Councillors - Register of Interests - details withheld under Section 32 Localism Act 2011
Dear Brighton and Hove City Council,
Can you please provide details for your Local Authority where Members interest in 'Land' has been withheld at the request of any Member under the provisions of Section 32 of the Localism Act.
Can you provide the data in the format:-
*Number of Requests made and specific reason given for potential withholding of the information from publication in the Members Register of Interests
*Number of Requests granted
*Party allegiance (including 'Independent') of Members involved in requests
*Number of individual 'Land' assets included in each request
Yours faithfully,
J Wood
This is an update regarding your request for information under the Freedom
of Information Act 2000, ref: FOI:4545/2015
Thank you for your information request. I can confirm the following
information: Number of requests made 13 Reason The Monitoring Officer is
authorised by law to authorise the exclusion of information from the
public register. This can be done on the application of the member stating
why the inclusion of the information in the public register could lead the
Member or a person connected with the Member being subjected to violence
or intimidation Number of requests granted 12 Party Allegiance 11 Green
Party Members 1 Labour Party Member Individual Land assets included In 11
cases 1 land asset has been requested for dispensation In 1 case a Member
has 2 properties
This update can also be viewed online at:
https://foi.brighton-hove.gov.uk/request...
If you have any queries regarding this process, please contact, quoting
the reference number given above.
You may also have questions about the Freedom of Information process at
Brighton & Hove City Council.
In both cases, write to:
Wendy Kassamani
Information Compliance Officer
Brighton & Hove City Council
Hove Town Hall
Norton Road
Hove, BN3 4AH
[1][email address]
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Ms Clapham left an annotation ()
You will need to make an appointment with Ross Keatley ross.keatley@brighton-hove.gov.uk
I inspected the Register of Interest on 17/3/2015 and again on 18/3/2015. I found discrepancies in the two folders for 2011, the two folders for 2012 and also the online version on Brighton and Hove City Councils website don't offer the same info as the hard copy.
On 17/3/2015 visit I was given access to the 2012 files only, so I asked for the 2011 files. I found that some files had been removed from the 2011 files. Namely, Dawn Barnett, Jane Bennett, Geoffery Bowden, Vanessa Brown, Ruth Buckley, Graham Cox, Lizzie Deane, Ben Duncan, Tony Janio, Rob Jarrett,Mike Jones, Amy Kennedy, Phelim MacCafferty, Anne Meadows, Ann Norman, Kevin Norman, Gary Peltzer Dunn, Alex Phillips, Anne Pissaridou, Sven Rufus, Dee Simpson, Luz Wakefield. The original documents are missing, how I know this I compared and contrasted the two 2011 folders against the 2012 folders, and concurrently checked the online version on my iPad. The online version had many discrepancies when compared to the hard copies. Not sure what is going on or how to report that as I thought these were official documents and have to be legally stored.
David Thomas left an annotation ()
There are some very curious deeds surrounding the Register of Interests for Brighton and Hove City Councillors. For a start, they do their utmost to stop the details of property holdings by individual councillors entering the public domain. This suggests there is a reason for this and what is going on?
Also, the names you mention as being missing in the files, contain some for people who are "interesting". I know that one of these is a Freemason but does not declare it in the Register, either online, or hard copy. This is very significant in this instance. Some of these include those who have substantial property holdings too.
The manner in which the Register of Interests is dealt with must be unlawful and the council seem content to flout the rules here.
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David Thomas left an annotation ()
It seems that the council is not providing the correct facts here. for an accurate picture of the situation go and inspect the hard copy of the Register which is kept at King's House.