City Garden Project

The request was partially successful.

Dear Aberdeen City Council,

The following information is requested in relation to the proposed City Garden Project.

Reference below to "communications" includes correspondence, emails, file notes, minutes of meetings and conversations and reference to “details” includes the contents of all such communications, the date and the names of the individuals involved in the communication.

1. Details of all communications with regard to the tender process that was engaged in with regard to the appointment of a design management company for the City Garden Project (“CGP”).

2. Details of communications with regard to the formation of a Special Purpose Vehicle (“SPV”) to take the (“CGP”) forward.

3. All minutes/records of decisions made by the Project Management Board (“PMB”) with regard to the CSP.

4. Details of all communications with regard to the preparation of the business case in relation to the CGP, including all communications with regard to Tax Increment Funding (“TIF”) (including information provided to third parties in respect of the provision of a business case based upon TIF and any requests or correspondence from third parties in relation to the same).

5. Details of all communications with regard to the selection of a community engagement contractor with regard to the CGP and the terms for funding of the same.

6. Details of all communications with the Aberdeen City Gardens Trust Company no 392177 (“CGT”) (and its representatives).

7. Details of all communications with regard to the content of the proposed CGP scheme which will be used to inform the design competition brief/guidelines.

8. Details of all communications regarding the proposed terms of any lease or transfer of Union Terrace Garden to CGT.

Yours faithfully, Mike Shepherd

Foi Enquiries, Aberdeen City Council

Dear Mr Shepherd,

Information enquiry reference ENQ10334.

This is to acknowledge receipt of your recent request for information received on 14 March 2011.

The scheduled date for our response to your request for information is 11 April 2011.

If you have any enquiries meantime please do not hesitate to contact us.

Yours sincerely,

Helen Cannings
Freedom of Information Compliance Officer

FoI Compliance Team
Legal and Democratic Services
Corporate Governance
Aberdeen City Council
Town House
Broad Street
Aberdeen AB10 1AQ
Tel: 01224 522875/523827
Fax: 01224 638556
email: [Aberdeen City Council request email]

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Dear Foi Enquiries,

Aberdeen City Council by law should have responded to my FOI request on the City Garden Project promptly and by the 12th April 2011. They have not done so.

Yours sincerely,

Mike Shepherd

Vikki Cuthbert, Aberdeen City Council

2 Attachments

Review Decision - REV10237 - City Garden Project

Dear Mr Shepherd [FOI #65273 email]

I am writing in reference to your request of 13 April 2011 for a review regarding your recent information request on the City Garden Project.

The Review Panel met and made a decision on 19 May 2011. Please find attached a covering letter from the City Archivist and the Review Decision Notice.

Please accept our sincerest apologies for the ongoing delay in responding to your information request and the inconvenience this is causing. The FOI Team hope to send you our response shortly.

Kindest regards,

Vikki Cuthbert
Committee Manager

Legal and Democratic Services
Corporate Governance
Aberdeen City Council
Town House
Broad Street
ABERDEEN AB10 1AQ

email: [email address]
Direct Dial Tel: 522520
Direct Fax No: 523768

Tel No: 522000
www.aberdeencity.gov.uk

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Vikki Cuthbert, Aberdeen City Council

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Shepherd,

Please see the attached letter in relation to your request for an internal review.

Thank you

Vikki Cuthbert
Committee Manager

Legal and Democratic Services
Corporate Governance
Aberdeen City Council
Town House
Broad Street
ABERDEEN AB10 1AQ

email: [email address]
Direct Dial Tel: 522520
Direct Fax No: 523768

Tel No: 522000
www.aberdeencity.gov.uk

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mike shepherd

Dear Vikki Cuthbert,

The response to my request is long overdue. By law, you should have responded by now. My next step will be to go complain to the information authority.

Yours sincerely,

mike shepherd

Vikki Cuthbert, Aberdeen City Council

2 Attachments

Dear Mr Shepherd,

Thank you for your email. The Review Panel met last Friday to consider your request for a review, and the outcome letter and notice are attached. As stated in the letter, the FOI Compliance Team have prioritised your information request, and are working to get this out to as soon as possible.

