Environmental information relating to any concerns raised about the location of Traveller sites in hazardous or polluted locations
Dear Maidstone Borough Council,
Please could you provide the following information on socially rented Traveller sites in your local authority area for the five full calendar years between 2017 and 2021. This includes all sites owned and managed by the local authority or by a housing association, but not private sites. For any 'yes' answers, please specify in your answer which site the answer refers to, e.g. 'Mary Street, Bradford', or 'Esholt Site, Bradford'.
For the purposes of this request, this is made under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and the Environmental Information Regulations 2004.
For more information: https://ico.org.uk/media/for-organisatio... https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/gui...
If you are unable to provide five years of information within the FOI/EIR cost limits, please prioritise 2021 and work backwards in reverse chronological order.
1a. Have you received any environmental complaints from residents or other parties, including council officers, between 2017 and 2021? Please respond with a 'Yes' or 'No' answer for each of the five years.
1b. For any 'Yes' answers, please list how many complaints you received by type for each calendar year. For example: 2017 - Total: 18 - 8 complaints for vermin, 2 from odour from refuse dump, 1 for noise, 3 for insects, 1 for dust, 2 for air pollution, 1 for flooding etc
2a. Between 2017 and 2021, has the council measured air or noise pollution, or taken soil samples to test for contamination? Please respond with a 'Yes' or 'No' answer for each of the five years for air, soil and noise separately. For example: 2017 - Noise pollution - Yes; Soil - No; Air pollution - Yes.
2b. For any 'Yes' answers, please state whether or not pollution or contamination exceeded legal or recommended levels, or was higher than the local authority area average on the site at any point through each year. Please give as much detail as you can, such as the month the breach occurred. For example: 2017 - Noise pollution exceeded legal or recommended levels in March; air pollution exceeded legal level.
Yours faithfully,
Katharine Quarmby
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Information Governance Team
Corporate Insight, Communities and Governance
Maidstone Borough Council, King Street, Maidstone, Kent ME15 6JQ
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Date: 20/4/2022
Dear Katharine Quarmby
I am writing in regard to your information request. In order to respond
to your request, we need clarification on the following point(s):
• For question 1a - For clarity, the Council has its own complaints
process, please can you confirm what environmental complaints you are
looking and are they just to relate to the travellers sites? Below is the
link to the complaints process:
[1]https://www.kent.gov.uk/about-the-counci...
• Question 1a - Environmental complaints is a very broad area. -
Please can you define what you actually are wanting included in this part
of the request.
• Question 2a & b – Between 2017 and 2021, has the council measured
air or noise pollution, or taken soil samples to test for
contamination? Please state whether or not pollution or contamination
exceeded legal or recommended levels - Please confirm if this is
solely for Traveller sites?
Yours sincerely
Information Governance Team
Corporate Insight, Communities and Governance
Maidstone Borough Council, Maidstone House, King Street, Maidstone, Kent
ME15 6JQ
To access our digital services please visit
https://maidstone.gov.uk/service Sign up to receive your Council Tax bill
by email https//maidstone.gov.uk/emailbilling We understand the importance
of ensuring that personal data, including sensitive personal data is
always treated lawfully and appropriately and that the rights of
individuals are upheld. We are required to collect, use and hold personal
data about individuals. Data is required for the purposes of carrying out
our statutory obligations, delivering services and meeting the needs of
individuals that we deal with. This includes current, past and prospective
employees, service users, members of the public, Members of the Council,
our business partners and other local authorities or public bodies. To
view our full statement to see how your data will be stored and processed
please visit https://maidstone.gov.uk/dataprotection This email is
confidential. If you receive it by mistake, please advise the sender by
email immediately. Any unauthorised use of the message or attachments is
prohibited. Unless stated otherwise, any opinions are personal and cannot
be attributed to Maidstone Borough Council. Unless a purchase order is
attached this email is not a contract or an order. It is your
responsibility to carry out Virus checks before opening any attachments.
References
Visible links
1. https://www.kent.gov.uk/about-the-counci...
