Public Rights of Way Definitive Statement and GIS data

The request was successful.

Dear Lancashire County Council,

Under the Environmental Information Regulations, I would like to request a copy of:

1/ An up to date copy of the digitised version / working copy of your Definitive Map of Public Rights of Way, e.g. as contained in the Public Rights of Way layer of the online map at http://mario.lancashire.gov.uk/agsmario/ . My preferred format for this GIS data would be one of KML, GeoJSON, MapInfo or Shapefile (I realise that this data is not the actual Definitive Map, but just an unofficial representation of it, which may contain errors. But that is fine for my purposes.). I require access to the information in the underlying GIS files (eg. full co-ordinate information) rather than just the rendered routes shown on the MARIO website.

2/ A copy of your Definitive Statements of Public Rights of Way, assuming these are held in digital form (either as scanned copies or native digital versions). I would prefer the information in a re-usable (computer readable) format.

Secondly, under the Re-Use of Public Sector Information Regulations, I would like to request permission to re-use the information supplied above under the Open Government Licence v3. The purposes for which the information is to be re-used are: (a) to help improve the mapping of rights of way in OpenStreetMap, and (b) to convert the datasets to a more convenient format, and then make them available for others to re-use under an open licence, and (c) to facilitate research into unrecorded or underecorded rights of way.

I am aware that LCC previously made an older (March 2014) version of the GIS data available to a third party http://www.rowmaps.com/ under terms equivalent to the old OS Opendata licence, which made it technically incompatible with my intended re-use in OpenStreetMap. Ordnance Survey have retired that licence and now use the Open Government Licence v3. It is my strong preference that the information provided in response to this request is released under this less restrictive licence.

Yours faithfully,

Mr Snape

PS. The Council could avoid the inevitable future formal requests for updated versions of this very useful information by pro-actively publishing up-to-date versions, for example through the Open Data portals http://lis.lancashire.gov.uk/ and/or https://data.gov.uk/dataset/lancashire-o... .

Freedom of Information, Lancashire County Council

 

Dear Mr Snape,

 

Request for information

 

We are writing to acknowledge receipt of your email dated 05/11/17, 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 full
response is 04/12/17. 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. 936.1587

 

Yours sincerely

 

Information Governance Team

Legal and Democratic Service

Lancashire County Council

PO Box 78

County Hall

PR1 8XJ

[1][email address]

[2]www.lancashire.gov.uk

 

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Freedom of Information, Lancashire County Council

Dear Mr Snape,

 

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.

 

We can confirm that whilst we are now in a position to send you the
information you require, the size of the data is quite considerable so we
are unable to email the information to you.

 

Please can you confirm if you are happy for the information to be sent to
you on a CD? If this option is acceptable to you, please could you advise
our Team of your postal address by return?

 

Yours Sincerely,

 

On Behalf of the Information Governance Team

Legal and Democratic Service

Lancashire County Council

PO Box 78

County Hall

PR1 8XJ

[1][Lancashire County Council request email]

[2]www.lancashire.gov.uk

 

 

 

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Adam Snape left an annotation ()

Dear Lancashire County Council,

Thank you very much for your punctual response to my my FOI request entitled 'Public Rights of Way Definitive Statement and GIS data' (ref. 936.1587).

I think it would be easier and preferable for the requested data to be uploaded to the Council's website or Open Data portal where it could be accessed by others in the future without further mutually-incovenient FOI requests, However, provided that you don't intend to charge me, I am happy to accept the requested data on CD by post.

Please post the CD (or CDs) to

[address supplied]

Thank you for your efforts and co-operation in supplying the requested information,

Kind regards,

Mr Snape

Dear Lancashire County Council,

Thank you very much for sending me the requested information on CD. it is very helpful. However, you do not appear to have considered the part of my request seeking permission to re-use this information under the Open Government Licence (version 3). As we're now over the 20 working day response period, could you please do so promptly.

As I mentioned in my request you issued an older version of the GIS data under an older Open Data licence several years ago, thus the GIS data will already be covered by the necessary Ordnance Survey derived data exemption . I merely require permission to re-use this updated version of the GIS data and the scanned written records supplied under the current standard Open Data Licence.

