Details of Meeting on the Regulation of Punting
Richard Taylor made this Freedom of Information request to Cambridge City Council This request has been closed to new correspondence. Contact us if you think it should be reopened.
At a meeting of the Conservators of the River Cam on the 15th of January 2009 a meeting between Cambridge City Council and the Conservators planned for Friday the 16th of January was mentioned. It was reported this meeting was to discuss the regulation of punting in the city.
The Chair of the Conservators said he expected the City Council would publish the minutes of that meeting.
I would like to request the release of the agenda, minutes and any papers relating to that meeting.
In the event no formal minutes were made I would like to request any other record of who attended along with what was discussed and agreed at the meeting be released. This information may, for example, be contained in emails between council officers and the Conservators.
Many thanks,
--
Richard Taylor
Cambridge
Dear Mr Taylor
Thank you for your request for information under Freedom of Information.
I am passing your request onto Alastair Roberts, Safer Communities Section Manager and in accordance with the Act a full response will be sent to you within 20 days, 2 March 2009.
Kind regards
Zoe
FAO: James McWilliams,
Following your request, by phone, for my postal address for the City Council's FOI system's records I am writing with links to guidance stating that while section 8.1.b of the FOI Act asks for an "address for correspondence" the email address I have used for this request is sufficient.
The Ministry of Justice has guidance on this which states "As well as hard copy written correspondence, requests that are transmitted electronically (for example, in emails) are acceptable ... If a request is received by email and no postal address is given, the email address should be treated as the return address." (1)
Additionally the Information Commissioner's Hints for Practitioners say "Any correspondence could include a request for information. If it is written (this includes e-mail), legible, gives the name of the applicant, an address for reply (which could be electronic), and includes a description of the information required, then it will fall within the scope of the legislation." (2)
1. http://www.justice.gov.uk/guidance/foi-p...
2. http://www.ico.gov.uk/upload/documents/l...
--
Richard Taylor
Cambridge
Richard Taylor left an annotation ()
I received a phone call a few minutes later (apparantly before Mr McWilliams had received the above email) saying he had found the guidance which I had referred to during our phone conversation and he would ensure the document I am seeking will be emailed to me.
Mr Taylor
Due to the size of the document we are trying to send you, it is being electronically rejected. We have compressed the file but the problem still occurs.
Could you please advise how else you would like the information to be sent to yourself.
Kind Regards
Charlotte
Safer Communities Section
Please consider the environment - do you really need to print this
e-mail?
FAO Charlotte - Safer Communities Section
I believe my email system can handle attachments up to 50MB, can you let me know if the document you are trying to send me is really that large?
Does it contain lots of photographs? If it does - could you email me the text and I will arrange to collect the image files in person.
If the document is larger than 50MB with no obvious reason for it having a large size could I suggest you ask your IT support staff to assist you?
Many thanks,
--
Richard Taylor
Cambridge
Richard Taylor left an annotation ()
It is interesting to see the council's "Anti-Social Behaviour" team is now dealing with this request. It might indicate their attitudes to punting regulation; punting is one of the city's major assets and tourist attractions.
Mr Taylor
Thanks for your e mail.
Because many of the e mails have been scanned onto a folder, the size of the document has increased dramatically. I have spoken with our IT team, who have not been able to help with this matter.
Perhaps i could burn all the information onto a DVD and you can come and collect this?
I hope this is okay
Charlotte
Safer Communities Section
FAO Charlotte - Safer Communities Section
I would be happy to come in and collect a DVD containing the information.
--
Richard Taylor
Cambridge
Please advise when you are free to come in.
Please contact our office on 01223 457 950 to arrange a suitable time.
Many thanks
Charlotte
FAO Charlotte - Safer Communities Section
Could you leave the disk with your reception, on St Andrews Street, so I can pick it up on Monday afternoon (2nd March)?
--
Richard Taylor
Cambridge
Richard
That will be fine, I will mark it for your attention.
Many thanks
Charlotte
Richard Taylor left an annotation ()
I have been to collect the CD containing the information from the council.
The text of the response along with my comments on it are available via my website:
http://www.rtaylor.co.uk/regulating-punt...
I will be offering the documents to whatdotheyknow.com to archive on this site.
Francis Irving left an annotation ()
The documents that Richard collected on CD are available here:
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/files/requ...
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
Richard Taylor left an annotation ()
Further information on this request is available from my website:
http://www.rtaylor.co.uk/conservators-of...