Thank you

Vikki Cuthbert
Committee Manager

Legal and Democratic Services
Corporate Governance
Aberdeen City Council
Town House
Broad Street
ABERDEEN AB10 1AQ

email: [email address]
Direct Dial Tel: 522520
Direct Fax No: 523768

Tel No: 522000
www.aberdeencity.gov.uk

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mike shepherd

Dear Vikki Cuthbert,

Has there been any progress on my FOI request? I last heard from the Council on the 6th June and have heard nothing since. The request is months overdue. My next step is to contact the information commisioner and complain.

Yours sincerely,

mike shepherd

Vikki Cuthbert, Aberdeen City Council

Dear Mr Shepherd,
Please contact the FOI Compliance Team directly. I deal with the review element only. I am copying them in to this email.
Thank you

Vikki Cuthbert
Committee Manager

Legal and Democratic Services
Corporate Governance
Aberdeen City Council
Town House
Broad Street
ABERDEEN AB10 1AQ

email: [email address]
Direct Dial Tel: 522520
Direct Fax No: 523768

Tel No: 522000
www.aberdeencity.gov.uk

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Alistair P Sloan left an annotation ()

I would be interested to know if the City Council responded as per the Decision Notice issued by the Scottish Information Commissioner in August (http://www.itspublicknowledge.info/Uploa...

Foi Enquiries, Aberdeen City Council

5 Attachments

Your references:
ENQ10334 - City Garden Project
REV10334 - City Garden Project
APP10334 - City Garden Project

Dear Mr Shepherd

Please accept our sincerest apologies for the delay in responding to your information request of 14 March 2011, made under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA). Aberdeen City Council (ACC) has completed the necessary search for the information requested.

The following information is requested in relation to the proposed City Garden Project.

Reference below to "communications" includes correspondence, emails, file notes, minutes of meetings and conversations and reference to “details” includes the contents of all such communications, the date and the names of the individuals involved in the communication.

1. Details of all communications with regard to the tender process that was engaged in with regard to the appointment of a design management company for the City Garden Project (“CGP”).
This information is held by several Services across ACC, including Enterprise, Planning and Infrastructure, Procurement and Legal. Having discussed your request with Services, we are unable to provide you with details of all communications with regard to the tender process that was engaged in with regard to the appointment of a design management company for the City Garden Project ("CGP"), as the cost of providing this information has been calculated as being in excess of the statutory maximum (£600).

To explain this, it would involve a member of staff in Enterprise, Planning and Infrastructure going through their email correspondence and redacting legal and commercially sensitive information. For the period 1 December 2010 - 14 March 2011, this has been calculated as at least 5 minutes per email communication (at least an estimated 150 emails in total), which equates to the minimum of 12.5 hours at the cost of £187.5 in total. In addition, the Service has confirmed that it holds a higher volume of email correspondence with colleagues in Legal and Procurement for the period August 2010 - November 2010, and that a further amount of correspondence, which was generated following the publication of the PQQ and ITT notices in September and October 2010, comprises commercially sensitive information, which would also have to be redacted.

Enterprise, Planning and Infrastructure have further advised that, in addition to the above information, they also hold a dedicated electronic "UTG" (Union Terrace Gardens) folder comprising 223 separate electronic documents organised in 34 sub-folders. The disclosure of this information has been calculated as at least 5 minutes per document (although it would likely take a longer time for the more complex and sizeable documents), which equates to the minimum of 18.5 hours at the cost of £277.5 in total.

Legal have estimated that it would take one member of staff 37 hours and two members of staff 10 hours to provide those email and paper communications that are held by the Legal Service and not already provided by Enterprise, Planning and Infrastructure. This has been calculated as a minimum cost of £855. However, this does not include the cost of the temporary cover for these officers that would be required, the loss of income from any external charged work that could not be undertaken or any sundries including printing and copying.

