Correspondence with Worcester City Football Club/Supporters' Trust 1/1/14 - 2/4/15

The request was successful.

Dear Sport England,

I would be grateful if you could supply me with copies of all correspondence between yourselves and Worcester City Football Club and/or Worcester City (FC) Supporters' Trust or persons authorised to correspond on their behalf such as directors or consultants.

The period I request the information from is between 1st January 2014 - 2nd April 2015.

I am particularly interested in any correspondence/collaboration pertaining to any football facilities at Perdiswell Park and any matters relating to a proposal to build a football stadium/community sports hub there (including potential funding sources). However, this request is not limited to just the aforementioned and other correspondence (eg: regarding alternative stadium sites or discussion of Worcester's football pitches) should be included in this request.

I class correspondence as emails, written letter, meeting minutes and telephone conversations. For telephone conversations, a record of who the call was between, the duration of the call and the subject of the call would be sufficient. In the case of emails please include any attachments.

If the information I have requested exceeds the threshold for what is deemed to be 'reasonable assistance' in this matter, please communicate any costings involved in supplying the information requested in its entirety and suggest how my request may be modified to satisfy requirements.

Your assistance and cooperation is greatly appreciated.

Yours faithfully,

S Hodges

FOI, Sport England

4 Attachments

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Thank you

 

Information Governance and FOI Manager

 

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Dear FOI team,

Re my FOI request of 25th August:
Correspondence with Worcester City Football Club/Supporters' Trust 1/1/14 - 2/4/15

Although you sent an acknowledgement that you received my request I have not received any communications from you since then.

As you know, by law FOI requests must be dealt with promptly and responses should be sent promptly, usually within 20 working days.

I would appreciate an update explaining when I can expect the information and why there is a delay.

Thanks in anticipation

Yours sincerely,

S Hodges

FOI, Sport England

4 Attachments

Please accept this email as confirmation that your message has been
received by Sport England’s FOI mailbox.

 

You will receive a full acknowledgement of your message within five
working days.

 

Thank you

 

Information Governance and FOI Manager

 

Sport England's London office has moved to 1st Floor, 21 Bloomsbury
Street, London, WC1B 3HF

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FOI, Sport England

8 Attachments

Dear S Hodges,

Thank you for your recent request for information relating to Worcester
City Football Club and Worcester City Football Club Supporters Trust.
Please accept my sincere apologies for the delay in providing our response
which was caused by the absence of a key member of our staff.

I have attached a number of documents relating to a pre application
consultation submitted on behalf of Worcester City Football Club. These
documents comprise of the club's pre application submission and Sport
England's response. We do not hold any further information falling within
the scope of your request.

Please note that we have removed a number of names, email addresses and
telephone numbers from the attached information. We consider information
of this nature to be personal data which is exempt from disclosure under
s.40(2) of the Freedom of Information Act. The individuals concerned have
a reasonable expectation of privacy and would not expect Sport England to
make information about them publicly available. This means that disclosure
would be neither fair nor lawful and in direct contravention of the first
data protection principle set out in the Data Protection Act 1998.

This completes our response to your information request. I hope that the
information provided will be of some use to you.

As a public body, Sport England is subject to the terms of the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 and this means you are entitled to complain if you
are unhappy with the way we have handled your information request and/or
ask us to review our decision.

If you would like to complain about the way we have handled your request
or ask for our decision to be reviewed please contact:

Erin Stephens
Principal In House Solicitor
Sport England
1st Floor, 21 Bloomsbury Street
London
WC1B 3HF
Email: [1][Sport England request email]

Please describe your original request, explain your grounds for
dissatisfaction and include an address for correspondence. We aim to
complete internal reviews within twenty working days.

If you are not content with the outcome of our Internal Review you have
the right to appeal to the Information Commissioner. Generally speaking
the Information Commissioner will not be able to consider an appeal unless
you have first exhausted the Internal Review procedure provided by Sport
England.

The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:

The Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
[2]www.ico.org.uk

Kind regards

Gail Laughlan
Information Governance Manager
T: 02072731680
M: 07787 105104
F: 020 7383 0273
E: [3][email address]

1st Floor, 21 Bloomsbury Street, London, WC1B 3HF

show quoted sections

Dear Ms Laughlan,

Thank you for your response to my request and apologies for the delay.

You have included documents such as the stadium plan and site layout, presumably sent to you by Worcester City Football Club/Supporters' Trust or someone authorised to correspond on their behalf, but not the letter or email which presumably accompanied their submission to you.

The letter dated 12th November 2014 (your ref: WM/WOR/2014/37761/P) which Sport England sent in response recommended that a meeting should take place between "representatives of Worcester City FC, Worcester City FC Supporters Trust, Worcester City Council and Sport England, 1Life, the relevant Governing bodies and any other relevant parties to discuss the potential for a masterplan and other issues relating to the site. "

There is no information included about this meeting (eg: emails or records of phone calls to arrange the meeting, agenda or minutes).

I believe these items are covered by my original FOI request of 25th August, so could you provide:

1) any correspondence which accompanied or preceded the plans' submission to you (redacted if necessary) and

2) any correspondence about any potential meeting(s) following Sport England's suggestion, or confirmation that there was no further correspondence about any meeting.

I class correspondence as emails, written letter, meeting minutes and telephone conversations. For telephone conversations, a record of who the call was between (job titles/roles), the duration of the call and the subject of the call would be sufficient. In the case of emails please include any attachments.

Thank you for your time and help, I do appreciate it.

Yours sincerely,

S Hodges

FOI, Sport England

4 Attachments

Please accept this email as confirmation that your message has been
received by Sport England’s FOI mailbox.

