Information Team Croydon
Digital Services
Assistant Chief Executive Directorate
Bernard Wetherill House
7th Floor, Zone B
Croydon
CR0 1EA

Contact: Information Team
[email address]

Dear Elizabeth Ash

Request FOI/10593

Further to your request received on 10/09/2024, I confirm that the Council
has now considered your request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Specifically, you have requested the following information:

Please provide the full consultation responses and data from the Croydon
Libraries consultation held from 7 February to 19 April 2024. This
information informed the report, now published, to be considered by
Croydon Councils Scrutiny and Overview Committee on 17 September 2024, so
it should be available.

Please ensure to include the text of all the individual comments received,
in whatever form (inc. consultation responses/email/comments recorded by
phone, made in all meetings and drop ins relating to the consultation).

If records such as the number of each type of comment were made, please
include these too.

Please make any part available as soon as it is ready rather than delay
until different aspects of data/ information are collated together. I am
still awaiting, for example, a copy of the meetings and drop-in reports
that I originally requested on 26 April 2024.

The Council is able to partially respond to your request.
Please find attached the following:

• Libraries Review consultation survey quantitative response data
• Summary meeting notes made during consultation meetings and activities
• Libraries Review – Phase 3 Consultation Findings Report which summarises
comments and feedback: [1]Appendix B - Library Service Review - Phase 3
consultation findings report - v1.0 17 Sep 24.pdf (croydon.gov.uk)

Due to the volume of the responses received  (3614 survey responses and
152 emails), an officer would need to review all responses and ensure all
personal information is redacted.  Withholding of personal data as defined
by the Data Protection Act 2018, falls within the exemption in Section 40
(2) (a) (i) (Personal Information) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
We estimate that the cumulative time it would take to review the freetext
responses and remove any identifying information would be in excess of the
time limit threshold for processing freedom of information
requests.  Therefore, we are unable to disclose the information you are
seeking as it would take our officers in excess of 18 hours

The Freedom of Information (Fees and Appropriate Limit) Regulations 2004
specify an “appropriate limit” for the amount of time the council needs to
spend undertaking that search.  If the council estimates that the time to
taken to locate, retrieve and extract the information requested will
exceed the appropriate limit, then under Section 12 of the Act, it is not
obliged to carry comply with that request.

The appropriate limit currently specified by the Regulations for local
authorities is £450. This represents the estimated cost of one person
spending two and a half working days in locating, retrieving and
extracting the information from where it is stored.

The Council publishes Access to Information requests and responses on its
online Disclosure Log. (Any request included within this log will be
anonymised appropriately)

To view the Council’s Disclosure Log, please visit our website available
here:

[2]The Freedom of Information (FOI) Act | Croydon Council
(disclosure-log.co.uk)

If you are dissatisfied with the way the Council has handled your request
under the Freedom of Information Act you may ask for an internal review.
This should be submitted to us within 40 working days of this response.
You can do this by outlining the details of your complaint by:

Email:        [3][email address]

Writing:     Information Team

London Borough of Croydon

Bernard Weatherill House

Floor 7 - Zone B

                  8 Mint Walk

Croydon, CR0 1EA

Any requests received after the 40 working day time limit will be
considered only at the discretion of the council.

If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have
the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a
decision. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:

Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire, SK9 5AF

Yours sincerely,

Information Team

Croydon Digital Services

Assistant Chief Executive Directorate

Bernard Wetherill House,

Mint Walk,

Croydon,

CR0 1EA

[4][email address]

[email address]

References

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1. https://democracy.croydon.gov.uk/documen...
2. https://croydon.disclosure-log.co.uk/
3. mailto:[email%20address]
4. mailto:[email%20address]

Dear Ms Ash,

Please find re-attached for your kind attention.

It is quite a large Excel file and you may not open via mobile browser,
however, please do not hesitate to contact us if you still have issues
with accessing the file.

Kind regards,

Information Management Team
Croydon Digital Services

Assistant Chief Executive Directorate
Floor 3 Zone E, Bernard Wetherill House, Mint Walk, Croydon, CR0 1EA

Dear [Croydon Borough Council request email],

Thank you for these files and for responding within the set timeframes
which is appreciated.

I have had a brief look at the files you have sent and it appears that
the file FOI 10593 Libraries ReviewConsultation Survey Redacted.xlsx is
corrupted and I cannot open it because it is not recoverable.

Would you please kindly check this file and resend on that is not
corrupted? I will then be in a position to confirm whether or not I have
all the information I require and whether to close the case or request a
review..

Yours sincerely,

Elizabeth Ash

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Dear Ms Ash,

Our apologies that you are unable to access the document, we suspect that
due to the size it may be inaccessible via the whatdotheyknow site.

I have converted the file to PDF and hopefully this should fix the issue,
however, if you are unable to access please do let us know.  It may be
worthwhile to provide us with an alternative email address so that we can
send to you directly, if you continue having issues accessing the file.

Kind regards,

Information Management Team
Croydon Digital Services

Assistant Chief Executive Directorate
Floor 3 Zone E, Bernard Wetherill House, Mint Walk, Croydon, CR0 1EA

Dear [Croydon Borough Council request email],

Thank you for sending another version of the file but this too is
showing as corrupted and not recoverable. I delayed replying until I had
tried on several devices in case the problem was my end. It is not and
anyone who has tried has the same problem.

Please would you check the file and send one that is not corrupted?

Until I receive this I cannot judge whether or not I need to request an
internal review.

Yours sincerely,

Elizabeth Ash

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