Lambeth councillor's involvement in regeneration
Dear Lambeth Borough Council,
Please supply all records (including emails, meeting agendas, reports and supporting documents, minutes and notes spanning the period from her election in 2006 and the present) relating to the work of Councillor Marcia Cameron in the following ways:
i) Records of Cllr Cameron proposing Cressingham Gardens Estate for regeneration by Lambeth Council.
ii) Records of any efforts by Cllr Cameron to secure Lambeth Housing Standard/ Decent Homes Standard funding for Cressingham Gardens Estate.
iii) Any records of discussions relating to repairs and also regeneration on Cressingham Gardens between Cllr Cameron and Cressingham Gardens residents, particularly TRA committee members, past or present.
iv) Records relating to any efforts by Cllr Cameron's to have repairs carried out by Lambeth to properties on Cressingham Gardens.
Yours faithfully,
Joanne Parkes
Information request
Our reference: IR102050
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Dear Sir/Madam
Freedom of Information Act 2000 IR102050
Thank you for your request for information that was received on 24
February 2015.
The full detail of your request is as follows:
Please supply all records (including emails, meeting agendas, reports and
supporting documents, minutes and notes spanning the period from her
election in 2006 and the present) relating to the work of Councillor
Marcia Cameron in the following ways:
i) Records of Cllr Cameron proposing Cressingham Gardens Estate for
regeneration by Lambeth Council.
ii) Records of any efforts by Cllr Cameron to secure Lambeth Housing
Standard/ Decent Homes Standard funding for Cressingham Gardens Estate.
iii) Any records of discussions relating to repairs and also regeneration
on Cressingham Gardens between Cllr Cameron and Cressingham Gardens
residents, particularly TRA committee members, past or present.
iv) Records relating to any efforts by Cllr Cameron's to have repairs
carried out by Lambeth to properties on Cressingham Gardens.
We are dealing with your request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000
and we aim to send a response by 24 March 2015 (which is 20 working days
beginning on the first working day after the date we received your
request).
Thank you for your interest in Lambeth Council.
Yours sincerely
Angela Burch
Customer Services Officer
Freedom of Information Team
London Borough of Lambeth
Tel. 020 7926 9694
E-mail: [1][email address]
website: [2]www.lambeth.gov.uk
Olive Morris House
London
SW2 1RD
Lambeth - the co-operative council
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Information request
Our reference: IR102050
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Dear Sir/Madam
Thank you for your request for information which is being handled under
the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and Environmental Information
Regulations 2004.
I am writing to ask you to claify your request. It is likely that the
information on indvidual cases you have requested in part (iii) will be
subject to an exemption as some of the questions relates to personal data
and internal communications. I am happy to discuss with you alternative
ways of framing your request and what information we may hold that could
be released to you.
I will not be able to take this matter further without this extra
information from you. Please let me know by 6 May 2015.
If I do not hear from you within the timeframe povided. I shall take it
that you do not wish to pursue this request and will consider the request
closed.
If you need assistance, please contact me on 07854 272 383. Please
remember to quote our reference number IR102050 in any future
communications.
Yours faithfully
Richard Carter
Freedom of Information Co-ordinator
FOI team
London Borough of Lambeth
Tel.
E-mail [email address]
Website: [1]www.lambeth.gov.uk
Lambeth - a Co-operative Council
"This email (and/or attachment) may contain information that is legally
privileged. If you have received this in error please notify the sender
immediately"
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Dear FOI team,
Happy to discuss question framing. Tried your number but no answer. Do please suggest a good time.
Yours sincerely,
Joanne Parkes
Dear Ms Parkes
Thank you for your email.
I am around all this morning, so please give me a call
Kind regards
Richard Carter
FOI Co-ordinator
Corporate Complaints Unit
Corporate Affairs
Enabling
London Borough of Lambeth
mobile: 07854 272 383
email: [1][email address]
website: [2]www.lambeth.gov.uk
Lambeth Town Hall
London
SW2 1RW
Lambeth - a cooperative council
"This email (and/or attachments) may contain information that is legally
privileged. If you have received this in error please delete all content
and notify the sender immediately."
Disclaimers apply for full details see
http://www.lambeth.gov.uk/EmailDisclaime...
