Plannnnnnnnning

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

Stuart Hardwicke CARRUTHERS

Dear South Norfolk District Council,

Please provide copies of all documents used by Martin Burrows of the Council's planning departmenton about 20 January 2015 to determine:

a) if land at Grove Farm, Middle Road, Denton was used agriculturally
b) if land at Grove Farm, Middle Road, Denton formed part of an agricultural unit

The Council was able to stop agricultural buildings on agricultural land being converted to residential use to support agriculture until inclusion of use class MB into the General Permitted Development Order.

Also please provide details of any enforcement action taken by the Council about the failure of it to ensure that Grove Farm Meadows (land sold by the Council in 2010 without any transaction) was returned to agricultural use.

Yours faithfully,

Stuart H Carruthers

Right2Know,

Dear Mr Carruthers

Thank you for your request of information that is being considered. I think you have submitted this twice, however we will only be answering once.

You may be aware that we have 20 working days in which to respond to Freedom Of Information (FOI) requests and you will therefore hear from me again by 6 May 2015 or earlier if possible.

For your information, the Act defines a number of exemptions, which may prevent release of the information you have requested. There will be an assessment and if any of the exemption categories apply then some or all of the information may not be released. You will be informed if this is the case, including your rights of appeal.

If any of the information you have requested is not contained in a recorded format, South Norfolk Council is not obliged to create information for the purpose of responding to your request

There may be a fee payable for ‘reasonable disbursement’ costs such as postage and photocopying. This will be considered and you will be informed if a fee is payable. In this event the fee must be paid before the information is processed and released. The 20 working day time limit for responses is suspended until receipt of the payment.

If you have any queries or concerns then please let me know. If you do contact us again concerning this request, please quote FOI 15-133.

Regards

Emma Goddard
Scrutiny and Information Rights Officer
t 01508 533747 e [email address] www.south-norfolk.gov.uk

South Norfolk Council - Investors In People | Gold

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Right2Know,

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Carruthers

 

Further to your request for information dated 7 April 2015, I am now in a
position to reply. Under section 14 (1), the Freedom of Information Act
2000 states that "Section 1(1) does not oblige a public authority to
comply with a request for information if the request is vexatious". We
have considered guidance issued by the Information Commissioner's Office
regarding vexatious requests and on that basis have decided that this
request is vexatious.

 

I consider your request to be vexatious for a number of reasons based on
the ICO's guidance referred to above:

 

Unreasonable Persistence and Futile Requests: this relates to requests
that are used by the requester to reopen an issue which has already been
addressed by the public authority or otherwise subjected to some form of
independent scrutiny. I understand that the Planning Inspector is
reviewing your case and that you have been in contact with the Council
over many years regarding the subject of your request and have been told
that we will not be dealing with any further queries from you on this
matter. It would therefore seem that you are attempting to re-open the
issue through the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

 

No obvious intent to obtain information: it would appear that due to your
previous dealings with the council on the issues relating to your request
that you are aware of the Council’s position and that it no longer feels
able to communicate with you constructively on this matter.  The request
could also be seen to be used to cause annoyance, particularly given the
timing of the request and various court proceedings that you have been
involved in relating to the subject of the request.

 

In reaching this decision, we are also taking into account the other
requests that you have submitted in recent months and over the last few
years. This persistence, coupled with recent court hearings of which you
have been involved in, also leads us to believe that this request is being
used to deliberately cause annoyance and disruption to the Council.

 

As always, we deal with each of your requests based on their own merits
and will continue to do so, however we believe that the overall content of
this request, in conjunction with the fact that you continue to correspond
with the Council on these matters is vexatious.

 

In accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000 this email acts as
a Public Interest Refusal Notice.  In terms of the exemption, you have a
right of appeal against our decision.  In the first instance this appeal
must be internal and we enclose a copy of our guidance regarding how to
request an internal review.  We hope that you will not feel it necessary
to invoke an appeal, but if you do we will take every care to re-assess
your request and let you have our findings.

 

Please quote FOI 15-133 in any further correspondence concerning this
request.

 

Regards

 

Emma Goddard

Scrutiny and Information Rights Officer

t 01508 533747 e [1][email address].uk  [2]www.south-norfolk.gov.uk

 

South Norfolk Council - Investors In People | Gold

 

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