Copies of the documents held as part of the planning enforcement file for Former CWS Flour Mills – Royal Edward Dock - (16/30637/MINOR

The request was refused by Bristol City Council.

Dear Bristol City Council,

Please provide documentation / emails / letters regarding the planning enforcement case pertaining to the Former CWS Flour Mills – Royal Edward Dock - (16/30637/MINOR), or justify why these documents should not be in the public domain.

Yours faithfully,

Ian Robinson

Freedom of Information, Bristol City Council

Thank you for your request for information. Next time why not speed things
up and use our new web service to make your request? It's here at
[1]https://services.bristol.gov.uk/foi

 

If your email is a Freedom Of Information request you should expect to
receive a response within the 20 working day limit.

 

If your email is a request for an internal review you should receive a
response within the 20 - 40 working day limit.

 

 

On Behalf of

The Freedom Of Information team

References

Visible links
1. https://services.bristol.gov.uk/foi

No Reply @ Bristol, Bristol City Council

Dear Ian Robinson 
This is a courtesy email to let you know your Public Information
Request has been received on : 30/11/2016. 
Your unique reference number is "CRN00092569 ". Please keep this
number safe, as you may be required to provide it in the future. 
If you need to add further information concerning your case or
require an update about your response date, please email
[email address
Regards,
Customer Relations Team

"No Reply @ Bristol" <noreply@bristol.gov.uk>, Bristol City Council

You sent us a Freedom of Information request on 30/11/2016

Your request number is CRN00092569

We’ve looked at your request and you should receive a reply on or
before 30/12/2016 13:07

This will be 20 working days since your original request.

If you don’t hear from us by this time please contact
[Bristol City Council request email]
Contact details we have for you
Ian Robinson
 [FOI #374447 email]

 

Thanks

Bristol City Council

Dear Bristol City Council,

By law you should have responded to this request; may I ask that you comply with the law promptly and provide the requested documents as a matter of urgency?

Yours faithfully,

Ian Robinson

Freedom of Information, Bristol City Council

Good afternoon,

Thank you for your e mail. I have forwarded this to the Officer who shall respond to your request.

Kind regards

Melanie Freed

Customer Relations Officer

I work on a Tue,Wed and Thur. If your enquiry is urgent please can you contact the Customer Relations Team on ext 22723

Citizen Services
Neighbourhoods
100 Temple Street
Bristol
BS3 9FS
TeL: 0117 9222713

show quoted sections

"No Reply @ Bristol" <noreply@bristol.gov.uk>, Bristol City Council

You sent us a Freedom of Information request on 30/11/2016

Your request number is CRN00092569

Our reply to your request is:  

Dear Ian Robinson,
 
Thank you for your request dated 30^th November 2016 and we apologise
for the slight delay in responding.
 
Please provide documentation / emails / letters regarding the
planning enforcement case pertaining to the Former CWS Flour Mills –
Royal Edward Dock - (16/30637/MINOR), or justify why these documents
should not be in the public domain.
 
The Council can confirm that information is held on the planning
enforcement file; 16/30637/MINOR which was set up on 24^th October
2016 (Pending Consideration).
 
We have considered your request for information in accordance with
the Environmental Information Regulations (EIR), and in doing so have
identified that regulation 13(1) (Personal Information) is engaged
for some or all of the information that you have requested.
 
Regulation 13(1) of the EIR confirms that:
 
“To the extent that the information requested includes personal data
of which the applicant is not the data subject and as respects which
either the first or second condition below is satisfied, a public
authority shall not disclose the personal data.
 
Regulation 13(2) of the EIR confirms that:
 
"The first condition is
(a) in a case where the information falls within any of paragraphs
(a) to (d) of the definition of “data” in section 1(1) of the Data
protection Act 1998, that the disclosure of the information to a
member of the public otherwise than under this Act would contravene
1.            any of the data protection principles, or
2.            section 10 of that Act (right to prevent processing
likely to cause damage or distress)
The ICO have previously considered a request for disclosure of
enforcement files submitted to this council in a previous unrelated
case. The Commissioner decided in the Council’s favour that the
enforcement files contained personal information and should not be
disclosed. We are therefore confident that should you refer the
matter to the ICO the same conclusion will be reached.
 

This response should answer your request in full.

If you’re not satisfied with our response, or if you want to appeal
against any exemptions:

Email: [1][Bristol City Council request email]
Write to: Customer Relations (100TS), PO Box 3176, Bristol, BS3 9FS

If you’re still not satisfied with our response:

You can complain to the Information Commissioner. 
Find out how to do this on the Information Commissioner Office
website
 (link to [2]http://ico.org.uk/concerns)

Copyright

You do not own the copyright to any of the information we give you.
Copyright may be owned by the council or by a third party.

You are not allowed to:

·         make a copy of the information

·         use the information commercially

If you want to copy or use the information in any way you should ask
us for permission in writing first. We can’t give permission if it is
from a third party.

 

Thanks

Bristol City Council

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[Bristol City Council request email]
2. http://ico.org.uk/concerns

Dear Bristol City Council,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of Bristol City Council's handling of my FOI request 'Copies of the documents held as part of the planning enforcement file for Former CWS Flour Mills – Royal Edward Dock - (16/30637/MINOR'.

