Number of people reporting or complaining of earthquake property damage in 2019.

The request was successful.

peter k. roberts

Dear Lancashire County Council,

Please advise me how many residents have reported or complained to Lancashire County Council about their homes being damaged by earthquakes in 2019 or 2011.

Please also advise me whereabouts ie which village or town these complaints originated from.

According to the British Geological Survey they received nearly 200 complaints of earthquake property damage in August, 2019 alone. For example my home in Warton village was reported to you as damaged and a colleague's home in Kirkham town was reported to Cuadrilla as damaged.

Yours faithfully,

peter k. roberts

Freedom of Information, Lancashire County Council

Good Morning,

 

Request for Information under the Freedom of Information Act (2000)

 

We are writing to acknowledge receipt of your enquiry of 19.06.20 in which
you request the disclosure of information.

 

We can confirm that your enquiry will now be assigned to an officer who
will commence a search for the information you require and they will
respond in due course. The deadline date for issuing you with a full
response is 20.07.20. We will endeavour to provide a response well in
advance of this date, however, should we envisage any delays, or require
more details from you, we will contact you immediately.

 

If you have any queries about the above, please do not hesitate to contact
us, quoting ref 984.670 (AA3).

 

Please note that due to the ongoing Coronavirus epidemic the County
Council's resources are being diverted to cover critical functions and
some employees have had to make changes to their usual working
arrangements.  This means that, despite our best efforts, there may be a
delay in issuing our response to you.  We appreciate that this may cause
some inconvenience but we trust you understand that, in the current
crisis, it is inevitable that some delays may be experienced.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

On Behalf of the Information Governance Team Lancashire County Council PO
Box 78 County Hall Preston

PR1 8XJ

 

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Freedom of Information, Lancashire County Council

Dear Mr Roberts

 

Request for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000

 

Further to your request for information, made under the provisions of the
above Act, please see below our response.

 

Request:

 

Please advise me how many residents have reported or complained to
Lancashire County Council about their homes being damaged by earthquakes
in 2019 or 2011.

Please also advise me whereabouts ie which village or town these
complaints originated from.

 

Response:

 

Lancashire County Council  does not hold the information you are seeking.

 

The British Geological Survey monitors earthquakes, and also records
information from residents when they report earth movements, please follow
the link for more information
[1]http://www.earthquakes.bgs.ac.uk/earthqu...

 

If you have any queries regarding any of the above, or you require any
additional information, please do not hesitate to contact the team quoting
the above reference number.

 

 

Yours sincerely

 

Information Access Officer

Information Governance Team

Lancashire County Council

W: [2]www.lancashire.gov.uk

 

 

 

 

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peter k. roberts

Dear Lancashire County Council,

Bearing in mind that AJ Lucas have just stated their intention to resume fracking in Lancashire asap after evidence proving earthquakes will not also resume is provided, good luck with that, I would have preferred Lancashire County Council to have collected as much evidence to the contrary as possible!

After all the principal purpose of Lancashire County Council is to keep residents of Lancashire safe, happy and healthy!

I would therefore like to lodge an official complaint about this failure to ensure this duty is complied with.

Yours faithfully,

peter k. roberts

peter k. roberts left an annotation ()

Very unhappy with the response from Lancashire County Council which doesn't protect the wealth, health or happiness of Residents of Lancashire from the threatened return of Fracking.
So I have lodged an Official Complaint about the conduct of the officers of Lancashire County Council in regard to this matter.

peter k. roberts

Dear Lancashire County Council,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of Lancashire County Council's handling of my FOI request 'Number of people reporting or complaining of earthquake property damage in 2019.'.

I myself have reported to the Lancashire County Council section dealing with 'Fracking Matters' that my family home was damaged by the 2019 August Bank Holiday Monday Hydrofrac Earthquake. That's one complaint for starters.

Although to be honest nobody seemed remotely interested, no details were taken and no visit to inspect the damage to my family home was arranged. The response from Bryning with Warton Parish Council was equally disrespectful.
It's as though staff at the Tory controlled Warton Parish Council and Lancashire County Council have no interest in collecting data that might reflect badly on Cuadrilla and the fracking industry. I have witnessed this attitude previously within Lancashire County Council regarding in particular the lack of sanctions against Cuadrilla when they conspired with Lancashire Constabulary to break multiple planning regulations whilst facilitating the overnight delivery by HGV convoy of multiple items of fracking equipment.

