Aquarium at your coastal office cost

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Response to this request is long overdue. By law, under all circumstances, Worthing Borough Council should have responded by now (details). You can complain by requesting an internal review.

Dear Worthing Borough Council,

How much did your aquarium at your coastal office cost?
What is its purpose?
What benefit does it bring to tax payers?
How much does it cost to run?
How do you ensure it does not cause cruelty to the living things?

Yours faithfully,
S.Carson

Adur & Worthing Councils,

Dear S Carson,

Thank you for submitting a request for information. Your reference number
is 19643639.

Your request will be reviewed and we may send you questions to clarify
your request. We will respond within 20 working days for Freedom of
Information and Environmental Information Regulations requests, and within
1 calendar month for Data Protection and Subject Access requests

[1]Please click this link to view current status of your request

Yours sincerely,
Information Governance Team
Adur & Worthing Councils

For Freedom of Information (FOI) and Environmental Information Regulations
(EIR):
Email: [Worthing Borough Council request email]

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Email: [email address]

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Adur & Worthing Councils,

Dear S Carson,

Thank you for your request for information (ref 19643639) sent to Adur &
Worthing Councils on 10th April 2023.

Your request has been considered and our response is below. Alternatively,
view your request and response
at: [1]https://adur-worthing-hr.onmats.com/w/we...

Request:

 1. How much did your aquarium at your coastal office cost?
 2. What is its purpose?
 3. What benefit does it bring to tax payers?
 4. How much does it cost to run?
 5. How do you ensure it does not cause cruelty to the living things?

Response:
1. How much did your aquarium at your coast office cost? 
£2,200 

2. What is its purpose? 
The fish tank/rockpool reef is populated/filled by the coastal area in
front of the Coastal Office and from the low tide rock pools under the
pier (inc water & sand). We use the tank as a point of engagement to the
general public (local & visitors) - this shows the aquatic life on our
doorstep with our fish, crabs, anemones and different kinds of seaweed.
Most people are unaware of the localised life and we use it as a cycle
tank (ie all sealife grows to a certain size and is then released under
the pier from where they were sourced). It's a great educational tool with
the children where we talk through the sealife and additionally encourage
parents to use our 'warrior packs' to explore the rock pools at no
additional expense. 

3. What benefit does it bring to tax payers? 
The fish tank/rock pool reef encourages people in the ecology of seas, an
awareness of what's on their doorstep -  it's an engagement with the
Coastal Office to see what services we offer that affect their everyday
life. We additionally engage the public and bring them into conversations
about the environment as well as partnering up with ourselves and local
councillors with the Natural History Museum for the Big Seaweed Survey,
this reveals the health of our beach/sea plus litter picking along the
beach (facilitating with equipment & disposal). This all piggybacks on the
engagement with the footfall of traffic who come in just to look at the
fish tank. We keep stats/KPI's of every engagement and for what purpose -
in 2022 we had 3653 visits solely to view the fish tank/rockpool reef
(adults & children). 

4. How much does it cost to run? 
The fish are fed from frozen scraps from the inshore fishermen, they
supply off-cuts for the freezer. We additionally feed the
fish/crabs/anemones mussels that are collected from under the pier at low
tide, this is an unlimited supply for our purposes - all natural food for
the fish at zero cost. There were no additional costs during 2022 apart
from minimal electricity. All of the water, sand and rocks are replenished
from the seafront. 

5. How do you ensure it does not cause cruelty to the living things? 
The environment is a close replica to a rock pool under the pier - but we
have a higher density of weed and hiding places. The overhead tank light
mimics daylight and night time. The water is kept at a localised sea
temperature as per the time of the year & we additionally check the
salinity through evaporation. The fish are fed but not overfed, they grow
due to the safe environment and points of interest (changing weed, mussel
on rocks, changing rock formations, hidey holes for fish and sea life)
before they're returned to the sea.

We hope this is sufficient for your purposes.
 

Review procedure
If you are not satisfied with the response to your request for information
you have the right to an internal review. Details can be found on
[2]www.adur-worthing.gov.uk/foi

Your request for internal review should be submitted to us within three
(3) months of receipt by you of this response. Any such request received
after this time will only be considered at the discretion of the Council.

If having exhausted the review process you are not content that your
request or review has been dealt with correctly, you have a further right
to appeal to the Information commissioner’s Office (ICO), details of which
can be found here: [3]www.ico.org.uk/concerns

Yours sincerely
Information Governance Team
Adur & Worthing Councils

For Freedom of Information (FOI) and Environmental Information Regulations
(EIR):
Email: [Worthing Borough Council request email]

For Data Protection (DP) and General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR):
Email: [email address]

Website: [4]www.adur-worthing.gov.uk/about-the-councils/legal/foi/ 

This message was sent from an email address not monitored. Please do not
respond to this message. To reply, please
email [Worthing Borough Council request email] quoting your reference
number, 19643639, in your message.

References

Visible links
1. https://adur-worthing-hr.onmats.com/w/we...
2. https://www.adur-worthing.gov.uk/foi
3. https://www.ico.org.uk/concerns
4. https://www.adur-worthing.gov.uk/about-t...