References
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2. http://www.lambeth.gov.uk/
http://www.lambeth.gov.uk/
Dear Richard,
You have asked me to reframe part of my question in the following terms:
iii) Full records of discussions relating to repairs and also regeneration on Cressingham Gardens between Cllr Cameron and Cressingham Gardens residents, particularly TRA committee members, past or present. I understand that under certain circumstances as agreed, third party names (though not in the case of the TRA committee) will be redacted along with any details that might lead to their identification.
Yours sincerely,
Joanne Parkes
Dear Ms Parkes
Environmental Information Regulatoions Request (ref: IR102050)
Cressingham Gardens Estate
Please accept my apologies for the delay in responding to your request. I
have collated the information held by the Council, however, this amounts
to a substantial amount of information which I have printed out hard
copy. Would it be possible for me to send this to you in the post hard
copy, please fee free to contact me direct via my email address:
[email address] if you wish to avoid giving out your postal address
over What Do They Know.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Kind regards
Richard Carter
FOI Co-ordinator
Corporate Complaints Unit
Corporate Affairs
Enabling
London Borough of Lambeth
mobile: 07854 272 383
email: [1][email address]
website: [2]www.lambeth.gov.uk
Lambeth Town Hall
London
SW2 1RW
Lambeth - a cooperative council
"This email (and/or attachments) may contain information that is legally
privileged. If you have received this in error please delete all content
and notify the sender immediately."
Disclaimers apply for full details see
http://www.lambeth.gov.uk/EmailDisclaime...
References
Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
2. http://www.lambeth.gov.uk/
http://www.lambeth.gov.uk/
Dear Richard Carter,
Thanks for collating the information. Please could this be published online?
Yours sincerely,
Joanne Parkes
Information request
Our reference: IR102050
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Dear Ms Parkes
Environmental Information Regulations 2004
Final two documents added
Yours faithfully
Richard Carter
Freedom of Information Co-ordinator
FOI team
London Borough of Lambeth
Tel. 07854 272 383
E-mail [email address]
Website: [1]www.lambeth.gov.uk
Lambeth - a Co-operative Council
"This email (and/or attachment) may contain information that is legally
privileged. If you have received this in error please notify the sender
immediately"
Disclaimers apply for full details see
http://www.lambeth.gov.uk/EmailDisclaime...
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Dear FOI team,
Sorry if I've overlooked an earlier response, but I can't see much documentation and you indicated there was a large amount. Are there only two documents?
Yours sincerely,
Joanne Parkes
Information request
Our reference: IR102050
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Dear Ms Parkes
Thank you for your email.
It appears that the attachments I sent back in the previous two emails to
the one you have received have bounced back because of their size. I
shall send these across in smaller packages.
I apologise for any inconvenience caused.
Yours faithfully
[1]http://icasework.lambeth.gov.uk/off/serv...
Richard Carter
Freedom of Information Co-ordinator
FOI team
London Borough of Lambeth
Tel. 07854 272 383
E-mail [email address]
Website: [2]www.lambeth.gov.uk
Lambeth - a Co-operative Council
"This email (and/or attachment) may contain information that is legally
privileged. If you have received this in error please notify the sender
immediately"
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Cllr correspondence attached on regeneration of estate attached
Kind regards
Richard Carter
FOI Co-ordinator
Corporate Complaints Unit
Corporate Affairs
Enabling
London Borough of Lambeth
mobile: 07854 272 383
email: [1][email address]
website: [2]www.lambeth.gov.uk
Lambeth Town Hall
London
SW2 1RW
Lambeth - a cooperative council
"This email (and/or attachments) may contain information that is legally
privileged. If you have received this in error please delete all content
and notify the sender immediately."
Disclaimers apply for full details see
http://www.lambeth.gov.uk/EmailDisclaime...
References
Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
2. http://www.lambeth.gov.uk/
http://www.lambeth.gov.uk/
Further attachments
Kind regards
Richard Carter
FOI Co-ordinator
Corporate Complaints Unit
Corporate Affairs
Enabling
London Borough of Lambeth
mobile: 07854 272 383
email: [1][email address]
website: [2]www.lambeth.gov.uk
Lambeth Town Hall
London
SW2 1RW
Lambeth - a cooperative council
"This email (and/or attachments) may contain information that is legally
privileged. If you have received this in error please delete all content
and notify the sender immediately."
Disclaimers apply for full details see
http://www.lambeth.gov.uk/EmailDisclaime...
