Leeds Bradford Cycle Superhighway

The request was successful.

Dear Leeds City Council,

Leeds City Council’s Chief Executive made the below statement within direct correspondence to my MP at my request, which was forwarded to me via my MP’s office on 18.7.2018;

“In the correspondence Mr Simpson has asked four questions of us via yourself which I have sought to answer below.

1. Please fully explain why so many Leeds City Council delegated reports have converted central raised kerbed areas of the highway from footways to cycle tracks?

A: As part of the Council’s transport strategy a programme is being progressed to implement a long term cycling strategy for the city. In the course of this for absolute clarity and to distinguish where cycling is to be permitted the Cycle Tracks Act has been used to define those locations whether they be areas which are legally footways or those areas within what is legally speaking the carriageway such as traffic islands and other such locations as Cycle Tracks”.

As the Chief Executive provides ‘absolute clarity’ that the ‘Cycle Tracks Act’ has been used, under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 please can you provide all Cycle Tracks Orders ( which are lawfully required when utilising the Cycle Tracks Act) pertaining to the Leeds Bradford Cycle Superhighway Scheme (all Phases)?

In addition, please can you also provide all documents including but but not exhaustive reports /plans /printed decisions/ public notices relating to the Leeds Bradford Cycle Superhighway Scheme (all Phases) that evidences that Leeds City Council has utilised the Highways Act 1980 Section’s 66 (4) and 65(1) (legal procedure for converting footways to cycle tracks)?

Yours faithfully,
Mr Simpson

DPFOI, Leeds City Council

Thank you for contacting the Leeds City Council Information Management &
Governance Requests team. We confirm that we have received your
correspondence.
 
If you have submitted a Freedom of Information or Environmental
Information Regulation request- we will respond to your request in
accordance with the appropriate legislation within 20 working days. While
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IMG.Requests, Leeds City Council

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Simpson

 

I refer to the above and your request dated 29 August 2019.  I have
contacted the relevant services and now provide a response to your request
relating to Leeds Bradford Cycle Superhighway Scheme.

 

As the Chief Executive provides ‘absolute clarity’ that the ‘Cycle Tracks
Act’ has been used, under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 please can
you provide all Cycle Tracks Orders ( which are lawfully required  when
utilising the Cycle Tracks Act) pertaining  to the Leeds Bradford Cycle
Superhighway Scheme (all Phases)?

In addition, please can you also provide all documents  including but not
exhaustive reports /plans /printed decisions/ public notices relating to
the Leeds Bradford Cycle Superhighway Scheme (all Phases) that evidences
that Leeds City Council has utilised the Highways Act 1980 Section’s 66
(4) and 65(1) (legal procedure for converting footways to cycle tracks)?

 

Under Section 21 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, we are not
required to provide information in response to a request for information
if it is already reasonably accessible to you, the information you have
requested is available on the Leeds City Council website via the following
link:  [1]https://democracy.leeds.gov.uk/ieDecisio...

 

I trust that this response is satisfactory. If however you are
dissatisfied with this response you have a right to appeal to an
independent officer within the council. They will re-examine your request
and assess whether we have adhered to the requirements of the act. Should
you wish to follow this course of action please address your concerns in
writing to the above address.

 

You also have a right under Section 50 of the Freedom of Information Act
to ask the Information Commissioner to decide whether we have met with our
obligations under the act.  The Commissioner has however made it clear
that she expects all applicants to exhaust internal appeals procedures
prior to making such an application. Should you wish to contact the
Commissioner’s office then you can write to the following address:

 

Office of the Information Commissioner, Wycliffe House, Water Lane,
Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF.

 

You may also contact the Commissioner via her website at [2]www.ico.org.uk

 

I trust that this is self-explanatory.  If you have any queries please
contact me using the contact information above

 

Kind regards

 

Althea Brown

Information Governance Officer

Requests Team

Information Management and Governance

Digital and Information Service

Leeds City Council

 

Telephone: 0113 3784251

Email:  [3]IMG.requests [email address]

 

[4]CFL thumb logo signature

 

 

 

 

 

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RECYCLING. It’s in our own hands.
Recycle Week 2019: 23-29 September. Find out more [5]here

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Dear IMG.Requests,
Thank you for forwarding me Leeds City Council’s response to my Freedom of information request dated 29.8.2019 above.

