Changes to Records
Dear South Norfolk District Council,
Please provide details of all alterations to records of notices identified in the Enforcement and Stop Notice the Council maintains under the Town and Country Planning Act and that is subject to regulations since November 2013.
Specifically which notices were:
a) modified to identify that they were issued by the South Norfolk District Council
b) modified to identify that the notice was issued;
c) modified to identify that the notice was served.
Please provide details of the function that made the modifications, a redacted copy of their authorisation and details of the date the modifications were made.
Yours faithfully,
Stuart Hardwicke CARRUTHERS
Stuart Hardwicke CARRUTHERS left an annotation ()
The Council if it has changed its records is acting illegally and would have great difficulty in being able to act as a planning authority.
Dear Mr Carruthers
Thank you for your request of information that is being considered. You may be aware that we have 20 working days in which to respond to Freedom Of Information (FOI) requests and you will therefore hear from me again by 20 February 2015 or earlier if possible.
For your information, the Act defines a number of exemptions, which may prevent release of the information you have requested. There will be an assessment and if any of the exemption categories apply then some or all of the information may not be released. You will be informed if this is the case, including your rights of appeal.
If any of the information you have requested is not contained in a recorded format, South Norfolk Council is not obliged to create information for the purpose of responding to your request
There may be a fee payable for ‘reasonable disbursement’ costs such as postage and photocopying. This will be considered and you will be informed if a fee is payable. In this event the fee must be paid before the information is processed and released. The 20 working day time limit for responses is suspended until receipt of the payment.
If you have any queries or concerns then please let me know. If you do contact us again concerning this request, please quote FOI 15-33.
Regards
Emma Goddard
Scrutiny and Information Rights Officer
t 01508 533747 e [email address] www.south-norfolk.gov.uk
South Norfolk Council - Investors In People | Gold
Dear Mr Carruthers
Further to your request for information dated 23 January 2015, I can advise that under section 1(1)(a) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, the Council does hold the information you have requested, however it is being withheld. Under section 14 (1), the Freedom of Information Act 2000 states that "Section 1(1) does not oblige a public authority to comply with a request for information if the request is vexatious". We have considered guidance issued by the Information Commissioner's Office regarding vexatious requests and on that basis have decided that your request is vexatious.
I consider your request to be vexatious for a number of reasons based on the ICO's guidance referred to above:
Unfounded accusations: You have made many allegations/claims against the Council in relation to modifications made to the Council's enforcement register and notices. These accusations/claims continue in this particular request. As you well know, the Council does not accept your claims and has not engaged in activities that you have accused us of. This has been subject of previous FOI requests and correspondence and in our opinion, make this request vexatious. The majority of your requests to us in 2013 and 2014 have been answered by stating that the information is not held due to the fact that you are seeking information which does not exist, which is based on your unfounded accusations and claims. This pattern of behaviour appears to be on-going and is demonstrated in this request, which can also demonstrate unreasonable persistence
Unreasonable Persistence: This relates to requests that are used by the requester to reopen an issue which has already been addressed by the public authority or otherwise subjected to some form of independent scrutiny. I understand that Norwich Crown Court struck out your claim against the Council that included a reference to the mismanagement of the Council’s enforcement registers. In addition, I have also stated that the subject of your request has been raised in many previous FOI requests.
No obvious intent to obtain information: This relates to requests that are used as a means to vent anger at a particular decision, or to harass and annoy the authority, for example, by requesting information which the authority knows the requester to possess already. Namely, you already know the Council's position relating to the Council's register of decisions. This has been the subject to legal cases that you have been involved in and therefore you are very much aware of this and the reasons why the Council is of a particular view.
As always, we deal each of your requests based on their own merits and will continue to do so, however we believe that the overall lack of purpose of this request, in conjunction with the fact that you already know the Council’s position in relation to ‘alterations’ of Enforcement and Stop Notices, is vexatious.
In accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000 this email acts as a Public Interest Refusal Notice. In terms of the exemption, you have a right of appeal against our decision. In the first instance this appeal must be internal and we enclose a copy of our guidance regarding how to request an internal review. We hope that you will not feel it necessary to invoke an appeal, but if you do we will take every care to re-assess your request and let you have our findings.
Please quote FOI 15-33 in any further correspondence concerning this request.
Regards
Emma Goddard
Scrutiny and Information Rights Officer
t 01508 533747 e [email address] www.south-norfolk.gov.uk
Emma Goddard
Scrutiny and Information Rights Officer
t 01508 533747 e [email address] www.south-norfolk.gov.uk
South Norfolk Council - Investors In People | Gold
Dear South Norfolk District Council,
Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.
I am writing to request an internal review of South Norfolk District Council's handling of my FOI request 'Changes to Records'.
The Council is well aware that I have receipted copies of the Enforcement and Stop Notice register and these identify that the register has been unlawfully changed and is not administered according to regulations. There have been regulatory failures by the Council's solicitors and planning staff.
Certification of this by the Council's information functions will enable the organisations responsible for regulation of the Council's lawyers and planning staff to take action against the regulatory failure. This will ultimately identify that the Council is badly and unaccountably managed.
A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/c...
Yours faithfully,
Stuart Hardwicke CARRUTHERS
Dear Mr Carruthers
I acknowledge receipt of your email below and request for an internal review, which I am currently organising. You will receive a decision within 20 days; by 19 March 2015.
If the outcome of the review finds that we have not disclosed information that we should have released, then we will release the information to you as soon as possible after the decision. We will also advise you if the outcome is that we are satisfied that the procedures have been followed correctly and that the original decision should remain unchanged.
Regards
Emma Goddard
Scrutiny and Information Rights Officer
t 01508 533747 e [email address] www.south-norfolk.gov.uk
South Norfolk Council - Investors In People | Gold
Dear Mr Carruthers
Please find attached the decision notice resulting from the internal review of your request for information (FOI 15-33). If you are still dissatisfied, you can contact the Information Commissioner and I show below the contact details for your information:
Office of the Information Commissioner
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire SK9 5AF
Tel: 01625 545745
Website: http://www.ico.gov.uk/
Regards
Emma Goddard
Scrutiny and Information Rights Officer
t 01508 533747 e [email address] www.south-norfolk.gov.uk
South Norfolk Council - Investors In People | Gold
We work to defend the right to FOI for everyone
Help us protect your right to hold public authorities to account. Donate and support our work.
Donate Now
Christopher Patrick Elliott left an annotation ()
Is this legal? I am under the immpresion that after a certain time they coould not be altered in anyway!