Garden Village Viability Assessment

The request was successful.

Dear Hart District Council,

Earlier this year you published a series of documents related to the successful Shapley Heath bid for funds under the Government's Garen Village programme.

The bid document makes clear that there was an accompanying document that contained a viability assessment of the proposal - Appendix 8. Unfortunately, that Appendix has not yet been made public. The Government's planning guidance on viability, updated on 24 July 2019 ( https://www.gov.uk/guidance/viability ) states:

"Any viability assessment should be supported by appropriate available evidence informed by engagement with developers, landowners, and infrastructure and affordable housing providers. Any viability assessment should follow the government’s recommended approach to assessing viability as set out in this National Planning Guidance and be proportionate, simple, transparent and publicly available. Improving transparency of data associated with viability assessment will, over time, improve the data available for future assessment as well as provide more accountability regarding how viability informs decision making".

In the light of this Government guidance, I would be grateful if you would now publish the relevant documents related to the viability assessment of Shapley Heath.

Yours faithfully,

David Turver

FOI User, Hart District Council

Thank you for your email, if you have submitted an FOI request this is
your acknowledgment receipt of your request for information under the
Freedom of Information Act 2000
Assuming Hart hold this information we will ensure to supply the data
within 20 working days. If you have submitted your request over the
weekend and/or bank holiday (inc public holidays) this time frame will
apply from the next working day.
We will advise you as soon as possible if we do not hold the information
or if there are any exemptions to be considered and/or any costs for
providing the information.
Your request is currently being processed and you will be provided with
your reference number.
Should your email not be a FOI request, we will action your email
promptly.

FOI User, Hart District Council

Dear David,

Your FOI has been logged and allocated to an officer.

 

Reference:  19/02795/FOI

 

Please quote the above in any future correspondence relating to this FOI
request.

Kind regards,

Ellie
FOI Co-Ordinator
Hart District Council
Harlington Way
Fleet
GU51 4AE

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: David Turver <[FOI #615596 email]>
Sent: 25 October 2019 17:10
To: FOI User <[Hart District Council request email]>
Subject: Freedom of Information request - Garden Village Viability
Assessment
 
Dear Hart District Council,

Earlier this year you published a series of documents related to the
successful Shapley Heath bid for funds under the Government's Garen
Village programme.

The bid document makes clear that there was an accompanying document that
contained a viability assessment of the proposal - Appendix 8.
Unfortunately, that Appendix has not yet been made public. The
Government's planning guidance on viability, updated on  24 July 2019  (
[1]https://www.gov.uk/guidance/viability ) states:

"Any viability assessment should be supported by appropriate available
evidence informed by engagement with developers, landowners, and
infrastructure and affordable housing providers. Any viability assessment
should follow the government’s recommended approach to assessing viability
as set out in this National Planning Guidance and be proportionate,
simple, transparent and publicly available. Improving transparency of data
associated with viability assessment will, over time, improve the data
available for future assessment as well as provide more accountability
regarding how viability informs decision making".

In the light of this Government guidance, I would be grateful if you would
now publish the relevant documents related to the viability assessment of
Shapley Heath.

Yours faithfully,

David Turver

-------------------------------------------------------------------

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[FOI #615596 email]

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Please note that in some cases publication of requests and responses will
be delayed.

If you find this service useful as an FOI officer, please ask your web
manager to link to us from your organisation's FOI page.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

References

Visible links
1. https://www.gov.uk/guidance/viability
2. https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/change_re...
3. https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/help/offi...
4. https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/help/ico-...

FOI User, Hart District Council

Dear David,

Further to your Freedom of Information request reference: 19/02795/FOI

Re: Garden Village Viability Assesment

The Council does hold the requested information and our response is as
follows:

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

In accordance with [1]Section 43 of the Freedom of Information Act,
relating to trade secrets and commercial interests it is a requirement of
the Council consider what prejudice may arise from publication of such
information.

Please note that the term 'prejudice' means that prejudice is more
probable than not to occur (i.e. a more than a 50% change of the
disclosure causing the prejudice, event though it is not absolutely
certain that it would do so).

When a public authority considers whether to withhold information on the
basis that to disclose the information would or would be likely to
prejudice the commercial interests of a third party, it must have evidence
that that this does, in fact, represent the concerns of that third party.

If it is established that the third party does not itself have any
arguments or concerns about prejudice to its commercial interests, then
the Council cannot speculate on potential harm to that third party.

