshaw,

Although Anne Greasby has not specified why she considers her FOI request as rejected, it is obvious from your response that you have not answered the majority of her questions and no reasons are given for this in any of your replies. I'll sumeries for you:

Anne Greasby's request
[Cardiff COuncil's respons in brackets]:

1. correspondence with the green flag award people and the judges
[Information missing]

2. details of and when/where the meetings took place plus minutes of the meetings with the green flag award judges
[Partly answered - dates and times of meetings are included in the above correspondence, but there are no minutes + staff and judges' names hidden]

3. the correspondence and meetings and information given to the green flag award judges on the issues surrounding the developmentof the park during their assessment.
[Information missing]

4. Correspondence and meetings plus minutes of meetings
with parks management and green park award officials/judges during
their assessment.
[Partly answered - dates and times of meetings are included in the above correspondence, but there are no minutes + names of staff and judges hidden]

5. what if any correspondence between
Paul Todd Green Flag Award Scheme Manager
[Information missing]

Phillip Bradshaw left an annotation ()

Rhys
The Council accepts that the answer is not as specific as it should have been in that, having disclosed all of the information held within the scope of the request (save as redacted)we did not explicitly state that the additional classes of information you have referred to were not in fact held. In dealing with the review this aspect was not considered or commented on as the applicant only requested a review of the redactions.

Phil Bradshaw
Information Manager, Cardiff Council