Littlejohn Correspondence

Nigel Ward made this Freedom of Information request to Potto Parish Council Automatic anti-spam measures are in place for this older request. Please let us know if a further response is expected or if you are having trouble responding.

Response to this request is long overdue. By law, under all circumstances, Potto Parish Council should have responded by now (details). You can complain by requesting an internal review.

Dear Potto Parish Council,

I write to lodge a request for information under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

The information I request is as follows:

(1) Copies (provided to me in e-format) of all correspondence received by the Council, whether by post or in e-format, within the timeframe 1st March 2021 up to and including the date of your response;

(2) in particular, a copy in e-format of an email received by the Council on or about 8th March 2021, bearing a Ref.No. beginning RP/4713/SAAA/ etc - OR SIMILAR - and attaching a PDF document;

(3) a copy of the aforementioned PDF document (see 2, above);

(4) a copy, in e-format, of such Agendas and Minutes which, at the time of this request, are not presently displayed on the Council's website.

I look forward to your acknowledgement, by return, and your full response within the statutory 28 working-days.

Kind regards,

Nigel Ward

Auto-reply from pottopc@btinternet.com, Potto Parish Council

Thank you for Contacting Potto Parish Council;

We acknowledge receipt of your email and will endeavour to respond as soon as possible.

Potto Parish Council

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Mr Ward,

Further to your Freedom Of Information Request, Potto Parish Council can respond as follows;

(1) Copies (provided to me in e-format) of all correspondence received by the Council, whether by post or in e-format, within the timeframe 1st March 2021 up to and including the date of your response;

Please find correspondence related to the above attached to this email.

(2) in particular, a copy in e-format of an email received by the Council on or about 8th March 2021, bearing a Ref.No. beginning RP/4713/SAAA/ etc - OR SIMILAR - and attaching a PDF document;

Please find correspondence related to the above attached to this email.

(3) a copy of the aforementioned PDF document (see 2, above);

PPC is unable to provide this document under section 41 of the Freedom Of Information Act due to the confidential nature of the information.

(4) a copy, in e-format, of such Agendas and Minutes which, at the time of this request, are not presently displayed on the Council's website.

All copies of Agendas and Minutes are available on the Parish website http://potto.org.uk/ppc.php

We trust that the above answers your request.

If you are not satisfied that we have complied with the Act in responding to your request, you have the right to request an internal review. Please contact us explaining what you would like us to review. If you are not satisfied with the internal review, you can appeal to the Information Commissioner. The contact details are: Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF, Tel: 0303 123 1113 (local rate) or 01625 545 745 (national rate) or see http://www.ico.gov.uk/ .

Potto Parish Council

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Dear Potto Parish Council,

I am astonished by your response.

You appear to be oblivious to the fact that you have dislosed to me an email clearly marked "treat our letter as confidential and do not disclose its contents beyond the Council other than to a legal advisor". This is clearly a "potential data breach".

You will (or should), as a Registered Data Controller, be aware that any "potential data breach" must be 'notified' to the Information Commissioner's Office within 48 hours of you first becoming aware.

I look to you to resolve this with all haste. Please inform me whether or not you have done so at the end of the specified timeframe. Thank you.

In respect of Item (2) of my request, you have not provided the email in its entirety - you have omitted the attachment. Please provide the attachment forthwith.

In respect of Item (3) of my request, your refusal "due to the confidential nature of the information", having responded as you have to Tems (1) and (2), borders on the ridiculous. The document, to my knowledge, is not marked confidential. Please provide the document.

In respect of Item (4) of my request, I did not request a URL-link. Rather, I made it clear that the said documents were not available on the website at the time of my request and therefore requested the documents in e-format. Please provide the documents in e-format, as requested.

Yours faithfullyRegards

Nigel

Auto-reply from pottopc@btinternet.com, Potto Parish Council

Thank you for Contacting Potto Parish Council;

We acknowledge receipt of your email and will endeavour to respond as soon as possible.

Dear Potto Parish Council

I do not appear to have received acknowledgement of, or response to, my communication of dated 25 March 2021.

Please identify the appointed Registered Data Controller at Potto Council and provide me with a copy in e-format of the document recording the duties and responsibilities assigned to this post by the Council.

On 15th March, I requested information about your Audit status, which was refused, citing S41 of the Act. Some of this information may since have been published on page 3 of the Darlington & Stockton Times dated 30th April 2021. I note certain comments attributed to ‘Andy Wilde’ to be implausible and possibly false - please provide the following information.

(1) It seems that £4,700 was spent on External Audit services four years ago; but please provide me with the latest update or estimate you have received about the fees incurred, but perhaps not yet paid, for the extra recent audit work to date.

(2) The article claims previous External Audit work has all been addressed with action plans. If so, please provide the date and page numbers of the meeting minutes where these specific Audit actions have been reviewed, addressed and resolved as completed by Potto Council. I cannot find any of this information anywhere in the Minutes on your website, so, if my surmise is correct, please confirm clearly that this information is not held - as required.

(3) It seems that even the action plans are now not published. Please identify which Council Policy or Procedure requires specific action plans to be deleted, given that I see that all the other audit documents for these years are still published on your website.

Yours, with kind regards,

Nigel Ward

Auto-reply from pottopc@btinternet.com, Potto Parish Council

Thank you for Contacting Potto Parish Council;

We acknowledge receipt of your email and will endeavour to respond as soon as possible.

Dear Potto Parish Council,

On 12th May 2021, your response to me here on WDTK.com stated that you "would endeavour to respond as soon as possible".

Two long years have elapsed without further response from you; you are reminded the statutory maximum period is 20 working-days.

Element (1) may (arguably) have been covered in the Minutes for your meeting of 7th September 2022 (the PIR meeting).

Elements (2) and (3) remain outstanding.

This failure to respond demonstrates irrevocably that your claim to have addressed PIR Recommendations R9, R10, R11 and R12 is clearly false. I will be advising PKF LITTLEJOHN LLP that these PIR Recommendations have demonstrably never been adequately addressed.

(4) In addition, please also provide information to adequately explain why Potto Parish Council has allowed the two year delay in complying with the terms of the Act to have arisen.

Please log this email as a formal request for Internal Review, confirm that you have done so and notify me of the outcome.

Yours, etc

Nigel WARD

Auto-reply from PottoPC@btinternet.com, Potto Parish Council

Thank you for Contacting Potto Parish Council;

We acknowledge receipt of your email and will endeavour to respond as soon as possible.

Dear Potto Parish Council,

Thank you for acknowledging my request for Internal Review.

In the interest of openness and transparency, I now make you aware of the following email to me from the WDTK.com Support Team of 07:59am today, Tuesday 2nd May 2023:

~~~~~

Good morning Nigel,

Re: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/l... (our ref: 737010)

Thanks for your email on Sunday.

I have reopened the request thread for you to allow you to send a follow-up.

I can see that your request to Potto Parish Council was made quite some time ago (in March 2021), so we would usually recommend that you make a new request to them, rather than pursue the old request. This is partly because the ICO sometimes refuses to consider appeals where there has been an extended gap in the correspondence, and it can also be confusing for the public authority as well.

I hope this is of help, but if you need anything further, please do let us know.

Kind regards,

Helen
--
WhatDoTheyKnow Support Team
~~~~~
I trust this is clearly understood.

Yours, etc,

Nigel WARD

Auto-reply from PottoPC@btinternet.com, Potto Parish Council

Thank you for Contacting Potto Parish Council;

We acknowledge receipt of your email and will endeavour to respond as soon as possible.