Please identify Council-owned land where you no longer maintain the trees growing there.
Mark Clifford Durham Ashdown made this Freedom of Information request to Bristol City Council
This request has been closed to new correspondence. Contact us if you think it should be reopened.
Dear Bristol City Council,
I have been advised that Bristol City Council (the Council) no longer maintains or manages trees growing on some sites owned by it.
By reference to its Asset register and land ownership dataset, published by the Council at http://maps.bristol.gov.uk/arcgis/servic..., please provide the following information:
1. The Property-Reference and Address field data published in the dataset of each Council-owned site where trees are no longer managed by the Council.
2. In each case, the identity and contact details of the person or body now responsible for managing trees growing on each site.
3. Does the Council retain the ownership of the trees on these sites?
4. If it no longer retains ownership, who does?
5. Does the Council still retain liability for any damage caused by trees on these sites?
6. If it no longer retains liability, who does?
7. Are these sites available for tree planting by the public through sponsorship schemes such as TreeBristol or through tree-planting initiatives such as One Tree Per Child or the Urban Tree Challenge Fund?
8. Who makes decisions about the maintenance or felling of trees on these sites?
9. If it is not the Council, is the decision maker obliged to consult the Council before proceeding to maintain or fell a tree, whether or not the tree is growing in a Conservation area, or is protected by a Tree Preservation Order or is the subject of a planning application?
If the Council considers that providing the information at requests 1 and 2 above is too onerous, please explain why and identify:
1. The sites by category using the Property-Type field categories listed in the dataset identified above.
2. All sites which are excluded from this categorisation.
3. The class of person or body now responsible for maintaining trees on these categories of site.
Yours faithfully,
Mark CD Ashdown
Dear Mark Ashdown
This is a courtesy email to let you know your Public Information
Request has been received on : 19/08/2019.
Your unique reference number is "CRN00242021 ". Please keep this
number safe, as you may be required to provide it in the future.
If you need to add further information concerning your case or
require an update about your response date, please email
[email address]
Regards,
Customer Relations Team
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Dear Mark Ashdown
Thank you for submitting your Public Information Request dated 19/08/2019. Your unique reference for this case is CRN00242021 , please use should you need to get in touch with us in the future.
The details of the case raised are as follows
You sent us a Freedom of Information request on 19/08/2019
Your request number is CRN00242021
Our reply to your request is:
From: Bristol City Council
[mailto:[email address]]
Sent: 05 September 2019 10:06
Subject: [email address] RE: FOI Request
CRN00242021 -
To answer either part of this response would involve checking over
300 property leases which, depending on the length, could take a
qualified officer up to 1 hour per lease. This puts it outside of the
18 hours threshold for requests.
If you are able to narrow down the scale of your request instead
of asking multiple questions then this may fall within the allotted
time frame.
This response should answer your request in full.
If you’re not satisfied with our response, or if you want to appeal
against any exemptions:
Email: [1][Bristol City Council request email]
Write to: Customer Relations (100TS), PO Box 3176, Bristol, BS3 9FS
If you’re still not satisfied with our response:
You can complain to the Information Commissioner.
Find out how to do this on the Information Commissioner Office
website
(link to [2]http://ico.org.uk/concerns)
Copyright
You do not own the copyright to any of the information we give you.
Copyright may be owned by the council or by a third party.
You are not allowed to:
· make a copy of the information
· use the information commercially
If you want to copy or use the information in any way you should ask
us for permission in writing first. We can’t give permission if it is
from a third party.
Kind regards
Bristol City Council
Privacy statement
Information about how Bristol City Council uses, stores and processes
personal data, can be found on
[3]www.bristol.gov.uk/about-our-website/privacy
For the purposes of this scheme, Bristol City Council will only be
collecting, storing and processing business and organisational data,
and will only be sharing this non-personal data with organisations /
charities as agreed.
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References
Visible links
1. mailto:[Bristol City Council request email]
2. http://ico.org.uk/concerns
3. http://www.bristol.gov.uk/about-our-webs...
Dear Sirs,
Thank you for your response.
Anticipating this possible response, we then offered an alternative:
'If the Council considers that providing the information at requests 1 and 2 above is too onerous, please ...identify:
1. The sites by category using the Property-Type field categories listed in the dataset identified above.
2. All sites which are excluded from this categorisation.
3. The class of person or body now responsible for maintaining trees on these categories of site.'
Are you willing to answer any of these questions which should not take more than 18 hours work?
If so, please do so.
