Proposed changes to bus services in Croydon & Sutton
Dear Transport for London,
Dear Transport for London,
With regards to your proposed changes to bus routes in Croydon and Sutton:-
https://consultations.tfl.gov.uk/buses/s...
Please could you provide your current proposed timetables for the routes involved, and also could you tell me where you intend to locate bus stops for proposed route 443 along Southbridge Road / Old Town.
Yours faithfully,
Mr Rawlins
Dear Mr Rawlins
TfL Ref: FOI-1499-2021
Thank you for your request received by Transport for London (TfL) on 28
October 2020 asking for information about buses.
Your request will be processed in accordance with the requirements of the
Freedom of Information Act and our information access policy.
A response will be sent to you by 25 November 2020. We publish a
substantial range of information on our website on subjects including
operational performance, contracts, expenditure, journey data, governance
and our financial performance. This includes data which is frequently
asked for in FOI requests or other public queries. Please check
[1]http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/transpar... to see if this helps you.
We will publish anonymised versions of requests and responses on the
[2]www.tfl.gov.uk website. We will not publish your name and we will send
a copy of the response to you before it is published on our website.
In the meantime, if you would like to discuss this matter further, please
do not hesitate to contact me.
Yours sincerely
Melissa Nichols
FOI Case Officer
FOI Case Management Team
General Counsel
Transport for London
Dear Mr Rawlins
Our ref: FOI-1499-2021
Thank you for your request received by Transport for London (TfL) on 28
September 2020 asking for information about bus services.
Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of
the Freedom of Information Act and our Information Access Policy. You
asked:
With regards to your proposed changes to bus routes in Croydon and
Sutton:-
[1]https://consultations.tfl.gov.uk/buses/s...
Please could you provide your current proposed timetables for the routes
involved, and also could you tell me where you intend to locate bus stops
for proposed route 443 along Southbridge Road / Old Town.
Our proposals are currently being consulted on and once the consultation
has closed, we will analyse all the comments made by our stakeholders and
customers in order for us to make a final decision on the proposed changes
and new routes including the 443. If the proposals are implemented, we
will publish the detailed routeing, timetables and precise stop locations,
so that our customers can access the route maps as they currently do for
all existing bus routes.
Therefore in accordance with the FOI Act, we are not obliged to supply you
with the information you have requested as it is subject to a statutory
exemption to the right of access to information, under Section 22 of the
Act. In this instance the exemption has been applied as the information
you have requested is intended for future publication.
This exemption is subject to a public interest test, which requires us to
assess whether the public interest in applying the exemption outweighs the
public interest in disclosure. In this instance, it is considered that the
public interest favours the publication of this information, in context
and according to the pre-determined schedule, rather than in response to
your request, to ensure the information is provided accurately and in an
accessible manner.
If you are considering submitting a further FOI request please think
carefully about whether the request is essential at this current time, as
answering FOI requests will require the use of limited resources and the
attention of staff who could be supporting other essential activity. Where
requests are made, please note that our response time may be impacted by
the current situation.
If this is not the information you are looking for, please do not hesitate
to contact me.
Please see the attached information sheet for details of your right to
appeal.
Yours sincerely,
Melissa Nichols
FOI Case Officer
General Counsel
Transport for London
Dear Transport for London,
Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.
I am writing to request an internal review of Transport for London's handling of my FOI request 'Proposed changes to bus services in Croydon & Sutton'.
By refusing to supply the information requested before the closure of the consultation, you are preventing people from proving an informed response to the consultation, which could be against the public interest if they are unable to consider information which you are refusing to provide.
By waiting until the information is published, it will be too late, as by then the consultation will have closed, enabling TfL to force through changes which the public have not had suitable opportunity to consider.
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 Rawlins
Thank you for your email which was received by Transport for London (TfL) on 25 November 2020.
You have stated that you are dissatisfied with the handling of your request for information under the Freedom of Information Act.
A review will be conducted by an internal review panel in accordance with TfL’s Internal Review Procedure, which is available via the following URL:
http://content.tfl.gov.uk/internal-revie...
Every effort will be made to provide you with a response by 24 December 2020. However, if the review will not be completed by this date, we will contact you and notify you of the revised response date as soon as possible.
In the meantime, if you would like to discuss this matter further, please feel free to contact me.
Yours sincerely
Emma Flint
Principal Information Access Adviser
FOI Case Management Team
Transport for London
Dear Mr Rawlins
I am contacting you regarding your request for an internal review
concerning the response provided to FOI-1499-2021. Following your email of
25 November 2020 a review has been carried out by individuals who were not
involved in the handling of your request.
In your request of 28 October 2020 you specifically asked the following -
"With regards to your proposed changes to bus routes in Croydon and
Sutton:- [1]https://consultations.tfl.gov.uk/buses/s...
Please could you provide your current proposed timetables for the routes
involved, and also could you tell me where you intend to locate bus stops
for proposed route 443 along Southbridge Road / Old Town."
The response you were issued with contained a refusal notice on the basis
that the information was exempt from disclosure in accordance with section
22 of the FOI Act. You have stated that you would like to appeal the
application of this exemption on the basis that you believe “by refusing
to supply the information requested before the closure of the
consultation, you are preventing people from proving an informed response
to the consultation, which could be against the public interest if they
are unable to consider information which you are refusing to provide. By
waiting until the information is published, it will be too late, as by
then the consultation will have closed, enabling TfL to force through
changes which the public have not had suitable opportunity to consider.”
To explain further, section 22 provides an exemption for information that
is intended to be published in the future. Information is exempt if, at
the time when the public authority receives a request for it:
• the public authority holds the requested information;
• the public authority intends the information to be published at some
future date, whether that date is determined or not; and
• in all the circumstances it is reasonable to withhold the information
until its planned publication.
The intention to publish must pre-date the request and in this instance
when the stop locations / timetable changes are identified after the
consultation is closed these will be published in full detail on our
website.
However in terms of your original request made on the 28 October
(FOI-1499-2021), the Panel agree that in this instance the application of
s22 to you request was not correct. On the date of your request the
current consultation concerning these proposals was (and still is)
ongoing. The consultation closure date is the 20 December 2020. The bus
route / stop locations and route timetables you are seeking have yet to be
identified or decided on as any changes will be fully dependent on the
public responses to the current open consultation. Therefore we actually
do not hold the information you seek at this time.
Please accept our sincere apologies for any confusion that has been
caused.
If you are dissatisfied with the internal review actions to date please do
not hesitate to contact me ([2][TfL request email]) or alternately you can
refer the matter to the independent authority responsible for enforcing
the Freedom of Information Act, at the following address:
Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire SK9 5AF
A complaint form is also available on the ICO’s website
([3]www.ico.org.uk).
Yours sincerely
Emma Flint | Principal Information Access Adviser
FOI Case Management Team | Information Governance
General Counsel | Transport for London
4^th Floor, 5 Endeavour Square, London, E20 1JN
T: [telephone number] | Auto: 87941 | E: [4][email address]
References
Visible links
1. https://consultations.tfl.gov.uk/buses/s
2. mailto:[TfL request email]
3. http://www.ico.org.uk/
4. mailto:[email address]
5. http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/about-tfl/
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