Dear Complaints & FOI (MBC),
Thank you for your email. My request only relates to complaints from residents in Traveller sites that are socially rented (ie run by the local authority or by a housing association) about their site conditions and the environment around their site. The same is true of the monitoring - ie is there any monitoring of pollution on or near any Traveller sites run by the council?
Yours sincerely,
Katharine Quarmby
Thank you for contacting the Information Governance Team at Maidstone
Borough Council.
This is an automated response to confirm that your e-mail has
been received. Your message will be assigned to a
member of the Information Governance Team. You receive an update
within two working days.
Regards
Information Governance Team
Corporate Insight, Communities and Governance
Maidstone Borough Council, King Street, Maidstone, Kent ME15 6JQ
w [1]www.maidstone.gov.uk
To access our digital services please visit
https://maidstone.gov.uk/service Sign up to receive your Council Tax bill
by email https//maidstone.gov.uk/emailbilling We understand the importance
of ensuring that personal data, including sensitive personal data is
always treated lawfully and appropriately and that the rights of
individuals are upheld. We are required to collect, use and hold personal
data about individuals. Data is required for the purposes of carrying out
our statutory obligations, delivering services and meeting the needs of
individuals that we deal with. This includes current, past and prospective
employees, service users, members of the public, Members of the Council,
our business partners and other local authorities or public bodies. To
view our full statement to see how your data will be stored and processed
please visit https://maidstone.gov.uk/dataprotection This email is
confidential. If you receive it by mistake, please advise the sender by
email immediately. Any unauthorised use of the message or attachments is
prohibited. Unless stated otherwise, any opinions are personal and cannot
be attributed to Maidstone Borough Council. Unless a purchase order is
attached this email is not a contract or an order. It is your
responsibility to carry out Virus checks before opening any attachments.
References
Visible links
1. http://www.maidstone.gov.uk/
Date: 1/6/2022
Ref: EIR/6852
Dear Katherine Quarmby
ENVIRONMENTAL INFORMATION REQUEST
I am writing to confirm that the Council has now completed its search for
the information you requested.
A copy of the information is enclosed.
As far as we’re aware the attached is accurate. As both of our sites are
managed by Kent Council Gypsy & Traveller Unit, we have contacted them to
enquire if they have received any complaints from the residents living at
the sites in the period of time requested. Unfortunately, we have not yet
received a reply to our enquiry from their Team and will pass on their
information once received.
If you have any queries about this letter, please contact us. Please
remember to quote the reference above in any future communications.
If you are unhappy with the service you have received in relation to your
request and wish to request a review of our decision, please respond to
this email and I will pass it on to Mid Kent Legal Services to conduct a
review. Please ensure you outline your reasons for requesting a review.
If you are not content with the outcome of your complaint, you may apply
directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. Generally, the
Information Commissioner cannot make a decision unless you have exhausted
the complaints procedure provided by the Council. The Information
Commissioner can be contacted at: The Information Commissioner’s Office,
Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF.
Yours sincerely
Information Governance Team
Corporate Insight, Communities and Governance
Maidstone Borough Council, Maidstone House, King Street, Maidstone, Kent
ME15 6JQ
w [1]www.maidstone.gov.uk
To access our digital services please visit
https://maidstone.gov.uk/service Sign up to receive your Council Tax bill
by email https//maidstone.gov.uk/emailbilling We understand the importance
of ensuring that personal data, including sensitive personal data is
always treated lawfully and appropriately and that the rights of
individuals are upheld. We are required to collect, use and hold personal
data about individuals. Data is required for the purposes of carrying out
our statutory obligations, delivering services and meeting the needs of
individuals that we deal with. This includes current, past and prospective
employees, service users, members of the public, Members of the Council,
our business partners and other local authorities or public bodies. To
view our full statement to see how your data will be stored and processed
please visit https://maidstone.gov.uk/dataprotection This email is
confidential. If you receive it by mistake, please advise the sender by
email immediately. Any unauthorised use of the message or attachments is
prohibited. Unless stated otherwise, any opinions are personal and cannot
be attributed to Maidstone Borough Council. Unless a purchase order is
attached this email is not a contract or an order. It is your
responsibility to carry out Virus checks before opening any attachments.
References
Visible links
1. http://www.maidstone.gov.uk/
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