References
Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
2. http://www.lambeth.gov.uk/
http://www.lambeth.gov.uk/
Further attachments
Kind regards
Richard Carter
FOI Co-ordinator
Corporate Complaints Unit
Corporate Affairs
Enabling
London Borough of Lambeth
mobile: 07854 272 383
email: [1][email address]
website: [2]www.lambeth.gov.uk
Lambeth Town Hall
London
SW2 1RW
Lambeth - a cooperative council
"This email (and/or attachments) may contain information that is legally
privileged. If you have received this in error please delete all content
and notify the sender immediately."
Disclaimers apply for full details see
http://www.lambeth.gov.uk/EmailDisclaime...
References
Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
2. http://www.lambeth.gov.uk/
http://www.lambeth.gov.uk/
Further attachments
Kind regards
Richard Carter
FOI Co-ordinator
Corporate Complaints Unit
Corporate Affairs
Enabling
London Borough of Lambeth
mobile: 07854 272 383
email: [1][email address]
website: [2]www.lambeth.gov.uk
Lambeth Town Hall
London
SW2 1RW
Lambeth - a cooperative council
"This email (and/or attachments) may contain information that is legally
privileged. If you have received this in error please delete all content
and notify the sender immediately."
Disclaimers apply for full details see
http://www.lambeth.gov.uk/EmailDisclaime...
References
Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
2. http://www.lambeth.gov.uk/
http://www.lambeth.gov.uk/
Information request
Our reference: IR102050
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Dear Ms Parkes
Please find attached decision notice
Yours sincerely
Richard Carter
Freedom of Information Co-ordinator
FOI team
London Borough of Lambeth
Tel. 07854 272 383
E-mail [email address]
Website: [1]www.lambeth.gov.uk
Lambeth - a Co-operative Council
"This email (and/or attachment) may contain information that is legally
privileged. If you have received this in error please notify the sender
immediately"
Disclaimers apply for full details see
http://www.lambeth.gov.uk/EmailDisclaime...
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Dear Richard Carter,
Thank you for the large amount of documentation provided in response to my FOI request. I have a number of issues arising from my read-through of the documents and would ask you to address them in a review, please.
1) Please could I check the procedure for sourcing and checking the documents requested have all been provided?
2) Please could you provide the missing documentation (I was alerted to the possibility that there are quite a number missing, because I cannot see any of my own correspondence with Cllr Cameron. For example, I asked her to make inquiries about the poor windows installation on Cressingham, and also in relation to the budget for bringing Cressingham up to the Lambeth Housing Standard. Correspondence with at least one of my neighbours is also notably sparse). Further examples: There is seemingly no reply included to the email from Cllr Ann Kingsbury, Labour Councillor for Thurlow Park Ward (5 Feb 2013) to Paul McGlone and Cllr Cameron "Fw: Save CG Campaign - Offering Support", in which she asks for the finance information distributed by residents to be checked (attachment: Newsletter). Similarly, though there is a large amount of correspondence (both ccs and directly to) with Cllr Matthew Bennett, the documentation includes only two emails from him. Similarly, there is no correspondence re Cressingham with Cllr Bennett's predecessor Pete Robbins, besides a cc'd email about Tulse Hill Estate, which I find surprising.
3) Please could you revisit my particular questions as follows as I do not believe they have been addressed:
"i) Records of Cllr Cameron proposing Cressingham Gardens Estate for regeneration by Lambeth Council." While a large amount of documentation has been provided, none of it seems to show when the decision to put Cressingham into regeneration was first raised. I would expect there to have been correspondence or documentation for example with then housing cabinet member Cllr Lib Peck, and/or other officers, considering that Cllr Cameron is on public record saying that she put the estate forward for regeneration.
"ii) Records of any efforts by Cllr Cameron to secure Lambeth Housing Standard/ Decent Homes Standard funding for Cressingham Gardens Estate." Cllr Cameron has publicly stated that in 2012 she was trying to get "regeneration money" for Cressingham, but I don't see any discussion of this in the documentation. Can you confirm that there is no record of any such discussion?
4) I requested documentation going back to 2006, but I note that there is almost no documentation prior to 2012, when the regeneration consultation was launched. As far as I can see (considering the slightly confusing order in which the documents were provided), there is one email dated 11 January 2011, where Cllr Cameron inquires about broken lighting, and another from 22 October 2010, where she inquires about a vegetable growing opportunity on a neighbouring plot of land. Please can you confirm that there is no record in the council's possession of any other contact between Cllr Cameron, TRA members, and the council, in relation to repairs and regeneration on Cressingham Gardens.