 

You will receive a full acknowledgement of your message within five
working days.

 

Thank you

 

Information Governance and FOI Manager

 

Sport England's London office has moved to 1st Floor, 21 Bloomsbury
Street, London, WC1B 3HF

[1]Description: Sport England

Creating a sporting habit for life

[2]Description: Sport [3]Description: Be [4]Description: Sport England
England Twitter Inspired Newsletter
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Twitter

Level 1 21 Bloomsbury Street London WC1B 3HF

The information contained in this e-mail may be subject to public
disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. Additionally, this
email and any attachment are confidential and intended solely for the use
of the individual to whom they are addressed. If you are not the intended
recipient, be advised that you have received this email and any attachment
in error, and that any use, dissemination, forwarding, printing, or
copying, is strictly prohibited.

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Gail Laughlan, Sport England

1 Attachment

Dear S Hodges,

Thank you for your email.

I have attached the covering email sent to Sport England as part of the
pre application process which was not included in my original response to
you. Please accept my sincere apologies for this oversight on my part.

With regards to the meeting referenced in your email below I have
consulted with the relevant colleagues who have advised that although this
was put forward as a suggestion, no such meeting took place. We therefore
hold no information in respect of this part of your request.

I hope that you will now have all the information you require.

Kind regards

Gail Laughlan
Information Governance Manager
T: 02072731680
M: 07787 105104
F: 020 7383 0273
E: [1][email address]

1st Floor, 21 Bloomsbury Street, London, WC1B 3HF

show quoted sections

FOI, Sport England

1 Attachment

Dear S Hodges,

 

Thank you for your email, dated 11th August, in which you ask for
clarification of our earlier response to your information request.

 

The relevant colleagues have now reviewed their files and identified a
small number of documents which were not included in our original response
to you. This was an administrative error on our part and I am very sorry
for any inconvenience this may have caused. The attached document contains
the additional documents, and for clarity, I have addressed each of your
points below. As before, we have removed names, email addresses and direct
telephone numbers from the attached.

 

1) The email on 29th March at 10:59 to Worcester City Council (WCC) thanks
them for re-consulting and says that the sender has consulted the FA. The
following do not appear to have been included in your response to my FOI:

 

- Communication from WCC to Sport England reconsulting on the P14M0176
application for a stadium

 

This is now attached

 

- Any communication from Sport England asking the FA for comments (this is
also referred to in the email of 27th March noting that the consultation
period ended that day)

 

This was provided in our original response to your request and no further
information is held

 

- The FA's response to Sport England about the P14M0176 application.

 

This was provided in our original response to your request and no further
information is held.

 

2) The email of 8th June 2017  from WCC's Head of Development Planning and
Enforcement (subject includes the reference P14M0176 and "Perdiswell")
refers to an email from the [applicant's] agent to Sport England on 25th
May in response to Sport England's comments; neither the original email
nor the attached copy referred to in the 8th June email have been
included.

 

This is now attached.

 

3) Sport England's 2017 response to Worcester City Council to the
consultation about the Perdiswell planning application (and any email
accompanying it) have not been included.

 

This is now attached.

 

4) A response from Worcester City Council to another FOI request indicates
that on 29th June 2017 a member of Sport England's staff sent an email to
A Coleman (WCC) which has not been included in the information you have
supplied. This was regarding an email query which Sport England had
received from a local resident; the subject of the original email was "SE
planning consultation - possible failure to divulge to you information
material to opinion." The original email (with the planning application
reference P14M0176 mentioned in my request) and any communication
following as a result of the query have not been included in the
information supplied.

 

The response from WCC to the local resident is attached. We have no record
of any emails from Sport England on this matter.

 

5) All the correspondence you have supplied so far is dated between 27th
March 2017 and 12th June 2017. Can you confirm that there was no other
communication relevant to this request (about football in Worcester,
facilities to play football in the city, football facilities at Perdiswell
Park and all matters relating to the proposal to build a football
stadium/community sports hub there (including potential funding sources))
during the period between 3rd April 2015 and 27th March 2017?

 

This is now attached

 

6) Could you also confirm, as per my request, that between 3rd April 2015
and 30th June 2017 there was no discussion between Sport England and any
other party:

 

i)  about how a football stadium on the Perdiswell site might impact on
the community's use of the recently built swimming pool and renovated
leisure centre?

 

ii) about whether the siting of a stadium on Perdiswell Park might affect
the local community's use of the space for informal sport and recreational
activities?

 

No discussions of this nature have taken place.

 

This completes our response to your information request. I hope that you
will now have everything you require.

 

As a public body, Sport England is subject to the terms of the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 and this means you are entitled to complain if you
are unhappy with the way we have handled your information request and/or
ask us to review our decision.

 

If you would like to complain about the way we have handled your request
or ask for our decision to be reviewed please contact:

 

Erin Stephens

Principal In House Solicitor

Sport England

1st Floor, 21 Bloomsbury Street

London

WC1B 3HF

Email: [1][Sport England request email]

 

Please describe your original request, explain your grounds for
dissatisfaction and include an address for correspondence. We aim to
complete internal reviews within twenty working days.

 

If you are not content with the outcome of our Internal Review you have
the right to appeal to the Information Commissioner. Generally speaking
the Information Commissioner will not be able to consider an appeal unless
you have first exhausted the Internal Review procedure provided by Sport
England.

 

The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:

 

The Information Commissioner’s Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

[2]www.ico.org.uk

 

Kind regards

 

Gail Laughlan Information Governance Manager  T: 020 7273 1680  M: 07787
105104