Thank you for also for your kind offer of contacting you if I have any queries to the FOI request response. I do indeed have a query which I hope could be very easily and promptly satisfied, which is:

In your response you stated the following
‘Under Section 21 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, we are not required to provide information in response to a request for information if it is already reasonably accessible to you, the information you have requested is available on the Leeds City Council website via the following
link: https://democracy.leeds.gov.uk/ieDecisio...

Whilst the information within the link is appreciated, unfortunately it does not address the full extent of my FOI, in particular my primary request for information, to which you make reference to in your response;

‘As the Chief Executive provides ‘absolute clarity’ that the ‘Cycle Tracks Act’ has been used, under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 please can you provide all Cycle Tracks Orders ( which are lawfully required when utilising the Cycle Tracks Act) pertaining to the Leeds Bradford Cycle Superhighway Scheme (all Phases)? Therefore please can you provide this information via attachments or the appropriate links needed to retrieve this information if it is already publicly accessible?

I note, under legislation that the deadline for providing information to my reasonable FOI request is Thursday 26th September 2019 so it would be fair to expected this information by the deadline as it is a very simple query.

Yours sincerely,

Mal Simpson

IMG.Requests, Leeds City Council

Dear Mr Simpson

I write in response to your information request regarding Leeds Bradford Cycle Superhighway Scheme.

I can confirm that this is being considered under the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (EIR), as opposed to under the Freedom of Information Act. This is because the information you have requested concerns ‘activities’ and ‘administrative measures’ which are likely to affect elements of the environment under Reg 2(1)(c).

Due to the complex nature of your request, I regret to inform you that we will be unable to meet the deadline originally specified for your request.

Reg 7(1) of the EIR, however, does allow the Authority to extend the 20 working day deadline to 40 working days in the event of such complications and, given the nature of your request, we feel that it is appropriate to do so in this instance.

I would like to reassure you, however, that your request is under active consideration, and that we hope to be able to respond in full significantly in advance of this date.

I trust this is satisfactory. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you require further clarification.

Kind regards

Althea Brown
Information Governance Officer
Requests Team
Information Management and Governance
Digital and Information Service
Leeds City Council

Telephone: 0113 3784251
Email: [email address]

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Dear IMG.Requests, ( Althea)
I must dispute the validity of your claim that the information I have requested is ‘complex’ and therefore warrants and extension of time.

The justification of my position is simply that I have requested copies of Cycle Track Orders relating to the Leeds Bradford Cycle Superhighway and also documents relating to the use of the Highways Act 1980 (66(4) & 65(1). However in your previous response to me you only forwarded one link which illustrated the use of 66(4) & 65(1) of the Highways Act 1980 – legal mechanism of converting footways to cycle tracks, however did not forward any documents relating to the Cycle Tracks Act / Cycle Tracks Orders - legal mechanism of converting footpaths to cycle tracks that formed part of my request.

Therefore please can you simply forward me a link or appropriate attachments of made Cycle Track Orders relating to the Leeds Bradford Cycle Superhighway (all phases). Legislation indicates that any made Cycle Tracks Orders should be made publicly available for review.

As such, as it stands it is a fair perception that Leeds City Council is misusing legislation - the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (Part 7) as my request is neither complex nor have I requested large volumes of information. In fact my request is very specific.

Therefore, given that Cycle Track Orders should be easily and readily accessible please can you give me a detailed explanation of how LCC can justify an extension of time?

Yours sincerely,

Mal Simpson

Dear Leeds City Council,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Leeds City Council's handling of my FOI request 'Leeds Bradford Cycle Superhighway'.

[LCC responded to my FOI request on 25/09/2019 however did not provide all of the information requested.

The justification of the review is simply that I have requested copies of Cycle Track Orders relating to the Leeds Bradford Cycle Superhighway and also documents relating to the use of the Highways Act 1980 (66(4) & 65(1). However the council’s response to me only forwarded one link which illustrated the use of 66(4) & 65(1) of the Highways Act 1980 – legal mechanism of converting footways to cycle tracks, it did not forward any documents relating to the Cycle Tracks Act / Cycle Tracks Orders - legal mechanism of converting footpaths to cycle tracks that formed part of my request.

