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Emails between TfL and Developers in Elephant and Castle

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Dear Transport for London,

Further to your response TfL Ref: 3015-1920, in which you identified 606 emails ('hits'), including 218 emails with attachments, concerning communications between TfL and interested parties in relation to the development in Elephant and Castle, please provide a table or spreadsheet document with the following information of those 606 emails:

-subject of the email
-sent/received date
-name and email of the sender/s
-name and email of the receiver/s, including persons copied in
-the title of each attached document and their number of pages
-the file name of the attachment, including the file extension and file size in KB or MB
-size of the email in KB or MB.
-the keyword/s used in the search [1) 'elephant and castle', 'elephant & castle', 'e&c' – 593 'hits'; 2) '16/ap/4458' – 8 'hits'; 3) 'TGL190331', 'LN113754', '271661', 'LN51641' - 5 'hits']

If the full names and emails of some of the senders and/or receivers need to be omitted for privacy reasons, please state the reasons.

I am making this request under the Environmental Information Regulations 2004.

I am looking forward to hearing from you.

Yours faithfully,

Mr Salvador

FOI, Transport for London

Dear Mr Salvador,

 

TfL Ref: EIR-0450-2021

 

Thank you for your request received by Transport for London (TfL) on 19^th
June 2020 asking for information about the development of the Elephant
and Castle.

 

Please note, the Government has announced a series of measures to tackle
the coronavirus. It is essential for London that we continue to provide a
safe transport network for essential journeys.

 

In current circumstances, we are not able to answer information requests
readily and we ask that you please do not make a request to us at present.

 

Answering such requests will require the use of limited resources and the
attention of staff who could be supporting other essential activity. In
any event, please note that our response time will be affected by the
current situation. Please notify us as soon as possible if you would like
to withdraw your request at the current time.

 

Should you wish to proceed with the request we will aim to issue a
response by 20^th July 2020 in accordance with the Environmental
Information Regulations and our information access policy. We publish a
substantial range of information on our website on subjects including
operational performance, contracts, expenditure, journey data, governance
and our financial performance. This includes data which is frequently
asked for in FOI requests or other public queries. Please check
[1]http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/transpar... to see if this helps you.

 

We will publish anonymised versions of requests and responses on the
[2]www.tfl.gov.uk website. We will not publish your name and we will send
a copy of the response to you before it is published on our website.

 

In the meantime, if you would like to discuss this matter further, please
do not hesitate to contact me.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

David Wells

FOI Case Officer

FOI Case Management Team

General Counsel

Transport for London

 

 

 

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Dear Mr Wells,

Thank you for your prompt response.

I appreciate that the request may take longer than usual under the current circumstances, nonetheless, I would be grateful if you can proceed with my request.

Yours sincerely,

Mr Salvador

FOI, Transport for London

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Salvador,

 

TfL Ref: EIR-0450-2021

 

Thank you for your request received by Transport for London (TfL) on 19^th
June 2020 asking for information about the development of the Elephant
and Castle.

 

Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of
the Environmental Information Regulations and our information access
policy. 

 

Specifically you asked:

 

“Further to your response TfL Ref: 3015-1920, in which you identified 606
emails ('hits'), including 218 emails with attachments, concerning
communications between TfL and interested parties in relation to the
development in Elephant and Castle, please provide a table or spreadsheet
document with the following information of those 606 emails:

 

-subject of the email

-sent/received date

-name and email of the sender/s

-name and email of the receiver/s, including persons copied in -the title
of each attached document and their number of pages -the file name of the
attachment, including the file extension and file size in KB or MB -size
of the email in KB or MB.

-the keyword/s used in the search [1) 'elephant and castle', 'elephant &
castle', 'e&c' – 593 'hits'; 2) '16/ap/4458' – 8 'hits'; 3) 'TGL190331',
'LN113754', '271661', 'LN51641' - 5 'hits']

 

If the full names and emails of some of the senders and/or receivers need
to be omitted for privacy reasons, please state the reasons.

 

I can confirm that we hold the information you require. However, the
request is being refused under regulation 12(4)(b) of the EIR on the
grounds that it would be “manifestly unreasonable” to comply. The guidance
on the use of this exception from the Information Commissioner’s Office
(ICO) states that it can apply when the cost of compliance with the
request would be too great, and that:

 

“The purpose of the exception is to protect public authorities from
exposure to a disproportionate burden or an unjustified level of distress,
disruption or irritation, in handling information requests”.

 

While we appreciate the need for transparency and accountability from
public bodies in the conduct of their business, and the expectation under
EIR that requested information will be released, in this instance we
believe that the balance of public interest falls in favour of the
exception applying given the amount of resource that would be required to
be expended in meeting the request. There is no automated, easy or
efficient way to compile the information you have asked for. Rather, we
would be required to go through each of the 606 emails in turn and collate
the information individually. We also consider there to be very limited
value in using our resource in this way and so we believe this would
represent a disproportionate burden and unjustified level of disruption,
requiring the allocation of limited resources which would more
beneficially be spent elsewhere.

 

You may wish to refine your request to focus more directly on the
information that is of most importance to you. Specifically you may find
it more efficient to ask specific questions that we can address, rather
than fish for information in a very broad way that is likely to generate
resource concerns. In making any future request I would ask that you take
into account the guidance and advice provided by the ICO on how best to
access information from public bodies, such as the “dos and don’ts”
published on its website here:
[1]https://ico.org.uk/your-data-matters/off....

 

You will note that the table halfway down that page includes the following
advice to applicants:

 

Don’t… “Submit frivolous or trivial requests; remember that processing any
information request involves some cost to the public purse”;

Don’t… “Disrupt a public authority by the sheer volume of information
requested…”

Don’t…”Deliberately ‘fish’ for information by submitting very broad or
random requests in the hope it will catch something noteworthy or
otherwise useful.”; and

Do…. “Be as specific as possible about the information you want rather
than asking general questions. Try to include details such as dates and
names whenever you can. It may also assist the authority in identifying
the information if you explain the purpose behind your request.”

 

The impact of current circumstances on TfL’s resources means we are not
able to answer FOI requests readily and we ask that you please do not make
a request to us at present.

 

Answering FOI requests will require the use of limited resources and the
attention of staff who could be supporting other essential activity. In
any event, please note that our response time will be affected by the
current situation.

 

Please see the attached information sheet for details of your right to
appeal.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

David Wells

FOI Case Officer

FOI Case Management Team

General Counsel

Transport for London

 

 

 

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We don't know whether the most recent response to this request contains information or not – if you are Mr Salvador please sign in and let everyone know.