Chester Capital of Culture Bid Cost and Feedback

The request was successful.

Dear Cheshire West and Chester Council,

In relation to the recent Capital of Culture bid for the City of Chester, please advise:

1) The total cost of the bid, broken down by:
a) internal officer costs
b) external consultancy fees
c) travel and subsistence claims by officers and councillors involved the in bid
d) Other sundry costs (please specify what these are)

2) Please supply a copy of the final version of the bid document as submitted, together with the supporting evidence sent as part of the bid.

3) Please supply correspondence received from the bid judges, including:
a) a copy of the official correspondence relating to the result of the bid.
b) the detailed feedback on the bid received from the judges.

Thank you.

Yours faithfully,

John Murray

Cheshire West and Chester Council

RE: Your request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000

Case Reference: 101001507736

Dear Mr Murray

Thank you for your email.

It will be treated as a request within the meaning of the Act: this means that we will send you a full response within 20 working days, either supplying you with the information which you want, or explaining to you why we cannot supply it.

If we need any further clarification or there is any problem we will be in touch.

In the meantime if you wish to discuss this further please contact me. It would be helpful if you could quote the log number.

Yours sincerely

FOI Unit

Solutions Team

Cheshire West and Chester Council

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FOI West, Cheshire West and Chester Council

Dear Mr Murray

Further to your Freedom of Information request, log number 1507736. Unfortunately, it is taking slightly longer than anticipated to compile this information. I apologise for this delay and will forward our response shortly.

Yours sincerely

Caroline Timms
FOI Unit
Cheshire West and Chester Council

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Dear Cheshire West and Chester Council,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of Cheshire West and Chester Council's handling of my FOI request 'Chester Capital of Culture Bid Cost and Feedback'.

The grounds for the review are that the council has not delivered a full response within 20 working days.

The council advised me that the response would be delayed, but gave no reason for the delay.

I believe there is no justification for the delay as the costing information has already been made available to councillors, which I've had sight of, and the remainder of the request is simply for copies of documents and correspondence which should be readily to hand.

Please provide the information requested without further delay.

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,

John Murray

FOI West, Cheshire West and Chester Council

Dear Mr Murray

Thank you for your email dated 9 September 2013. An internal review will be arranged and you will be advised of the date of it shortly.

Yours sincerely

Caroline Timms
FOI Unit
Cheshire West and Chester Council
 

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FOI West, Cheshire West and Chester Council

5 Attachments

Dear Mr Murray

 

Thank you for your request for information, I am able to provide you with
the following response and apologise for the delay in doing so.

 

1)      The total cost of the bid, broken down by:

 

a)      internal officer costs

 

The costs of the core officer time (spent on the bid preparation) was
£9825.79.  This was for core officer time for the preparation of the bid.

 

b)      external consultancy fees

 

£11,550 – Blue Sail Consultancy (comprising 3x invoices of £5000, £5000
and £1550)

 

c)       travel and subsistence claims by officers and councillors
involved the in bid

 

2 x Officers Chester to Ellesmere Port and return (36 miles @ 45p per
mile) = £16.20

Travel from Chester to Manchester and return (90 miles @ 45p per mile) =
£40.50

 

d)      Other sundry costs (please specify what these are)

 

£1,625 – Hire of Town Hall and Refreshments at Chester Town Hall (for
workshops)

 

 

2)      Please supply a copy of the final version of the bid document as
submitted, together with the supporting evidence sent as part of the bid.

 

3)      Please supply correspondence received from the bid judges,
including:

 

 

a)      a copy of the official correspondence relating to the result of
the bid.

b)      the detailed feedback on the bid received from the judges.

 

Please find attached the documents requested under questions 2 & 3.

 

 

If you are unhappy with the way your request for information has been
handled, you can request a review by writing to:

 

Solutions Team

Cheshire West and Chester Council

HQ

58 Nicholas Street

Chester

CH1 2NP

 

If you remain dissatisfied with the handling of your request or complaint,
you have a right of appeal to the Information Commissioner at:

 

The Information Commissioner's Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire SK9 5AF

 

Telephone: 08456 30 60 60 or 01625 54 57 45

Website: [1]www.ico.gov.uk

 

There is no charge for making an appeal.

 

Yours sincerely

 

Miriam Wallace

Solutions Team

Cheshire West and Chester Council

 

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Dear FOI West,

Thank you for the full response to my FoI request.

As I now have all the information I request, please cancel the internal review.

Yours sincerely,

John Murray

Ray McHale left an annotation ()

This looks like a pretty severe under-estimate of the costs involved.

FOI West, Cheshire West and Chester Council

Dear Mr Murray

Thank you for your email dated 13 September 2013. I acknowledge receipt of your request to cancel the internal review. This case will now be closed with no further action required.

Yours sincerely

Mrs C Timms
FOI Unit
Cheshire West and Chester Council

 

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