Legislation indicates that any made Cycle Tracks Orders should be made publicly available for review so should be readily accessible.

As the information that I requested was specific and was neither complex nor have I requested large volumes of information, by law Leeds City Council should have provided the information that I requested within the 20 working days permitted and there is no lawful justification why this timescale has not been met.

I do note that similar requests dealt with by the council (traffic orders, cycle superhighway info etc…) have been satisfied within 20 working days, utilising Freedom of Information Act 2000 so cannot accept that my information has not been forthcoming within this legislative timescale.

This internal review should commence with immediate effect. Please confirm that this will be the case? For the record the information that is outstanding (Cycle Track Orders) is certainly no more complex than the information you have already provided (S66/4 & S65/1 Highways Act 1980).

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/l...

Yours faithfully,

Mal Simpson

IMG.Requests, Leeds City Council

Dear Mal

Freedom of information request Ref 233965 : Cycle Track Orders & Highways Act

Thank you for your request for the above information which we received on 02 October 2019. We will respond to your request in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000, or the Environmental Information Regulations 2004.

Your request has been assigned to one of our officers who will arrange a response within the appropriate statutory time limit.

Please remember to quote reference number FOI 233965 in any future communications.

Yours sincerely

Keelley Hirst
Information Management & Governance

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IMG.Requests, Leeds City Council

Dear Mr Simpson,

Enviromental Information Request - Ref 226826

We are dealing with this as an internal review and we will arrange a response within the appropriate statutory time limit.

Please remember to quote reference number FOI 226826 in any future communications. 

Kind Regards

Ms Jessica Ribeiro
Information Governance Assistant
Information Governance – Request Team
Digital Information Service
Leeds City Council

0113 378 4251
www.leeds.gov.uk

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Dear IMG.Requests, (Jessica)

Thank you for confirming that LCC will be dealing with this as an internal review. Having spoken with the ICO
I have been informed that it is standard practice to deal with internal reviews as quickly as possible and on receipt of a request for a review it is common practice to acknowledge the requester with an anticipated review completion date. I would appreciate it if you could forward me this date.

To reaffirm Cycle Track Orders are legal documents and should be easily available for review which calls into question why there is such prolonged delay? I hope to receive the information requested immanently.
Yours sincerely,

Mal Simpson

IMG.Requests, Leeds City Council

Dear Mal Simpson,

We will deal with your request for internal review as soon as we can, we do not offer an anticipated completion date for reviews.

Kind regards

Mr Adam O’Connell
Information Governance Officer
Requests team
Information Management & Governance
Digital and Information Service
Leeds City Council

0113 37 84251
www.leeds.gov.uk

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Dear IMG.Requests, (Mr Adam O'Connell)
Your response is disappointing. Your colleague Jessica Riberio stated above the following
"We are dealing with this as an internal review and we will arrange a response within the appropriate statutory time limit"
Can you please advise me what the appropriate statutory time limit for data that should by law be publicly available?
The reason I ask this is because I am astounded as the data (Cycle Tracks Orders) I have requested are legally required documents and should be made available for viewing/ referencing!
The CEO of Leeds City Council states above "for absolute clarity the Cycle Tracks Act has been used" I find it rather bizarre that the data required to confirm this statement is now so difficult to locate? I hope to hear from you shortly.

Yours sincerely,

Mal Simpson

Dear IMG.Requests, (Mr O'Connell)
Can you please advise if an individual officer has been appointed to actively work on this review?
Also your colleague earlier stated that "this was being dealt with as an internal review and you will respond within the appropriate statutory time limit" Can you please advise what the appropriate statutory time limit is?

Whilst I ask the above questions I do understand that internal reviews should be dealt with as quickly as possible to this end I do not know why we have been waiting so long for the outstanding information (Cycle Track Orders) requested.

Surely it would be fair and reasonable to expect the first officer that dealt with my request to simply go back to the relevant services that provided the Highways Act 1980 data and ask for all Cycle Track Orders pertaining to the Leeds Bradford Cycle Superhighway?