Yours sincerely,
Mark Clifford Durham Ashdown
Thank you for your submission.
Information request
Council services: http://www.bristol.gov.uk/service
Latest council news: http://www.bristol.gov.uk/ournews
Consultations: http://www.bristol.gov.uk/consult
References
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1. [FOI #597820 email] (opens a new window)
mailto:[FOI #597820 email]?subject=Information+request-619975
Dear Mr Ashdown
Thank you for your request for information that was received on 5
September 2019.
We are dealing with your request and we aim to send a response by 3
October 2019.
If you have any further queries about your request please contact
[1][email address].
Yours sincerely
Customer Relations Team
NOTE: Please do not edit the subject line when replying to this email.
Bristol City Council
This email contains proprietary confidential information some or all of
which may be legally privileged and/or subject to the provisions of
privacy legislation. It is intended solely for the addressee. If you are
not the intended recipient, an addressing or transmission error has
misdirected this e-mail; you must not use, disclose, copy, print or
disseminate the information contained within this e-mail. Please notify
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this email are those of the individual sender, except where the sender
specifically states these to be the views of Bristol City Council.
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1. mailto:[email address]
Dear Mr Ashdown
Freedom of Information Act 2000
I previously processed your request under the above act which was
incorrect for an environmental information request. Therefore I have
processed your new request under the Environmental Information Regulations
2004 ('EIR') as the information requested is environmental according to
the definition in regulation 2 of the EIR. Section 39 of the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 ('the Act') exempts environmental information from
the Act, but requires us to consider it under the EIR.
Bristol City Council may hold the information requested, however we are
refusing this request on the following grounds:
Regulation 12(4)(b): Manifestly unreasonable
Regulation 12(4)(b) of the EIR allows public authorities to refuse a
request for information that is manifestly unreasonable and where the cost
or burden of dealing with the request would be too great.
The previous response I gave identified that over 300 property leases
would need to be reviewed to answer either parts of your request (The
class of person or body now responsible for maintaining trees on these
categories of site). This would take an officer up to 1 hour per lease at
an estimated cost of £7500 to the Authority.
Based on the above, we consider that responding to your request would be a
significant burden on the council and therefore Regulation 12(4)(b)
applies.
Public Interest Test
All exceptions under EIR are subject to a public interest test which means
that consideration must be given to whether the public interest favouring
disclosure is greater than the public interest in maintaining the
exemption. Public interest means what is in the best interests of the
wider public not what is of interest to the public. We have weighed up the
benefits to the public of releasing the information against the factors
for not releasing it. On balance we find that complying with your request
would place a substantial and disproportionate burden on the council's
resources and therefore the public interest in maintaining the exemption
outweighs the public interest for disclosure.
Narrowing your request
Regulation 9(1) of the EIR requires public authorities to provide advice
and assistance to requesters. You may therefore wish to consider narrowing
the scope of your request by choosing the information which is most
important to you, [for example by limiting the number of parts of your
request.]
Please note that any reformulated request we receive will be treated as a
new request and we cannot guarantee that any relevant exceptions under the
EIR 2004 will not apply to a revised request.
Yours sincerely
Tim Brandram
Trees and Allotments Manager
NOTE: Please do not edit the subject line when replying to this email.
Bristol City Council
This email contains proprietary confidential information some or all of
which may be legally privileged and/or subject to the provisions of
privacy legislation. It is intended solely for the addressee. If you are
not the intended recipient, an addressing or transmission error has
misdirected this e-mail; you must not use, disclose, copy, print or
disseminate the information contained within this e-mail. Please notify
the author immediately by replying to this email. Any views expressed in
this email are those of the individual sender, except where the sender
specifically states these to be the views of Bristol City Council.
This email has been scanned for all viruses and all reasonable precautions
have been taken to ensure that no viruses are present. Bristol City
Council cannot accept responsibility for any loss or damage arising from
the use of this email or attachments.
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Dear Bristol City Council & Tim,
With respect, you have failed to clarify whether your refusal to provide the information requested includes a refusal to deal with my narrowed request, namely:
'If the Council considers that providing the information at requests 1 and 2 above is too onerous, please explain why and identify:
1. The sites by category using the Property-Type field categories listed in the dataset identified above.
2. All sites which are excluded from this categorisation.
3. The class of person or body now responsible for maintaining trees on these categories of site.'
Please confirm if this part of are request is also refused and set out the reasons why.
If it is not refused, please provide the information requested.
Yours sincerely,
Mark Clifford Durham Ashdown
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