Planning application 01980/17

The request was partially successful.

Dear Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council,

Land at the following address;

LAND AT EGERTON STREET, FARNWORTH, BOLTON - Planning application 01980/17

Please provide the following information;

- The sale value of the land to the registered charity Sughra Mosque Faizaan-E-Madina - c/o Sughra Mosque. This is a matter of public interest in assuring the constiuents of Farnworth who have been pledged the funds from this sale, that the market value of the site has been acquired.

- An explanation as to how Bolton Council finds it acceptable to sell land to a charity in which "This charity has failed to provide information on its finances within 10 months of its financial year end." Documents are overdue for the charity by 295 days. Has Bolton Council carried out due diligence with the charity or will this be another Asons fiasco in the handling of the finances and checks.

- Failings by a charity should act as a red flag, they should be a cause of concern for Bolton Council in the charities ability to commit to their established 14 point plan as detailed in the document 'DESIGN ACCES STATEMENT REVISED'. If the charity cannot maintain it's accounts, this throws into doubt the charities ability to replant and maintain the replacement trees on this site.

- Labour Councillor Jean Gillies stated that the trees on the site had been wind blown. The symmetry of the planting points towards Bolton Council having planted these trees. Please provide details of the intiative and year in which Bolton Council planted these trees on the site.

- DESIGN ACCES STATEMENT REVISED states in point 13 "The land is being sold by Bolton Council and the proceeds can be reinvested in Farnworth by the Council ". Please can you assure the constiuents of Farnworth that as per the agreement under the 'design and access statement revised' that 100% of the funds will be invested back into Farnworth and a clear accounting of the use of this money will be raised at the Farnworth Area Forum.

- Did Labour Councillors at planning state their conflicts of interest in the handling of this application. Can you please provide confirmation that no Labour Councillor present on the day of the planning commite in which the sale of the land was approved is an associate or friend of the trustees for the charity; Mr Nadir Khan, Mr Mohammed Sarwar, Mr Abdul Rashid, Mr Mohammed Aslam, Mr Azam Khan, Mr Tufail Khan, Mr Mohammed Khalique, Mr Pervez Malik, Mr Afsar Khan, Mr Abdul Aziz. Understandbly should any association later be found and the council failed to declare this, there would be serious grounds for a judicial review.

There is concern in Farnworth that the sale of this land is percieved as favouritism towards a majority voting group. That concern needs to be addressed through transparency of the council's action and the public needs to be reassured that the Council took all efforts to raise the sale of this land in planning with a fair and balanced approach.

Yours faithfully,

Christopher Banks

Corporate Information Unit, Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council

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Dear Christopher Banks

I acknowledge with thanks your request for information held by Bolton
Council received at this office on .

This request has been considered under the Freedom of Information Act 2000
and may take up to 20 working days to be processed (although we will
endeavour to provide the information as quickly as possible).

Please be advised that if an exemption applies to the information that you
have requested, the statutory period may be exceeded in accordance with
the provisions of the act.

If a charge is applicable to your request, we will advise you of this in
due course.

Please retain the reference number RFI 10186 for any future enquiries
regarding this matter.

Many Thanks

Freedom of Information Team

This e-mail and any attached files are confidential and may also be
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If you are not the addressee please e-mail it back to the sender and then
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Unless expressly stated to the contrary, any views expressed in this
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Dear Corporate Information Unit,

Please accept this as an amendment to the intial FOI request. Application 01980/17 was withdrawn and the new application which was debated at planning was 00217/17.

Please replace all references of 01980/17 with 00217/17. I will require acknowledgement that this was recieved.

Yours sincerely,

Christopher Banks

Freedom Of Info, Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council

Dear Christopher Banks

 

Further to your phone call and the email below, we acknowledge with thanks
your amended request for information received at this office 29th November
2017.

 

This request will be considered under the Freedom of Information Act 2000
and may take up to 20 working days to be processed (although we will
endeavour to provide the information as quickly as possible).

 

Please be advised that if an exemption applies to the information that you
have requested, the statutory period may be exceeded in accordance with
the provisions of the act.

 

Should you have any further queries, please contact
[1][email address] quoting the reference RFI 10186.

