Private Hire Operating Base
Dear Cheshire West and Chester Council,
Following on from case reference 4678610 in which you confirmed that the council issued a PHV Operators licence to PCS Events Limited at Westleigh, Heath Lane, Little Leigh, Northwich, CW84RW.
My question is; before granting an operating licence to PCS Events in 2016, did anyone at CWAC see their booking and dispatch system working (in real time) to ensure that bookings were taken at Westleigh before being dispatched from there to drivers?
Yours faithfully,
Mr.M.Robson
Dear Mr Robson
Thank you for your email of 20 September 2017, a follow on question from case reference 4678610.
An officer from Parking Services will respond to you direct as a routine business enquiry.
Thank you.
Information Governance
Cheshire West and Chester Council
Dear FOI Cheshire West,
Just to clarify this is a FOI request for your licensing department it is not as you state a routine enquiry for Parking Services.
Yours sincerely,
Mr.M.Robson
Dear Mr Robson
I apologise, I meant to say Licensing.
Thank you for your comment.
Information Governance
Dear FOI Cheshire West,
Can I have your response? It is a simple yes or no.
Yours sincerely,
Mr.M.Robson
Dear Mr Robson
I apologise that you have not received a response from Licensing. I have asked that a response is sent urgently.
Information Governance
Dear Mr Robson
I am sorry for the delay in responding this was caused by some confusion
over which team was responding, so please except my apologies.
Before a Private Hire Operators Licences is granted the proposed premises
are visited by an Licensing Officer to ensure the premises are suitable to
receive private hire bookings. While this would include an assessment of
the general facilities available at the premises, it would not include any
detailed assessment of a dispatch system or a requirement to see one
working.
I hope this is of some assistance
The Duty Licensing Officer
Regulatory Services, Licensing Team, Cheshire West and Chester Council
Council Offices, 4 Civic Way, Ellesmere Port, Cheshire CH65 0BE
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Dear Cheshire West and Chester Council,
Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.
I have been making enquiries with other operators licensed by CWAC. It is obvious you are not telling the truth about the level of detail you say you sought from PCS compared with the much more detailed requirements and scrutiny you sought from the other operators prior to receiving a CWAC PHV operator licence.
Because of this I am writing to request an internal review of Cheshire West and Chester Council's handling of my FOI request 'Private Hire Operating Base'.
A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/p...
Yours faithfully,
Mr.M.Robson
Dear Mr Robson
Further to your email of 19 November please clarify which aspect you are
asking for an internal review to be carried out on.
4768610 - A review was carried out as attached. Are you asking for a
different aspect of your original request to be reviewed that has not been
covered in the Council's Internal Review response? Or are you challenging
the review outcome?
You asked a follow on question from the Internal Review above:
Following on from case reference 4678610 in which you confirmed that the
council issued a PHV Operators licence to PCS Events Limited at Westleigh,
Heath Lane, Little Leigh, Northwich, CW84RW.
My question is; before granting an operating licence to PCS Events in
2016, did anyone at CWAC see their booking and dispatch system working (in
real time) to ensure that bookings were taken at Westleigh before being
dispatched from there to drivers?
The above was forwarded to Licensing as routine business. Are you asking
for a review of this?
Thank you.
Information Governance
Cheshire West and Chester Council
Dear FOI Cheshire West,
To put it bluntly can you investigate wether the answer I originally received was a lie.
Because it does not accord with the requirements made of other operators licensed by you.
Or is it the case that this company are afforded greater latitude where the licensing of its operation with CWAC is concerned.
Yours sincerely,
Mr.M.Robson
Dear Mr Robson
Thank you for your email.
As we have completed your internal review you now have the option to escalate your concerns to the ICO if you remain dissatisfied with the handling of your request. Contact details were provided in your Decision Notice. For your other matters of concern you may wish to consider making a formal complaint using the following link: https://www.cheshirewestandchester.gov.u...
Yours sincerely
Information Governance
Cheshire West and Chester Council
Dear FOI Cheshire West,
You say you have completed my internal review, would you care to tell me what you have concluded?
Yours sincerely,
Mr.M.Robson
Dear Mr Robson
Please see below the outcome to your internal review sent 16th August 2017
and attached email sent 30^th November 2017 advising if you remain
dissatisfied with the handling of your request please contact the ICO.
Contact details are provided in your Decision Notice below.
If you are dissatisfied with the outcome of the Review, or you remain
dissatisfied with the way the Council conducted the original request or
the Review, you may complain to the Information Commissioner at:
The Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Tel: 0856 30 60 60 or 01625 54 57 45
Website: [1]www.ico.org.uk
For your other matters of concern you may wish to consider making a formal
complaint using the following link:
[2]https://www.cheshirewestandchester.gov.u...