Procurement have advised that to provide the above information, it would involve a member of staff having to search through in excess of 150 emails and attached documents and redact commercially sensitive and personal information. This has been calculated at approximately 5 minutes per email and document, which equates to the minimum of 12.5 hours at the cost of £187.5 in total.

Two members of staff would also need to review the PQQ submissions and ITT submissions for all the bidders to redact commercially sensitive information and personal details. For the Design Competition procurement, there were 3 PQQ submissions and 2 ITT submissions and for the Stakeholder Management procurement there were 8 PQQ submissions and 2 ITT submissions which would need to be reviewed. This has been calculated as at least 3 hours for a PQQ submission and at least 5 hours for an ITT submission, which equates to 106 hours at the cost of £3,180 in total.

Procurement have also indicated that, in addition to the above, the email correspondence held by the Project Board and Evaluation Team would need to be reviewed.

On the above basis, it is estimated that it would cost approximately £4,687.5 to provide the information for Question 1 (covering information held by Enterprise, Planning and Infrastructure, Procurement and Legal). In order to comply with its obligations under the terms of Section 16 of the FOISA, ACC must issue official refusal notices in relation to any requests for which it is claiming an exemption under the FOISA. We therefore attach a refusal notice which specifically refuses your request under the terms of Section 12 - Excessive Cost of Compliance - of the FOISA.

2. Details of communications with regard to the formation of a Special Purpose Vehicle (“SPV”) to take the (“CGP”) forward.
ACC does not hold email communications regarding the formation of a Special Purpose Vehicle ("SPV") to take the ("CGP") forward. Please refer to the attached Information Not Held notice.

Information relating to the formation of a Special Purpose Vehicle ("SPV") to take the ("CGP") forward is publicly available in papers, which are available on ACC's external website. These papers can be searched via the Committee Decisions key word search facility available at: http://committees.aberdeencity.gov.uk/ie.... Please refer to the attached Section 25(1) exemption notice.

3. All minutes/records of decisions made by the Project Management Board (“PMB”) with regard to the CSP.
This information is publicly accessible on the ACC website at: http://www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/planning_....

In addition, minutes of the City Garden Project Implementation Team (PIT) are publicly available on the City Garden Project website at: http://thecitygardenproject.com/project_.... Please navigate to the City Garden Project: Minutes at the bottom of the page and click on 'Download'. This should take you to a 'WinZip' window comprising a list of minutes in Microsoft Word format.

Please refer to the attached Section 25(1) exemption notice.

4. Details of all communications with regard to the preparation of the business case in relation to the CGP,
ACC does not hold this information. Please refer to the attached Information Not Held notice.

Including all communications with regard to Tax Increment Funding (“TIF”) (including information provided to third parties in respect of the provision of a business case based upon TIF and any requests or correspondence from third parties in relation to the same).
Enterprise, Planning and Infrastructure have advised that to provide this information, it would involve one member of their staff manually searching through all emails held for the past two years to provide a list of relevant correspondence and another member of their staff having to collate, organise and redact this information. This has been calculated at a minimum of 6 hours for the first member of staff and 4 hours for the other member of staff, which equates to 10 hours at the cost of £150 in total.

In addition, Enterprise, Planning and Infrastructure have advised that this information is also held by at least 12 other officers across ACC who would also need to carry out similar work in order to provide all communications held. This has been estimated at a minimum of 100 hours at the cost of £1,500.

On the above basis, we are unable to provide you with all communications with regard to Tax Increment Funding, as it is estimated that it would cost approximately £1,650 to provide this information for Question 4. In order to comply with its obligations under the terms of Section 16 of the FOISA, ACC must issue official refusal notices in relation to any requests for which it is claiming an exemption under the FOISA. We therefore attach a refusal notice which specifically refuses your request under the terms of Section 12 - Excessive Cost of Compliance - of the FOISA as it will cost more than £600 to provide this information.

5. Details of all communications with regard to the selection of a community engagement contractor with regard to the CGP and the terms for funding of the same.
We are unable to provide you with this information as the cost of providing it has been calculated as being in excess of the statutory maximum (£600). Please refer to the response to Question 1 above and the attached Section 12 exemption notice.