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

Yours faithfully,

peter k. roberts

peter k. roberts

Dear Lancashire County Council,

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

I am writing to request an update on my internal review of Lancashire County Council's handling of my FOI request 'Number of people reporting or complaining of earthquake property damage in 2019.

I lodged my first request for an Internal Review of this matter on the 28th June, 2020 and have not even had the courtesy of an acknowledgement.

The reasons for my Internal Review are clearly contained within the request itself.

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

Yours faithfully,

peter k. roberts.

Dear Lancashire County Council,

I have now twice requested that Lancashire County Council carry out an Internal Review of their handling of this Freedom of Information request without the courtesy of an acknowledgement never mind a worthwhile response.

I hope that this reminder from a long time resident of good standing within the County has a better result as is required under the relevant Legislation.

Please don't attempt to blame the supposed Coronavirus Pandemic as an excuse for your intransigence by the way. The mortality numbers have been proven to be seriously manipulated.

Yours,

peter k. roberts.

Freedom of Information, Lancashire County Council

Dear Mr Roberts,

As the service advised us accordingly, we stated that we do not hold the information. Therefore we have not issued a refusal notice and therefore we are not obliged to conduct an internal review.

Please note that the right to request an internal review is set out at section 17 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 ('the Act') or regulation 14 of the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 and applies only in instances where a public authority issues a refusal notice. This is, essentially, circumstances whereby the County Council holds the information but refuses to disclose it for one reason or another.

We reiterate that the relevant service has confirmed that they do not hold the information you are seeking, and that complaints regarding earthquakes are monitored and recorded by The British Geological Survey; the BGS monitors earthquakes, and also records information from residents when they report earth movements. Information can be found here:

http://www.earthquakes.bgs.ac.uk/earthqu...

However, we note that you state you have reported such issues to the County Council. Please can you advise who, or which department, at the County Council you contacted so that we can investigate further?

Yours sincerely,

Information Governance Team
Lancashire County Council

www.lancashire.gov.uk

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Dear Lancashire County Council,

I understand why you state that 'not holding the information requested' doesn't satisfy the requirements for you to commence an Internal Review.

My initial question was intended to hopefully raise concerns within Lancashire County Council about the failure of their officers to collect this information for immediate access should Cuadrilla or any other fracking outfit wish to resume activities at Preston New Road, Little Westby or indeed anywhere else in Lancashire. Hopefully I have now achieved this.

All fracking related enquiries to Lancashire County Council are in my experience directed to officers in Development Control (Devcon) and Development Management (Devman) so these are the officers I have been having conversations with for several years now.

As a long time council tax paying resident of Lancashire I have not found these exchanges satisfactory due to the general impression I and others receive that the officers involved fail to adequately hold Cuadrilla to account for the many breaches of planning regulations they and their contractors have committed since starting activities.

Yours faithfully,

peter k. roberts.

Dear Freedom of Information,

I repeat that my concerns about this issue were directed to and discussed with your Council Officers within the Devman and Devcon departments who I understand are the people to whom all fracking related matters have to be directed.

In case you don't know the individual officers names they are usually Andrew Mullaney, who hasn't been involved with this particular issue and Jonathon Haine who has.

I hope this helps you with your investigation.

Yours sincerely,

peter k. roberts.

Freedom of Information, Lancashire County Council

Dear Mr Roberts

 

Request for Information under the Freedom of Information Act (2000)

 

We write to you in relation to your freedom of information request.

 

We originally stated in our response of 25^th June 2020 that Lancashire
County Council did not hold the information you are seeking. However after
conducting further investigations we have collated the following
information in relation to your enquiry.

 

Lancashire County Council have received 5 complaints in total and below is
the year and location of the complaints

 

Marton – 2019

Moss Side – 2019

No address provided – 2019

Warton – 2019

Greenhalgh - 2020

 

We apologise that this information was not sent in our original response.
If you have any further enquiries please don't hesitate to contact the
team quoting the above reference number.

 

Yours sincerely

 

Information Access Officer

Information Governance

Lancashire County Council

W: [1]www.lancashire.gov.uk

 

 

 

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Dear Lancashire County Council,

Many thanks for your latest statement containing the information I requested.