Information Governance
From: FOI West
Sent: 16 August 2017 15:02
To: 'Mr.M.Robson'
Cc: FOI West
Subject: 4768610 - Internal Review Outcome
Dear Mr Robson
Re: Request for Information (RFI) - Internal Review Request
Requester: Mr M Robson
RFI legislation: Freedom of Information (FOIA)
Case reference: 4768610
Request date: 4 May 2017
Statutory due date: 2 June 2017
Response date: 1 June 2017
Internal review request date: 5 June 2017
Internal review request reason: Application of exemption
You made a Freedom of Information (FOI) request to Cheshire West and
Chester Council for the following recorded information:
In October 2016 you issued a PHV Operators licence to a company named PCS
Events Limited.
Could you please answer the following questions.
1, What is the address of their operating Base?
2, Whose name was on the original application?
3, Whose name is on the licence now?
You made your request on 4 May 2017. A response was sent to you on 2 June
2017. According to my investigation into your request for information
(RFI) our case records show that the response was sent within the
statutory timeframe. You submitted a request for internal review on 5 June
2017.
As the Senior Manager, responsible for the function of disclosure of
information through the FOIA, EIR and DPA SAR, I am writing to confirm
that your request for a review of your FOI response has now been carried
out. I apologise for the delay in responding to you while the Council
reconsidered its position in relation to this request. The outcome of the
review is that the application of the exemption for personal data was
incorrectly applied and the information that the Council applied the
exemption to should have been disclosed. Furthermore, your additional
clarification of points 2 and 3 has resulted in the following amended
response:
In October 2016 you issued a PHV Operators licence to a company named PCS
Events Limited.
Could you please answer the following questions.
1, What is the address of their operating Base?
Westleigh, Heath Lane, Little Leigh, Northwich, CW84RW.
2, Whose name was on the original application?
(To clarify; the name I am seeking was the applicants PERSONAL name at the
time of the original application. I am well aware that PCS Events Ltd is
the named company on the licence.)
The application was made by PCS events limited and they are the licenced
entity. The Authority does require an accountable person to be named in
order to undertake a basic criminal records check through the DBS. For a
limited company this would be the Managing Director as recorded on
companies house. The name of the Managing Director at the time of the
original application, until February 2017, was Paul Aslwanian. This
information is public record on Companies House but not on the Authorities
public register.
3, Whose name is on the licence now?
(The name I am seeking is the name of the PERSON on the licence at today’s
date. Again I am well aware that PCS Events Ltd is the named company on
the licence.)
On 17 February 2017 the Authority were informed of a new Managing
Director, Anthony Slater.
Please accept my apologies for your time and trouble in having to request
an internal review. I can assure you that your request was answered in
good faith based on the information available at the time, but I
acknowledge that on this occasion we made a mistake in our response.
If you are dissatisfied with the outcome of the Review, or you remain
dissatisfied with the way the Council conducted the original request or
the Review, you may complain to the Information Commissioner at:
The Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Tel: 0856 30 60 60 or 01625 54 57 45
Website: [3]www.ico.org.uk
Yours sincerely
Michelle Cross
Customer Relations and Information Senior Manager
Cheshire West and Chester Council
Dear FOI Cheshire West,
You are confusing two different FOI requests. : 478610 Internal review was received & acknowledged by me to be complete.
This request has arisen out of the response received from that request which had I made originally on the 4th May 2017.
This request started on the 20th September 2017 and I received your reply on the 19th October 2017.
On the 19th November 2017 I requested an internal review of your 19th October 2017 response.
On the 20th November you sought clarification of what exactly I was asking.
On the 21st November 2017 I spelt out clearly what I was asking for the review to look out.
On the 30th November 2017 you claim to have done the review but refer to a review with the date of 16th August 2017, this is where you are referring back to the previous request.
I am still waiting for a response to my review that i requested on the 19th November & clarified on the 21st November.
I hope this makes it clear, it may also help if you read this request in its entire chronological order at https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/p...
Yours sincerely,
Mr.M.Robson
Dear Mr Robson
Thank you for your clarification. We believe you are referring to a request for information contained in your email of 20 September.
You asked: “before granting an operating licence to PCS Events in 2016, did anyone at CWAC see their booking and dispatch system working (in real time) to ensure that bookings were taken at Westleigh before being dispatched from there to drivers”?
The Council can confirm that part of the application process does requires an applicant to demonstrate how they intend to receive and record private hire bookings. No records held for the requested address indicate that this process involved a ” real time” assessment of the booking system.
Yours sincerely
Information Governance
Cheshire West and Chester Council
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