6. Details of all communications with the Aberdeen City Gardens Trust Company no 392177 (“CGT”) (and its representatives).
Enterprise, Planning and Infrastructure have advised that to provide this information, it would involve 10 members of staff across ACC to manually search through all emails held in order to provide a list of relevant correspondence and collate, organise and redact this information. This has been calculated at a minimum of 100 hours at the cost of £1,500. In order to comply with its obligations under the terms of Section 16 of the FOISA, ACC must issue official refusal notices in relation to any requests for which it is claiming an exemption under the FOISA. We therefore attach a refusal notice which specifically refuses your request under the terms of Section 12 - Excessive Cost of Compliance - of the FOISA as it will cost more than £600 to provide this information.

However, please find attached a letter between ACC and the Aberdeen City Gardens Trust (Company no 392177) - ENQ10334 - City Garden Project Board Invitation - Appendix 1 - which was included as Appendix 1 to Council Paper ref EP/11/278 at the last Council Meeting of 6 October 2011. The Council Paper will shortly be made publicly available on ACC's website at: http://committees.aberdeencity.gov.uk/ie....

7. Details of all communications with regard to the content of the proposed CGP scheme which will be used to inform the design competition brief/guidelines.
We are unable to provide you with this information as the cost of providing it has been calculated as being in excess of the statutory maximum (£600). Please refer to the response to Question 4 above and the attached Section 12 exemption notice.

8. Details of all communications regarding the proposed terms of any lease or transfer of Union Terrace Garden to CGT.
ACC does not hold this information as it has not at any stage discussed "proposed terms" for any lease or transfer. Please refer to the attached Information Not Held notice.

We are unable to provide you with information on 4. details of all communications with regard to the preparation of the business case in relation to the CGP and 8. details of all communications regarding the proposed terms of any lease or transfer of Union Terrace Garden to CGT, as it is not held by ACC. In order to comply with its obligations under the terms of Section 17 of the FOISA, ACC must issue an official notice in relation to any requests for information not held by it. We therefore attach an Information Not Held notice.

We are unable to provide you with 1. details of all communications with regard to the tender process that was engaged in with regard to the appointment of a design management company for the City Garden Project (“CGP”), 4. all communications with regard to Tax Increment Funding (“TIF”) (including information provided to third parties in respect of the provision of a business case based upon TIF and any requests or correspondence from third parties in relation to the same), 5. details of all communications with regard to the selection of a community engagement contractor with regard to the CGP and the terms for funding of the same, 6. details of all communications with the Aberdeen City Gardens Trust Company no 392177 ("CGT") (and its representatives) and 7. details of all communications with regard to the content of the proposed CGP scheme which will be used to inform the design competition brief/guidelines as the cost of providing this has been calculated as being in excess of the statutory maximum (£600) as outlined above.

In order to comply with its obligations under the terms of Section 16 of the FOISA, ACC must issue official refusal notices in relation to any requests for which it is claiming an exemption under the FOISA. We therefore attach a refusal notice which specifically refuses your request under the terms of Section 12 - Excessive Cost of Compliance - of the FOISA.

As information 2. relating to the formation of a Special Purpose Vehicle ("SPV") to take the ("CGP") forward, 3. minutes/records of decisions made by the Project Management Board (“PMB”) with regard to the CSP and 3. minutes of the City Garden Project Implementation Team (PIT) is already publicly available online, it is exempt from disclosure. In order to comply with its obligations under the terms of Section 16 of the FOISA, ACC must issue official refusal notices in relation to any requests for which it is claiming an exemption under the FOISA. We therefore attach a refusal notice which specifically refuses your request under the terms of Section 25(1) - Information Otherwise Accessible - of the FOISA.

We hope this helps with your request and apologies again for the inconvenience caused.

Please also find attached a letter in relation to your request of 13 April 2011 for ACC to carry out a review.

Yours sincerely,

Anna Buchan
Freedom of Information Compliance Officer

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