98 Hyde Road, South Croydon, CR2 9NQ - Consultation

Stephen Whiteside made this Freedom of Information request to Thames Water
You only have a right in law to access information about the environment from this authority
This request has been closed to new correspondence. Contact us if you think it should be reopened.

Thames Water did not have the information requested.

Dear Thames Water,

+++ Please provide COPIES of any information relating to consultations with and/or comments by Thames Water regarding this development. This should include (but not be restricted to) any that relate to pre-planning applications by developers and any contact by the local authority, about proposed foul and/or surface water discharge to a public sewer.

The information requested concerns property development and planning information. This is information that relates to a measure affecting the elements of the environment and is thus environmental information as defined by Regulation 2(1) of the EIR.

The request relates to the building of a new property on a site that since August 2018 has been owned by a limited company (Hyde SSB Ltd - Co.Reg.No. 11214189). For the avoidance of doubt, Hyde SSB Ltd is NOT an identifiable individual for the purpose of the GDPR.

Residents now have very serious concerns that proper consultation is NOT taking place with regard to these matters and that 'conditions' recommended by Thames Water are NOT being fully applied AND/OR enforced by the local planning authority. There remains significant public interest to know that ALL the relevant checks are being carried out by ALL relevant parties, to ensure that this development along with others like it does not (individually or cumulatively) exacerbate existing problems in the area, caused by flooding.

By regulation 12(2), the authority must apply a presumption in favour of disclosure, in both engaging exceptions and carrying out the public interest test.

The information provided should be redacted ONLY as required by legislation. Please note, I do not challenge the withholding of any personal names, email addresses and/or telephone numbers etc that the information might contain.

Yours faithfully,

Stephen Whiteside

EIR Requests, Thames Water

Thank you for contacting Thames Water.  This inbox is for EIR requests
which we aim to respond to within 20 working days.  We may contact you
with any questions we have on your request and if we are unable to
complete your request within 20 days, we will contact you to agree a new
timescale.

 

If you wish to contact us in the meantime, please email
[Thames Water request email]  and make sure you refer to your original
request.

Visit us online www.thameswater.co.uk , follow us on twitter
www.twitter.com/thameswater or find us on www.facebook.com/thameswater.
We’re happy to help you 24/7.

Thames Water Limited (company number 2366623) and Thames Water Utilities
Limited (company number 2366661) are companies registered in England and
Wales, both are registered at Clearwater Court, Vastern Road, Reading,
Berkshire RG1 8DB. This email is confidential and is intended only for the
use of the person it was sent to. Any views or opinions in this email are
those of the author and don’t necessarily represent those of Thames Water
Limited or its subsidiaries. If you aren’t the intended recipient of this
email, please don’t copy, use, forward or disclose its contents to any
other person – please destroy and delete the message and any attachments
from your system.

Stephen Whiteside

Dear EIR Requests,

98 Hyde Road, South Croydon, CR2 9NQ - Consultation

For information, on 15 January 2020, I was told by the Council's planning enforcement officer (John Penn MSc), that "... the developer has been working with Thames Water to resolve the drainage and sewage issues relating to this site. ...". We know that the foul sewer that runs onto and across this Site, had to be relocated during 2019 to make room for this development.

With regard to the latest planning application for the Site (20/06631/NMA), on 7 December 2020 Mr Penn again advised that the developer has "... been in consultation with Thames Water regarding water and waste disposal. ...". Apparently, the proposed strategy is still to discharge not only the wastewater from an additional seven dwellings, but also the surface water from the whole site (at a rate of up to 5 l/s), into the foul (only) sewer in Hyde Road. NO INFILTRATION TECHNIQUES are proposed here!

On the face of it then, I think it highly likely that Thames Water DO hold information that is relevant to this request and that will be of considerable interest to local (and not so local) residents.

Yours sincerely,

Stephen Whiteside

EIR Requests, Thames Water

Thank you for contacting Thames Water.  This inbox is for EIR requests
which we aim to respond to within 20 working days.  We may contact you
with any questions we have on your request and if we are unable to
complete your request within 20 days, we will contact you to agree a new
timescale.