If inclined to refuse this request you might wish to consider this decision by the Information Commisioner which required Cambridgeshire County Council to permit reuse of their public rigts of way GIS dataset under the Open Government Licence: https://ico.org.uk/media/action-weve-tak...

I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely,

Mr Snape

Dear Lancashire County Council,

Sorry to bother you again following my email of earlier today regarding re-use of teh information you supplied. I have now had chance to inspect the supplied data and I notice that you sent me scanned copies of some of the original survey cards from the 1950s. Whilst a pleasant surprise and useful for my rights of way research in their own right, these are not the same as the Definitive Statement of Rights of Way which I requested. Could you please confirm whether you hold a scanned copy of the Definitive Statement and, if so, could you please supply me with a copy? As with the re-use issue, I'd be grateful if you could deal with this expediently seeing as we are now outside the 20-day response period.

Many thanks.

Yours sincerely,

Mr Snape

Freedom of Information, Lancashire County Council

Dear Mr Snape,

 

Thank you for your email below.

 

We can confirm that Lancashire County Council does hold a copy of the
Definitive Statement, and have been advised by the Public Rights of Way
Team that copies of them will be publicly available on LCC's website early
next year. The reason for the delay in getting  the information onto the
website is because the scanned copies will need collating and checking,
before they are published.

 

In respect of your query relating to the re-use of the information, this
has been forwarded on to the relevant Team, and have asked for a response
as a matter of urgency.

 

As soon as we are in a position to respond to this aspect of your request,
we will do so immediately.

 

Yours Sincerely,

 

On Behalf of the Information Governance Team

Legal & Democratic Services

Lancashire County Council

[1][Lancashire County Council request email]

[2]www.lancashire.gov.uk

 

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Dear Freedom of Information,

Thank you for the update. It's great to hear that the definitive statement scans are planned to be made publicly available at some point next year. For my research I would like to have access to them sooner, so could you please provide me with a copy of them as per my request? I am happy to have them in whatever form they are currently held, despite being uncollated, unidexed etc.

Yours sincerely,

Mr Snape

Dear Lancashire County Council,

I'm afraid that I still haven't been provided with the Definitive Statement scans you have confirmed that you hold. The statutory time limit for providing me with these was Monday 4th December so I would be grateful if you could take action promptly to resolve this non-compliance.

As previously explained, I merely want a copy of the scans you currently hold in the format that they are currently held and I do not require you to do any additional work to them, so I do not see any reason for further delay. If it is more convenient for you to send a physical copy then I will accept them on DVD(s)/CD(s)/SD Card/USB stick etc by post to the address I supplied you with.

Yours sincerely,

Mr Snape

Dear Freedom of Information,

Sorry to bother you again, but it’s been over two months since I submitted my request “Public Rights of Way Definitive Statement and GIS data” and a month since I last heard from you. I have still not received copies of the Definitive Statement scans (or a refusal notice giving a reason for refusal of my request); nor have I received a response to my request to reuse both the Definitive Statement scans and the public rights of way GIS data you did provide to me under the Open Government Licence. By law, under all circumstances, I should have received a response to all aspects of my request by now. Could you please do this or at least give me an update on the progress of my request along with an estimate of when I can expect a response ?

Yours sincerely,

Mr Snape

Dear Lancashire County Council,

Could you please provide an update on the progress of my request under the Environmental Information Regulations entitled 'Public Rights of Way Definitive Statement and GIS Data' (your ref: 936.1587) made on 5/11/2017? I received a copy of the GIS data (part 1 of my request), but not copies of the Definitive Statments (part 2 of my request) and permission to re-use both datasets (part 3 of my request). Nor have I received a refusal notice explaining reasons for the refusal of these aspects of my request. As the response to this request is now long overdue, I would be very grateful if you could reply quickly.

Many thanks,

Mr Snape

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 part of my request entitled 'Public Rights of Way Definitive Statement and GIS Data' (your ref: 936.1587) made on 5/11/2017.

The council’s acknowledgement email told me that I could expect a response by 4/12/2017. I did receive a copy of the requested GIS data (part 1 of my request) on time and I am satisfied with the council’s handling of this part of my request.

