Council-Owned Buildings/Facilities Sitting Empty
Dear St Helens Metropolitan Borough Council
Could you please let me know how many council-owned buildings and facilities are setting empty and out of use, their number, location and any future plans for each?
Thanks
Yours faithfully,
Wendy Hill
Form Submission
Hello WENDY HILL,
We have now received your General Customer Services - Freedom Of
Information report (reference: 1593-0720-9211-9737) and it has been
assigned to our staff to review.
If your enquiry requires a response, then you should receive a reply
within ten working days.
You can follow progress of this by using the below link to access details
of the case.
[1]My case
You can keep track of all of your enquiries and their progress by
registering on our Customer Portal - it's easy to do - just follow the
instructions on screen
[2]Register on our Customer Portal!
Please note - you will only be able to track enquiries through the
Customer Portal which were made whilst you are logged into your account
Many thanks
St Helens Borough Council
References
Visible links
1. https://www.sthelens.gov.uk/cmav?bk=1593...
2. https://www.sthelens.gov.uk/register
Dear St Helens Metropolitan Borough Council,
Further to my FOI reference: 1593-0720-9211-9737 no information other than an acknowledgement has been forthcoming, and the council has breached section 10(1) of FOIA, in that it failed to provide a valid response to the request within the statutory time frame of 20 working days. I am requesting an internal review, please advise when this information is going to be made available to me. Thanks.
Yours faithfully,
Wendy Hill
Form Submission
Hello WENDY HILL,
Thank you for contacting St.Helens Borough Council.
We have now received your Freedom of Information Request and it has been
assigned to one of our staff to review and reply to you.
Your reference number for this enquiry is 9328-9046-9269-6908
Please quote this reference in any future correspondence with us
concerning this matter.
In accordance with the Act, a response will be sent to you within 20
working days from the date following the receipt of the request.
You can follow progress of this by using the below link to access details
of the case.
[1]My case
You can also keep track of all of your enquiries and their progress by
registering on our Customer Portal - it's easy to do - just follow the
instructions on screen
[2]Register on our Customer Portal!
Please note - you will only be able to track enquiries through the
Customer Portal which were made whilst you are logged into your account
Many thanks
St Helens Borough Council
References
Visible links
1. https://www.sthelens.gov.uk/cmav?bk=9328...
2. https://www.sthelens.gov.uk/register
Form Submission
Dear Ms Hill,
thank you for your request for an internal review in relation to the FOI
request you submitted about council buildings. As the information has not
yet been provided, I am unable to carry out a complete internal review.
I apologise that you have not yet received a response to the FOI.
I have reviewed the FOI request and identified who the case manager is. I
have now escalated this to their manager to ensure that action is taken to
respond to your FOI as priority.
If you are unhappy with the outcome of this internal review, you have the
right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office
www.ico.org.uk/global/contact-us
Thank you
Cheryl Boland
Team Manager - Information Governance, Compliance and Complaints
Form Submission
Hello WENDY HILL,
Thank you for submitting your report to us and we can now advise that your
case has now been closed with the following outcome: Internal Review -
Chased with service area
Where applicable we have included a short update with this email so that
you can see a summary of the action that has been taken so far to address
the issue you have reported.
Action taken: Dear Ms Hill, your internal review case has now been closed,
you will have received an email earlier today with the details.
We would love to know how you found your experience with us - please
complete our short survey and help us deliver the best experience to you -
[1]Take our survey!
If we can be of any further assistance, please don’t hesitate to contact
us
Many thanks
St Helens Borough Council
References
Visible links
1. https://applications02.sthelens.gov.uk/C...
Dear St Helens Metropolitan Borough Council,
It is noted that this request has been closed - without the council actually supplying any information at all, just going round in circles. Please supply the information requested. I have previously asked for an internal review only to be advised that as no information has been supplied an internal review cannot take place. I am going refer this to the ICO.
Yours faithfully,
Wendy Hill
Form Submission
Hello Wendy Hill ,
We have now received your General Customer Services - Customer Services
report (reference: 4755-4678-4165-4499) and it has been assigned to our
staff to review.
If your enquiry requires a response, then you should receive a reply
within ten working days.
You can follow progress of this by using the below link to access details
of the case.