My follow up question is, are you keeping tabs on the progress that people who reported property damage are making with claiming restoration and compensation?

In my case , being I deduce the only resident of Warton to report property damage to yourselves, Cuadrilla have simply offered a ridiculous, insulting £500 goodwill payment, without accepting any liability, to shut up and go away. I am also waiting for the Independent Insurance Ombudsman to rule on whether my Insurance Company agree to honour my claim for repairing my home. I have prepared legal action should I not receive acceptable outcomes to these processes.

I know that a resident of Kirkham, from where I notice you have as yet received no reports of property damage, has already had their home repaired, about £10,000 by the way, via their insurance company. Cuadrilla are presently being requested to reimburse the insurance company concerned!

I wonder, bearing in mind the surprisingly small number of complaints, the British Geological Survey actually logged nearly 200 complaints of property damage, directed to and recorded by yourselves, whether you should be contacting the other complainants in order to establish the fuller picture?

Yours faithfully,

peter k. roberts.

Freedom of Information, Lancashire County Council

Good morning,

 

Request for Information under the Freedom of Information Act (2000)

 

We are writing to acknowledge receipt of your enquiry of 12.09.20 in which
you request the disclosure of information.

 

We can confirm that your enquiry will now be assigned to an officer who
will commence a search for the information you require and they will
respond in due course. The deadline date for issuing you with a full
response is 09.10.20. We will endeavour to provide a response well in
advance of this date, however, should we envisage any delays, or require
more details from you, we will contact you immediately.

 

If you have any queries about the above, please do not hesitate to contact
us, quoting ref 984.998 (SP).

 

Please note that due to the ongoing Coronavirus epidemic the County
Council's resources are being diverted to cover critical functions and
some employees have had to make changes to their usual working
arrangements.  This means that, despite our best efforts, there may be a
delay in issuing our response to you.  We appreciate that this may cause
some inconvenience but we trust you understand that, in the current
crisis, it is inevitable that some delays may be experienced.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

On Behalf of the Information Governance Team Lancashire County Council PO
Box 78 County Hall Preston

PR1 8XJ

 

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peter k. roberts left an annotation ()

Acknowledgment of follow up question received.

Freedom of Information, Lancashire County Council

Dear Mr Roberts

 

Request for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000

 

We refer to your request for information made under the provisions of the
above Act. Please see below our response.

 

My follow up question is, are you keeping tabs on the progress that people
who  reported property damage are making with claiming restoration and
compensation?  

 

Lancashire County Council does not hold any information.  As we have
advised, these are private matters that are the subject, or likely to be
the subject, of litigation and the County Council has no power or remit to
act.

Moreover, again as previously advised, the Oil and Gas Authority is the
competent body for regulating seismic impacts.  And the British Geological
Survey acts as a repository for public reports about seismicity,  which
are summarised and published via a dedicated web site.

 

In my case , being I deduce the only resident of Warton to report property
damage to yourselves, Cuadrilla have simply offered a ridiculous,
insulting £500 goodwill payment, without accepting any liability, to shut
up and go away. I am also waiting for the Independent Insurance Ombudsman
to rule on whether my Insurance Company  agree to honour my claim for
repairing my home. I have prepared legal action should I not receive
acceptable outcomes to these processes.

 

I know that a resident of Kirkham, from where I notice you have as yet
received no reports of property damage, has already had their home
repaired, about £10,000 by the way, via their insurance company. Cuadrilla
are presently being requested to reimburse the insurance company
concerned!

 

I wonder, bearing in mind the surprisingly small number of complaints, the
British Geological Survey actually logged nearly 200 complaints of
property damage, directed to and recorded by yourselves, whether you
should be contacting the other complainants in order to establish the
fuller picture?

 

Lancashire County Council does not hold any information.

 

Kind regards

 

Information Governance Team

Lancashire County Council

 

[1]www.lancashire.gov.uk

 

 

 

 

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peter k. roberts left an annotation ()

Lancashire County Council have made it very clear they have no interest and no intention of proactively creating a database compiling all the instances, extent and details of property damage by earthquake activity resulting from Cuadrilla's failed attempts at test fracking at their site on Preston New Road, Little Westby. Lancashire.

Accordingly my Freedom of Information request is completed.