 

If you wish to contact us in the meantime, please email
[Thames Water request email]  and make sure you refer to your original
request.

Visit us online www.thameswater.co.uk , follow us on twitter
www.twitter.com/thameswater or find us on www.facebook.com/thameswater.
We’re happy to help you 24/7.

Thames Water Limited (company number 2366623) and Thames Water Utilities
Limited (company number 2366661) are companies registered in England and
Wales, both are registered at Clearwater Court, Vastern Road, Reading,
Berkshire RG1 8DB. This email is confidential and is intended only for the
use of the person it was sent to. Any views or opinions in this email are
those of the author and don’t necessarily represent those of Thames Water
Limited or its subsidiaries. If you aren’t the intended recipient of this
email, please don’t copy, use, forward or disclose its contents to any
other person – please destroy and delete the message and any attachments
from your system.

Mark Dickinson, Thames Water

Dear Mr Whiteside

Apologies for the delay

As previously communicated, your requested information doesn’t fall within the FOI / EIR regulations

We are happy to deal with this and future similar requests, if you contact our Developer Services department at [email address]

Your Sincerely

Mark Dickinson
Development Planning Manager

show quoted sections

Stephen Whiteside

Dear Thames Water (TW),

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

I am writing to request an internal review of TW's handling of my FOI request '98 Hyde Road, South Croydon, CR2 9NQ - Consultation'.

The response provided by your Development Planning Manager (Mark Dickinson), on 1 February 2021, is that you have told me 'previously' that my request 'doesn’t fall within the FOI / EIR regulations'.

IN FACT, I have NOT been told that, nor given ANY reason why that might be the case. Furthermore, Thames Water have claimed NO EXCEPTIONS under the EIR.

What I STILL require then, is confirmation that AT NO TIME has the council OR developer consulted with TW regarding this development and that TW have given NO consents (conditional or otherwise) for additional wastewater and/or ANY surface water from the development to discharge into your sewer network.

In the alternative, if any consultation/comments HAVE been made regarding this development, I still require copies of the relevant information to be provided, redacted only as required by legislation.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/9...

Yours faithfully,

Stephen Whiteside

EIR Requests, Thames Water

Thank you for contacting Thames Water.  This inbox is for EIR requests
which we aim to respond to within 20 working days.  We may contact you
with any questions we have on your request and if we are unable to
complete your request within 20 days, we will contact you to agree a new
timescale.

 

If you wish to contact us in the meantime, please email
[Thames Water request email]  and make sure you refer to your original
request.

Visit us online www.thameswater.co.uk , follow us on twitter
www.twitter.com/thameswater or find us on www.facebook.com/thameswater.
We’re happy to help you 24/7.

Thames Water Limited (company number 2366623) and Thames Water Utilities
Limited (company number 2366661) are companies registered in England and
Wales, both are registered at Clearwater Court, Vastern Road, Reading,
Berkshire RG1 8DB. This email is confidential and is intended only for the
use of the person it was sent to. Any views or opinions in this email are
those of the author and don’t necessarily represent those of Thames Water
Limited or its subsidiaries. If you aren’t the intended recipient of this
email, please don’t copy, use, forward or disclose its contents to any
other person – please destroy and delete the message and any attachments
from your system.

EIR Requests, Thames Water

Thames Water Utilities Limited
EIR Requests
Clearwater Court
Vastern Road
Reading
Berkshire
RG1 8DB

Email: [1][email address

12 February 2020

Our Ref: EIR-20-21-861

Environmental Information Regulation Request – Internal Review
Dear Mr Whiteside

Thank you for your e-mails dated 31 December 2020 and 22 January 2021. I
am writing in response to your request for an internal review with regards
to 98 Hyde Road, South Croydon, CR2 9NQ, I am now in a position to share
with you the outcome.

Your Request

“Please provide COPIES of any information relating to consultations with
and/or comments by Thames Water regarding this development.  This should
include (but not be restricted to) any that relate to pre-planning
applications by developers and any contact by the local authority, about
proposed foul and/or surface water discharge to a public sewer.