Notwithstanding any consideration of commercial interests, that a third
party may have, Section 43 is a qualified exemption. This means that as a
public authority we have to consider the public interest - if the
exemption is engaged because of prejudice to commercial interests. The
Council has to decide, whether the balance of the public interest in
maintaining the exemption outweighs that of disclosing the information.

With regards to your request that this document is published, we have
cleared the document for publication and will in due course appear on the
Councils website on the [2]Garden Community Page

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

If you are unhappy with the way your request for information has been
handled, you can request a review. Please write in the first instance to:

FOI Co-Ordinator

Hart District Council

Civic Offices

Fleet

GU51 4AE

[Hart District Council request email]

If you remain dissatisfied with the handling of your request or complaint,
you have a right to appeal to the Information Commissioner at:

Information Commissioner’s Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

Telephone 0303 123 1113 or 01625 545 745 www.ico.gov.uk

There is no charge for making an appeal.

Kind regards,

Alice
FOI Co-Ordinator
Hart District Council
Harlington Way
Fleet
GU51 4AE

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: David Turver <[FOI #615596 email]>
Sent: 25 October 2019 17:10
To: FOI User <[Hart District Council request email]>
Subject: Freedom of Information request - Garden Village Viability
Assessment
 
Dear Hart District Council,

Earlier this year you published a series of documents related to the
successful Shapley Heath bid for funds under the Government's Garen
Village programme.

The bid document makes clear that there was an accompanying document that
contained a viability assessment of the proposal - Appendix 8.
Unfortunately, that Appendix has not yet been made public. The
Government's planning guidance on viability, updated on  24 July 2019  (
[3]https://www.gov.uk/guidance/viability ) states:

"Any viability assessment should be supported by appropriate available
evidence informed by engagement with developers, landowners, and
infrastructure and affordable housing providers. Any viability assessment
should follow the government’s recommended approach to assessing viability
as set out in this National Planning Guidance and be proportionate,
simple, transparent and publicly available. Improving transparency of data
associated with viability assessment will, over time, improve the data
available for future assessment as well as provide more accountability
regarding how viability informs decision making".

In the light of this Government guidance, I would be grateful if you would
now publish the relevant documents related to the viability assessment of
Shapley Heath.

Yours faithfully,

David Turver

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Please use this email address for all replies to this request:
[FOI #615596 email]

Is [Hart District Council request email] the wrong address for Freedom of Information requests
to Hart District Council? If so, please contact us using this form:
[4]https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/change_re...

Disclaimer: This message and any reply that you make will be published on
the internet. Our privacy and copyright policies:
[5]https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/help/offi...

For more detailed guidance on safely disclosing information, read the
latest advice from the ICO:
[6]https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/help/ico-...

Please note that in some cases publication of requests and responses will
be delayed.

If you find this service useful as an FOI officer, please ask your web
manager to link to us from your organisation's FOI page.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

References

Visible links
1. https://ico.org.uk/media/for-organisatio...
2. https://www.hart.gov.uk/garden-community
https://www.hart.gov.uk/garden-community
3. https://www.gov.uk/guidance/viability
4. https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/change_re...
5. https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/help/offi...
6. https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/help/ico-...

Dear FOI User,

Thank you for your reply. Thank you for agreeing to publish the information. I would be grateful if you could alert me once published on the council website.

Yours sincerely,

David Turver

FOI User, Hart District Council

Thank you for your email, if you have submitted an FOI request this is
your acknowledgment receipt of your request for information under the
Freedom of Information Act 2000
Assuming Hart hold this information we will ensure to supply the data
within 20 working days. If you have submitted your request over the
weekend and/or bank holiday (inc public holidays) this time frame will
apply from the next working day.
We will advise you as soon as possible if we do not hold the information
or if there are any exemptions to be considered and/or any costs for
providing the information.
Your request is currently being processed and you will be provided with
your reference number.
Should your email not be a FOI request, we will action your email
promptly.

Dear Hart District Council,

I note that you have now published something called Appendix 5 on your website. However, the bid and my FOI request made reference to Appendix 8 to the bid. Can you now release Appendix 8 please?

I am framing this email as an internal review of your original response.

Yours faithfully,

David Turver

FOI User, Hart District Council

Dear David,
This upload is labelled as Appendix 8 on the Garden Community page of our
website. Is this what you are looking for?
 [1]https://www.hart.gov.uk/sites/default/fi...

Kind regards,

Alice
FOI Co-Ordinator
Hart District Council
Harlington Way
Fleet
GU51 4AE

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: David Turver <[FOI #615596 email]>
Sent: 23 November 2019 09:46
To: FOI User <[Hart District Council request email]>
Subject: Internal review of Freedom of Information request - Garden
Village Viability Assessment
 
Dear Hart District Council,

I note that you have now published something called Appendix 5 on your
website. However, the bid and my FOI request made reference to Appendix 8
to the bid. Can you now release Appendix 8 please?