Yours sincerely,

Mal Simpson

IMG.Requests, Leeds City Council

Dear Mal Simpson,

 

I refer to your request dated 29/08/2019, the response of Leeds City
Council dated 25/09/19, and your email of the 02/10/2019. I am sorry you
were not satisfied with the response provided. I have investigated your
concerns as the manager of the Information Management and Governance
requests team, and provide my response in accordance with the council’s
complaints procedure as a stage 2 complaint.

 

Your original request was as follows;

 

'Please can you provide all Cycle Tracks Orders (which are lawfully
required  when utilising the Cycle Tracks Act) pertaining  to the Leeds
Bradford Cycle Superhighway Scheme (all Phases)?

 

In addition, please can you also provide all documents  including but but
not exhaustive reports /plans /printed decisions/ public notices relating
to the Leeds Bradford Cycle Superhighway Scheme (all Phases) that
evidences that Leeds City Council has utilised the Highways Act 1980
Section’s 66 (4) and 65(1) (legal procedure for converting footways to
cycle tracks)?

 

In the Councils response of the 25th September it was advised that under
Section 21 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, we are not required to
provide information in response to a request for information if it is
already reasonably accessible to you, the information you have requested
is available on the Leeds City Council website via the following link: 
[1]https://democracy.leeds.gov.uk/ieDecisio...

 

In your request for a review you have advised that you requested copies of
Cycle Track Orders relating to the Leeds Bradford Cycle Superhighway and
also documents relating to the use of the Highways Act 1980 (66(4) &
65(1). However the council’s response only forwarded one link which
illustrated the use of 66(4) & 65(1) of the Highways Act 1980 – legal
mechanism of converting footways to cycle tracks, it did not forward any
documents relating to the Cycle Tracks Act / Cycle Tracks Orders - legal
mechanism of converting footpaths to cycle tracks that formed.

 

I have firstly reviewed within my appeal whether it was appropriate for
the Council to consider your request under FOI. As your request related to
information involving ‘activities’ and ‘administrative measures’ which are
likely to affect elements of the environment under Reg 2(1)(c), and
considering that both the domestic and European courts give wide meaning
to the Regulations and have indicated that they will adopt a broad
construction of the definition of environmental information. I consider
that it was not appropriate for your request to be treated as an FOI and
instead it should have been dealt with as an Environmental Information
Regulations request.  I am sorry for this error.

 

Having reviewed this response in light of both of your questions, I am of
the view that the response of to your original request does not fully
address part one of your request, and a clear response to this element has
not been provided. In this essence I uphold your appeal.

 

In response to this element of your request the relevant service have
confirmed that the previous advice given to the Chief Executive by the
relevant service area was incorrect, as no Cycle Track Orders have been
made relating to the Cycle Tracks Act. I am sorry you were previously
provided with incorrect information in relation to this matter. The
service have confirmed that the formal decision to create cycle tracks was
done under Section 65 and 66 of the Highways Act.

 

In addition I note your dissatisfaction regarding the Council
correspondence to you dated 26th September in which you were advised that
your request was considered complex and as such would be extended by a
further 20 working days for response in accordance with Reg 7(1) of the
EIR. I do not consider that this extention was required and consider this
was a mistake on the part of the Information Management and Governance
service, as at this point your request had already been responded to and
you had comeback to request a review. Instead your request for a review
should have been appropriately acknowledged and you should have been
advised that you would receive a response to your appeal within a further
20 working days, as per the Leeds City Council complaints procedure. I am
sorry for the mistakes made by my team in relation to this.

 

This concludes my response at stage 2 of the councils complaints
procedure.

 

I trust that this response is satisfactory. Under Regulation 18, however,
you are then entitled to apply to the Information Commissioner for a
decision as to whether, in any specified respect, your request has not
been dealt with in accordance with parts 2 and 3 of the Regulations.

 

Should you wish to contact the Commissioner’s Office then you can write to
the following address: Office of the Information Commissioner, Wycliffe
House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF.

 

You may also contact the Commissioner via his website at [2]www.ico.gov.uk

 

I trust that this is self-explanatory.  If you have any queries please
contact me on 0113 378 4251, or by return email.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

 

Olivia Knight

Principal Information Governance Officer

Requests Team

Information Management and Governance

Digital and Information Service

Leeds City Council

 

0113 37 84251

 

 

 

 

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