[1]My case
You can keep track of all of your enquiries and their progress by
registering on our Customer Portal - it's easy to do - just follow the
instructions on screen
[2]Register on our Customer Portal!
Please note - you will only be able to track enquiries through the
Customer Portal which were made whilst you are logged into your account
Many thanks
St Helens Borough Council
References
Visible links
1. https://www.sthelens.gov.uk/cmav?bk=4755...
2. https://www.sthelens.gov.uk/register
Dear St Helens Metropolitan Borough Counci
Further to my requests and several prompts for information in relation to my FOI, it is noted that the council have now closed the request. I do not consider the matter to be closed and I would like the matter passing to the most senior FOI officer to review why this information has not been forwarded. Please look into this matter and forward the long overdue data as quickly as possible. Thanks.
Yours faithfully,
Wendy Hill
Dear Customer,
Thank you for your message.
As we continue to improve our digital offering for customers, enabling most
of our services to be accessed easily online.
As part of this improvement, you will be aware that we launched the new St
Helens Borough Council website St Helens Online in April, earlier this
year, available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and accessible from a
computer, tablet, or smartphone.
The new website has many self-service options for those residents wishing
to access services via this channel and continues to be developed. As a
result of these changes, we stopped monitoring the
[St Helens Council request email] email address on 10th October 2022.
"This e-mail and any file transmitted with it are confidential, subject to copyright and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. It may contain privileged information. Any unauthorised review, use, disclosure, distribution or publication is prohibited. If you have received this e-mail in error please contact the sender by reply e-mail and destroy and delete the message and all copies from your computer. The information contained in this email may be subject to public disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 or other legal duty.
Any views or opinions expressed within this email are those of the author and may not necessarily reflect those of the Authority. No contractual arrangement is intended to arise from this communication."
Form Submission
Mrs Hill,
Unfortunately we will be unable to supply the information you have
requested in your Freedom of Information request. due to, the Council not
currently having a system that allows us to produce a definitive list to
meet your queries, this would require significant resource and time to
pull this together.
Kind Regards
Neil
Form Submission
Dear Ms Hill,
I can see that the FOI was responded to by the case manager last week.
I will now conduct an internal review. I will provide the outcome of this
to you as soon as possible.
Thank you
Cheryl Boland
Team Manager - Information Governance, Compliance and Complaints
Dear St Helens Metropolitan Borough Council,
Hi - thanks for the update and I look forward to your response. I am astounded that the council does not have an (up-to-date) asset register of council owned buildings and their current usage status, that could be accessed at the touch of a button. For clarification I do not require details of council buildings deemed housing stock.
If this information falls under EIR and is chargeable this information should have been communicated by return - not almost 5 months later. Please advise. Thank you.
Yours faithfully,
Wendy Hill
Form Submission
Dear Ms Hill,
I apologise for the delay in responding the your request for an internal
review in relation to council owned buildings. This was an oversight on my
part and all I can do is apologise for this.
I have reviewed your request and the response provided.
I appreciate that the response you received was not very detailed in
explaining why the request could not be fulfilled due to the constraints
on cost. I will provide some context.
The Council do not currently hold information of all assets in relation to
individual occupancy status and future plans etc, there is a current piece
of intensive work being undertaken to prepare for the implementation of a
new asset management system which will capture the information in a more
readily available format. The system is not due to be ready for testing
and launch until at least December 2023. In order to retrieve the
information in it’s current format it would require a manual search and
interrogation of 1759 files, spending approximately 5 minutes on each
file, equating to approximately 147 hours of officer time.
Therefore, I have estimated that provision of the requested information
would exceed the cost limit given the time it would take to extract the
information and therefore, unfortunately, we are unable to respond to your
request at this time and I uphold the decision of the original response,
whilst recognising it did not provide you with the correct level of detail
or explain your right to complain.
If you wish to refine your request so it is more likely to fall within the
cost envelope, we will consider it again as a new request for information.
However, bearing in mind the above, please be aware that it is unlikely
that such a reframe would fall within the cost limit at this time and if
it is felt that the request still exceeds the cost limit, we will be
unable to respond.
If you are unhappy with how we have handled your FOI, you can request an
internal review in the first instance. If you remain unhappy with the
outcome, you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's
Office via www.ico.org.uk/global/contact-us
Thank you
Cheryl Boland
Team Manager - Information Governance, Compliance and Complaints
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