5) The notes refer to a number of "Labour room" meetings of the councillors with other officers (they appear to have been discouraged from attending meetings of the Project Team), but no minutes of these meetings have been included. Please can you confirm whether these meetings were minuted and if so, please provide the minutes.
Yours sincerely,
Joanne Parkes
Information request
Our reference: IR102050
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Sir/Madam
Thank you for your request for a review received on 1 May 2015. I am sorry
that you are dissatisfied with our attempts to handle your request under
the Environmental Information Regulations 2004
Please quote your case reference number, IR102050, in any further
correspondence about to this Internal Review request.
The Council anticipates responding within a period of 20 working days
following the date of receipt; in this case that date is 2 June 2015.
Please send Freedom of Information requests / Internal Review Requests to
[1][Lambeth Borough Council request email]
Thank you for your interest in Lambeth Council.
Yours sincerely
Richard Carter
Freedom of Information Co-ordinator
Freedom of Information Team
London Borough of Lambeth
Tel. 07854 272 383
E-mail: [2][Lambeth Borough Council request email]
website: [3]www.lambeth.gov.uk
Room 210
Lambeth Town Hall
London
SW2 1RW
Lambeth - the co-operative council
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Information request
Our reference: IR102050
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Please find attached response
Yours faithfully
Richard Carter
Freedom of Information Co-ordinator
Internal review team
London Borough of Lambeth
Tel.
E-mail [email address]
Website: [1]www.lambeth.gov.uk
Lambeth - a Co-operative Council
"This email (and/or attachment) may contain information that is legally
privileged. If you have received this in error please notify the sender
immediately"
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Joanne Parkes left an annotation ()
The following is the body of a letter from Lambeth via the Office of the Information Commissioner. The letter is dated 20 August 2015 and is the latest correspondence:

Dear Mr Warburton
Information requested relating to Cllr Cameron and Cressingham Gardens ICO Case reference FS50586806 Our ref: IR102050
I am writing in response to your e-mail of 21st July 2015 concerning the complaint made to you by Joanne Parkes.
You have asked us to respond to the specific points raised in Ms Parkes internal review request dated 1st May 2015. Please find our responses to each of her questions below.
1).Please could I check the procedure for sourcing and checking the documents requested have all been provided?
Where we receive a request such as this, the FOI Co-ordinator will identify those officers that may hold some information relevant to the request. Those officers will be asked to carry out a search of their electronic and hard copy files against a set of search criteria for the period of time covered by the request. Any identified documents will then be reviewed and prepared for release (i.e. exempt information is redacted) by the FOI Co-ordinator in conjunction with the relevant service managers. The only exemption applied to information in scope of the request related to personal data.
In this particular case, Councillor Marcia Cameron was asked on 11 March 2015 to carry out a search of her paper and electronic files using the search term Cressingham Gardens. Councillor Cameron confirmed on 30 March.2015 that she had identified around 80 separate email chains which were duly provided to the FOI co-ordinator. There were no paper records identified from the searches. Cllr Cameron provided partial copies of some Members Enquiries in the information provided but is it worth noting that Members Enquires are managed corporately and the Council holds the record on this.
We also carried out a search of our corporate database for any Members Enquiries submitted by Councillor Marcia Cameron on the topics covered by the request, Cressingham Garden and repairs. The enquires identified were then extracted and prepared for release. Unfortunately it is not always possible to identify from the hundreds of Members Enquires made by Cllr Cameron which ones relate to Cressingham Gardens so I had to make a judgement based on the title as to which ones related to Cressingham Gardens, e.g. repairs, gutters, roof. In addition the IT system for historic cases does not always hold all correspondence which is why the responses to some of the older Members Enquires are incomplete. I can confirm that the Council has provided everything to that it holds.
2) Please could you provide the missing documentation (I was alerted to the possibility that there are quite a number missing, because I cannot see any of my own correspondence with Cllr Cameron. For example, I asked her to make inquiries about the poor windows installation on Cressingham, and also in relation to the budget for bringing Cressingham up to the Lambeth Housing Standard. Correspondence with at least one of my neighbours is also notably sparse). Further examples: There is seemingly no reply included to the email from Cllr Ann Kingsbury, Labour Councillor for Thurlow Park Ward (5 Feb 2013) to Paul McGlone and Cllr Cameron "Fw: Save CG Campaign - Offering Support", in which she asks for the finance information distributed by residents to be checked (attachment:
Newsletter). Similarly, though there is a large amount of correspondence (both ccs and directly to) with Cllr Matthew Bennett, the documentation includes only two emails from him. Similarly, there is no correspondence re Cressingham with Cllr Bennett's predecessor Pete Robbins, besides a cc'd email about Tulse Hill Estate, which I find surprising.