BCC officers routinely redact personal information from FOI requests and I believe that the officers concerned have been leant on to cover up possible fraud or corruption; should BCC refuse to release redacted documentation then I will refer to the ICO and Avon and Somerset Police for further action.

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,

Ian Robinson

"No Reply @ Bristol" <noreply@bristol.gov.uk>, Bristol City Council

You sent us a Freedom of Information request on 09/01/2017

Your request number is CRN00092569

Your Freedom of Information request has been escalated to an internal
review with a response target date of 6th February 2017.

If you don’t hear from us by this time please contact
[Bristol City Council request email]
Contact details we have for you
Ian Robinson
 [FOI #374447 email]

 

Thanks

Bristol City Council

"No Reply @ Bristol" <noreply@bristol.gov.uk>, Bristol City Council

You sent us a Freedom of Information Internal Review request

Your request number is CRN00092569

Our reply to your request is:  

Dear Mr Robinson,
 
Thank you for your request for an internal review which was received
on 4th January 2016.
 
We received you initial request on 30th November 2016 and responded
on 4^th January 2016, which was outside the statutory time frame, for
which we apologise.
 
Your initial request was, as follow:
 
Please provide documentation / emails / letters regarding the
planning enforcement case pertaining to the Former CWS Flour Mills –
Royal Edward Dock - (16/30637/MINOR), or justify why these documents
should not be in the public domain.
 
The initial response confirmed that the Council held the requested
information, and confirmed that it had considered your request under
the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (EIR), and in doing so
identified that regulation 13(1) (Personal Information) was engaged
for some or all of the information that you have requested.
 
Regulation 13(1) of the EIR states that:
 
'To the extent that the information requested includes personal data
of which the applicant is not the data subject and as respects which
either the first or second condition below is satisfied, a public
authority shall not disclose the personal data.'
 
Regulation 13(2) of the EIR confirms that:
 
'The first condition is
(a) in a case where the information falls within any of paragraphs
(a) to (d) of the definition of “data” in section 1(1) of the Data
protection Act 1998, that the disclosure of the information to a
member of the public otherwise than under this Act would contravene
1.            any of the data protection principles, or
2.            section 10 of that Act (right to prevent processing
likely to cause damage or distress)'
 
Having reviewed the initial decision, we can confirm that we believe
that your initial request was correctly considered under the EIR and
that regulation 13 was correctly applied to withhold the personal
data contained therein. Regulation 13 of the EIR provides an
exception to disclosure of personal data and where disclosure of the
personal data would contravene any of the data protection principles.
The ICO has previously considered requests for disclosure of planning
enforcement files in the following cases, [1]FS50643252 and 
[2]FER0593996  amongst others, and have found that enforcement files
contain personal data of the owner and of objectors/complainants and
have as a consequence upheld the decisions not to disclose. Whilst
ICO decisions are not binding and cases must be considered on their
own merits, the decisions are persuasive.
 
During our internal review, we have identified that regulation
12(5)(b) EIR – adverse effect on the course of justice - is also
engaged, which states:
 
12 (5) For the purposes of paragraph (1)(a), a public authority may
refuse to disclose information to the extent that its disclosure
would adversely affect—

(b)the course of justice, the ability of a person to receive a fair
trial or the ability of a public authority to conduct an inquiry of a
criminal or disciplinary nature;
 
Given that the files requested relate to planning enforcement
activities, we believe that this regulation additionally applies.
 
In applying regulation 12(5)(b) the Public Interest in disclosing
this information has been considered and we have concluded that the
public interest in disclosure is outweighed by the Public Interest in
withholding the information. The matters considered in coming to this
decision are:
 
Disclose:

 1. Presumption of FOIA is in favour of disclosure

 
Withhold:

 1. The information requested relates to a planning enforcement file,
the public interest favours maintenance of the exception in these
cases to avoid prejudicing such investigations, proceedings and
inquiries.

 
For the reasons set out above we have upheld our initial decision to
withhold the information requested.
 
 

This response should answer your request in full.

If you’re not satisfied with our response, or if you want to appeal
against any exemptions:

Email: [3][Bristol City Council request email]
Write to: Customer Relations (100TS), PO Box 3176, Bristol, BS3 9FS

If you’re still not satisfied with our response:

You can complain to the Information Commissioner. 
Find out how to do this on the Information Commissioner Office
website
 (link to [4]http://ico.org.uk/concerns)

Copyright

You do not own the copyright to any of the information we give you.
Copyright may be owned by the council or by a third party.

You are not allowed to:

·         make a copy of the information

·         use the information commercially

If you want to copy or use the information in any way you should ask
us for permission in writing first. We can’t give permission if it is
from a third party.

 

Thanks

Bristol City Council

References

Visible links
1. https://ico.org.uk/media/action-weve-tak...
2. https://ico.org.uk/media/action-weve-tak...
3. mailto:[Bristol City Council request email]
4. http://ico.org.uk/concerns