I am framing this email as an internal review of your original response.

Yours faithfully,

David Turver

show quoted sections

Dear FOI User,
There appears to be some confusion here. Section 11 of your bid refers to the viability assessment as Appendix 8. A version of Appendix 8 has been in the public domain for some time, but doesn't include any viability assessment. You have subsequently released Appendix 5.

I am trying to understand if there is additional viability assessment data in the complete Appendix 8 document.

Can you clarify please.

Yours sincerely,

David Turver

FOI User, Hart District Council

Dear David,

Hart District council has received your request, in which you ask for an
internal review of our response to your Freedom of Information request
reference:  19/03048/FOIREV

  

We aim to send you a full response to this review by 16.01.2019, which is
forty working days from the date we received your request. The monitoring
officer will conduct this independent review in accordance to Information
Commissioner Office guidelines (ICO) 

Kind regards,

Ellie
FOI Co-Ordinator
Hart District Council
Harlington Way
Fleet
GU51 4AE

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: David Turver <[FOI #615596 email]>
Sent: 25 November 2019 19:32
To: FOI User <[Hart District Council request email]>
Subject: Re: Internal review of Freedom of Information request - Garden
Village Viability Assessment
 
Dear FOI User,
There appears to be some confusion here. Section 11 of your bid refers to
the viability assessment as Appendix 8. A version of Appendix 8 has been
in the public domain for some time, but doesn't include any viability
assessment. You have subsequently released Appendix 5.

I am trying to understand if there is additional viability assessment data
in the complete Appendix 8 document.

Can you clarify please.

Yours sincerely,

David Turver

show quoted sections

FOI User, Hart District Council

Dear David,
Further to your FOI Review Request reference: 19/03048/FOIREV
The Council has reviewed its response to your original FOI request and our
review is below:
________________________________________________________________________________________
We appreciate that there may be some confusion.  We are sorry for this.
 In the Bid document, we referred to Appendix 8 with reference to
viability.  However, this is incorrect.  We should have referred to
Appendix 5.  Appendix 5 is published on the web site.
However, our review has revealed a document that comprises part of
Appendix 5 but which was not published – it is a high level summary of the
viability study.  We  have now published the document
([1]https://www.hart.gov.uk/sites/default/fi...)
which should be read as comprising part of Appendix 5.  For clarity
purposes the GDV figure (£1,684,763,643) in the additional document can be
cross reference with the £1.68bn figure reference in Para 3.9.  The RLV
figure of £171,486,125 as well as the BLV, and Surplus/Deficit figures are
the same as those used in the table at Para 4.1 in Appendix 5.
________________________________________________________________________________________

If you remain dissatisfied with the handling of your request or complaint,
you have a right to appeal to the Information Commissioner at:

Information Commissioner’s Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

Telephone 0303 123 1113 or 01625 545 745 www.ico.gov.uk

There is no charge for making an appeal.

Kind regards,

Ellie 
FOI Co-Ordinator
Hart District Council
Harlington Way
Fleet
GU51 4AE

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: FOI User <[Hart District Council request email]>
Sent: 27 November 2019 10:28
To: David Turver <[FOI #615596 email]>
Subject: Re: Internal review of Freedom of Information request - Garden
Village Viability Assessment
 
Dear David,

Hart District council has received your request, in which you ask for an
internal review of our response to your Freedom of Information request
reference:  19/03048/FOIREV

  

We aim to send you a full response to this review by 16.01.2019, which is
forty working days from the date we received your request. The monitoring
officer will conduct this independent review in accordance to Information
Commissioner Office guidelines (ICO) 

Kind regards,

Ellie
FOI Co-Ordinator
Hart District Council
Harlington Way
Fleet
GU51 4AE

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: David Turver <[FOI #615596 email]>
Sent: 25 November 2019 19:32
To: FOI User <[Hart District Council request email]>
Subject: Re: Internal review of Freedom of Information request - Garden
Village Viability Assessment
 
Dear FOI User,
There appears to be some confusion here. Section 11 of your bid refers to
the viability assessment as Appendix 8. A version of Appendix 8 has been
in the public domain for some time, but doesn't include any viability
assessment. You have subsequently released Appendix 5.

I am trying to understand if there is additional viability assessment data
in the complete Appendix 8 document.

Can you clarify please.

Yours sincerely,

David Turver

show quoted sections