We have provided copies of all information, that we have been able to identify, that is covered by this request. The requestors own correspondence with Councillor Cameron was not included in our original response as we assumed that she already had this. However, we accept that this should have been made explicit to the requestor in the original response and at the internal review stage.
3) Please could you revisit my particular questions as follows as I do not believe they have been addressed:
"i) Records of Cllr Cameron proposing Cressingham Gardens Estate for regeneration by Lambeth Council." While a large amount of documentation has been provided, none of it seems to show when the decision to put Cressingham into regeneration was first raised. I would expect there to have been correspondence or documentation for example with then housing cabinet member Cllr Lib Peck, and/or other officers, considering that Cllr Cameron is on public record saying that she put the estate forward for regeneration.
"ii) Records of any efforts by Cllr Cameron to secure Lambeth Housing Standard/ Decent Homes Standard funding for Cressingham Gardens Estate." Cllr Cameron has publicly stated that in 2012 she was trying to get "regeneration money" for Cressingham, but I don't see any discussion of this in the documentation. Can you confirm that there is no record of any such discussion?
I can confirm that the earliest email sent or received by Cllr Cameron was dated 21 August 2012 timed at 17:20 hours and nothing that was provided made mention of Cllr Cameron trying to secure regeneration money for Cressingham Gardens.
The migration of LambethCouncil’s system to acloud-based server began two years ago. This was an automatic process and users were given instructions about how to verify that their mail had been successfully migrated. It’s worth adding given the instability of the previous email systems people were regularly made to purge emails to try and reduce demands onto the system, not by any specific actions other than limiting mailbox sizes. Mail has always been managed by users so anything could have been deleted at any time by an individual and there would be no way to trace it, there has never been any auditing or tracking on the mail system.
4) I requested documentation going back to 2006, but I note that there is almost no documentation prior to 2012, when the regeneration consultation was launched. As far as I can see (considering the slightly confusing order in which the documents were provided), there is one email dated 11 January 2011, where Cllr Cameron inquires about broken lighting, and another from 22 October 2010, where she inquires about a vegetable growing
opportunity on a neighbouring plot of land. Please can you confirm that there is no record in the council's possession of any other contact between Cllr Cameron, TRA members, and the council, in relation to repairs and regeneration on Cressingham Gardens.
See answer given to question 3.
I can confirm that the earliest email sent or received by Cllr Cameron was dated 21 August 2012 timed at 17:20 hours. The earlier emails referred to dated 22 October 2010 and 11 January 2011 were emails held by the Council on their corporate database for Members Enquiry.
5) The notes refer to a number of "Labour room" meetings of the councillors with other officers (they appear to have been discouraged from attending meetings of the Project Team), but no minutes of these meetings have been included. Please can you confirm whether these meetings were minuted and if so, please provide the minutes.
I have asked officers who briefed Members and they confirm that discussions were not minuted. The Head of the Leader’s Office has confirmed that informal political discussions between councillors are not minuted. Therefore the council does not hold any records.
Yours sincerely
Richard Carter
FOI Co-ordinator

trace newton left an annotation ()
Appalling lack of transparency, and therefore accountability, here:
"Mail has always been managed by users so anything could have been deleted at any time by an individual and there would be no way to trace it, there has never been any auditing or tracking on the mail system"
and
"The Head of the Leader’s Office has confirmed that informal political discussions between councillors are not minuted. Therefore the council does not hold any records. "
The Shortlife Co-op group, LUHC, requested that a meeting we had with Sue Foster et al be minuted, Lambeth agreed to do this.
When we requested the minutes a few weeks later, Lambeth said no minutes were taken, only notes for their own records, which would not be shared with us.
Re: the Shortlife situation, Cabinet minutes have also been impossible to get hold of.
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Joanne Parkes left an annotation ()
I've referred this to the information commissioner on the basis that the council has not properly addressed my request or my observations in my internal review request