 

Many Thanks

 

Freedom of Information Team

 

show quoted sections

Freedom Of Info, Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council

Dear Chris Banks

 

Request for information under the Environmental Information Regulations
2004

        

Further to your request for information received on  22^nd November 2017.
The Council has assessed if your request should be handled under the
Freedom of Information Act 2000 request and concluded that it should be
dealt with under the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (EIR),
which is the legislation that applies to requests for information which
relate to the environment, including the use of land and the built
environment.

 

You requested:

 

You requested information relating to Planning Application 00217/17,
namely:

 

The sale value of the land to the registered charity Sughra Mosque
Faizaan-E-Madina - c/o Sughra Mosque.

Whether the Bolton Council carried out due diligence with the charity
prior to selling the land.

 

The land has not yet been sold and remains within the ownership of the
Council, therefore the requested information is not held.

 

Labour Councillor Jean Gillies stated that the trees on the site had been
wind-blown. The symmetry of the planting points towards Bolton Council
having planted these trees.  Please provide details of the initiative and
year in which Bolton Council planted these trees on the site.

 

The post-war maps (dated 1951) show this area as what would appear to be
housing, therefore the area may have been landscaped when the houses were
taken down.  However we do not hold any records relating to landscaping or
tree planting at this location.

 

DESIGN ACCES STATEMENT REVISED states in point 13 "The land is being sold
by Bolton Council and the proceeds can be reinvested in Farnworth by the
Council ". Please can you assure the constituents of Farnworth that as per
the agreement under the 'design and access statement revised' that 100% of
the funds will be invested back into Farnworth and a clear accounting of
the use of this money will be raised at the Farnworth Area Forum.

 

This is a comment made by the applicant, not by the Council.  The
conditions relating to the granting of the planning approval are set out
within the decision notice.

 

Did Labour Councillors at planning state their conflicts of interest in
the handling of this application?  Can you please provide confirmation
that no Labour Councillor present on the day of the planning committee in
which the sale of the land was approved is an associate or friend of the
trustees for the charity?

 

Bolton Council considers that the information is exempt from disclosure
under the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (EIR). EIR provides
that when refusing a request, Bolton Council must provide a notice which
(a) states that the request has been refused, (b) specifies the exception
in question, and (c) states (if that would not otherwise be apparent) why
the exception applies.

 

In this case, the requested information is being withheld since we
consider that the exception under Regulation 6(1) applies to it.
Regulation 6(1) provides an exception where the requested information is
already publicly and easily accessible:

 

“Where an applicant requests that the information be made available in a
particular form or format, a public authority shall make it so available,
unless –

(a) it is reasonable for it to make the information available in another
form or format; or

(b) the information is already publicly and easily accessible to the
applicant in another form or format”

 

Minutes of this meeting can be found online via this link:
[1]http://www.democracy.bolton.gov.uk/cmis5...

 

Accordingly, we feel this information is reasonably accessible by other
means, making the application of Regulation 6(1) can be justified at this
stage. In accordance with the Regulations, this email constitutes a
Refusal Notice for your request.

 

 

Should you disagree with our decision, you may appeal to:

The Borough Solicitor, Bolton Council, Town Hall, Bolton, BL1 1RU

Email: [2][email address]

 

Should you further disagree with the decision following the appeal you may
wish to contact the Information Commissioner:

Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow,
Cheshire SK9 5AF

[3]www.ico.gov.uk

Tel: 01625 545700, Fax: 01625 524510

 

 

Should you have any queries, please contact [4][email address]

 

Yours sincerely

 

 

Information Governance Officer

Information Governance Team

1^st Floor, Town Hall

Bolton, BL1 1RU

 

 

 

This e-mail and any attached files are confidential and may also be
legally privileged. They are intended solely for the intended addressee.
If you are not the addressee please e-mail it back to the sender and then
immediately, permanently delete it. Do not read, print, re-transmit, store
or act in reliance on it. This e-mail may be monitored by Bolton Council
in accordance with current regulations.

This footnote also confirms that this e-mail message has been swept for
the presence of computer viruses currently known to Bolton Council.
However, the recipient is responsible for virus-checking before opening
this message and any attachment.

Unless expressly stated to the contrary, any views expressed in this
message are those of the individual sender and may not necessarily reflect
the views of Bolton Council.

http://www.bolton.gov.uk/

References

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