 

The information requested concerns property development and planning
information. This is information that relates to a measure affecting the
elements of the environment and is thus environmental information as
defined by Regulation 2(1) of the EIR.

 

The request relates to the building of a new property on a site that since
August 2018 has been owned by a limited company (Hyde SSB Ltd - Co.Reg.No.
11214189).  For the avoidance of doubt, Hyde SSB Ltd is NOT an
identifiable individual for the purpose of the GDPR. 

 

Residents now have very serious concerns that proper consultation is NOT
taking place with regard to these matters and that 'conditions'
recommended by Thames Water are NOT being fully applied AND/OR enforced by
the local planning authority.  There remains significant public interest
to know that ALL the relevant checks are being carried out by ALL relevant
parties, to ensure that this development along with others like it does
not (individually or cumulatively) exacerbate existing problems in the
area, caused by flooding.

 

By regulation 12(2), the authority must apply a presumption in favour of
disclosure, in both engaging exceptions and carrying out the public
interest test.

 

The information provided should be redacted ONLY as required by
legislation.  Please note, I do not challenge the withholding of any
personal names, email addresses and/or telephone numbers etc that the
information might contain.”

 

 

“For information,  on 15 January 2020, I was told by the Council's
planning enforcement officer (John Penn MSc), that "... the developer has
been working with Thames Water to resolve the drainage and sewage issues
relating to this site. ...".  We know that the foul sewer that runs onto
and across this Site, had to be relocated during 2019 to make room for
this development. 

 

With regard to the latest planning application for the Site
(20/06631/NMA), on 7 December 2020 Mr Penn  again advised that  the
developer has "... been in consultation with Thames Water regarding water
and waste disposal. ...".   Apparently, the proposed strategy is still to 
discharge not only the wastewater from an additional seven  dwellings, but
also the surface water from the whole site (at a rate of up to 5 l/s), 
into the foul (only) sewer in Hyde Road.  NO INFILTRATION TECHNIQUES are
proposed here!

 

On the face of it then, I think it highly likely that Thames Water DO hold
information that is relevant to this request and that will be of
considerable interest to local (and not so local) residents.”

Our Response

Firstly, I thought it was worth stating that whilst Thames Water is deemed
a Public Authority under the Environmental Information Regulations 2004
(EIR), we are not subject to the Freedom of Information Act 2003. Any
disclosures by Thames Water from this email address will be in line with
our responsibilities under the EIR.

 

I can see that Mark confirmed in his response that we hold no records to
show that we have been consulted or asked for comments in regards to the
above property, therefore we have no information to consider releasing
under the EIR. I therefore am of the view that we have met our
obligations. If however you can provide evidence that suggests otherwise I
will happy to carry out a further search.

 

If you remain dissatisfied with the outcome of this internal review, you
can apply, without charge, to the Information Commissioner, who will
consider whether Thames Water has complied with its obligations under the
EIR, and can require Thames Water to remedy any problems. You can find out
more about how to do this, and about the EIR in general, on the
Information Commissioner’s website at: [2]www.ico.org.uk. 

 

Yours sincerely

 

Kathryn

 

Kathryn Hollingworth

Data Protection Investigations Manager

 

 

Visit us online www.thameswater.co.uk , follow us on twitter
www.twitter.com/thameswater or find us on www.facebook.com/thameswater.
We’re happy to help you 24/7.

Thames Water Limited (company number 2366623) and Thames Water Utilities
Limited (company number 2366661) are companies registered in England and
Wales, both are registered at Clearwater Court, Vastern Road, Reading,
Berkshire RG1 8DB. This email is confidential and is intended only for the
use of the person it was sent to. Any views or opinions in this email are
those of the author and don’t necessarily represent those of Thames Water
Limited or its subsidiaries. If you aren’t the intended recipient of this
email, please don’t copy, use, forward or disclose its contents to any
other person – please destroy and delete the message and any attachments
from your system.

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
2. http://www.ico.org.uk/