The council has not provided me with a copy of its Definitive Statement scans under the Environmental Information Regulations (part 2 of my request). The council did tell me that it does hold these. It also said that there are plans to publish these online sometime in 2018, but I did not interpret this as a notice of a refusal of my request under the EIR. If an exemption under the Regulations was being claimed the email certainly didn’t make any reference to it.

The council has also not responded to my request to re-use both the GIS data and Definitive Statement Scans under the Open Government Licence in accordance with the Re-use of Public Sector Information Regulations (part 3 of my request). I was told on 7/12/17 that it was being dealt with as a matter of urgency but I have heard nothing further.

I emailed requesting updates on the progress of my request on 15/12/17, 6/1/18 and 15/1/18 but I have not received a response.

In conducting your internal review, could you please do the following:

1) Ensure that I am provided with a full response to the outstanding aspects of my request at the earliest opportunity. If the council does wish to claim an exemption on the Definitive Statement scans, that should not prevent it from considering my request to reuse the supplied GIS data.

2) Enquire why a full response was not issued within the time period required by the Environmental Information Regulations and Re-use of Public Sector Information Regulations

3) Enquire why the requests for updates went unanswered.

4) If the email on 7/7/12 which mentioned the proposed publishing of the Definitive Scans online in 2018 was intended as a formal refusal of my request, enquire why it did not comply with the requirements for refusal notices under s.14 of the EIR. It did not state or explain any exemptions that were being claimed, nor whether any public interest test was applied. There was also no mention of the relevant appeals process

I look forward to hearing from you.

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

Yours faithfully,

Adam Snape

Freedom of Information, Lancashire County Council

Dear Mr Snape,

 

Please accept our apologies for the delay in responding. 

 

We are still endeavouring to obtain all the information we hold. Please
accept our sincere apologies for this delay, but be assured that your
request has not been forgotten.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

On Behalf of the Information Governance Team

Legal & Democratic Services

Lancashire County Council

[Lancashire County Council request email]

www.lancashire.gov.uk

 

 

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Dear Freedom of Information,

I'm afraid that I have still not received a full response to my request entitled 'Public Rights of Way Definitive Statement and GIS Data' (your ref: 936.1587) made on 5/11/2017. I received a copy of the Definitive Map GIS data (part 1 of my request), but not copies of the Definitive Statment scans (part 2 of my request) or permission to re-use both of these datasets (part 3 of my request).

If you are still not able to provide a full response, could you please give me a detailed explaination of the reason(s) for the delay and tell me when I can expect a full response to be provided.

Many thanks,

Adam Snape

Freedom of Information, Lancashire County Council

Dear Mr Snape,

 

Thank you for your email below.

 

We are finally in a position to provide you with the information you
require.

 

Please be advised that copies of the Definitive Statement scans are too
large to send via email, and can only be sent to you on a CD.

 

Please can you confirm that the address you have previously supplied
(below) is the one you would like the CD to be sent to:

 

Adam Snape

[personal information removed],

[personal information removed],

[personal information removed],

[personal information removed]

 

With regard to your query about the Re-use of Public Sector Information
Regulations 2015 ('the Regulations'), please note that the Regulations
only apply to re-use of information for a purpose different to that for
which the public authority holds it.  As it appears you wish to re-use the
information for the same or very similar purposes the Regulations do not
apply. 

 

More information can be found on the website of the Information
Commissioner's Office at:
[1]https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/gui...

 

Yours Sincerely,

 

On Behalf of the Information Governance Team

Legal & Democratic Services

Lancashire County Council

[2][Lancashire County Council request email]

[3]www.lancashire.gov.uk

 

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Dear Freedom of Information,

Thank you for your swift reply. Given the lengthy delay, I'd be very grateful if you could send me the CD of Definitive Statement scans as soon as possible.

Yes, you have my correct address. [In future it would be better not to email out personal details in FOI responses sent to whatdotheyknow email addresses because these responses are displayed publically on the internet. You can always request that the person emails you with any details you require. As many requests do come through WhatDoTheyKnow, could you please suggest that this becomes part of your department's data protection training?]

Regarding my re-use request, please conduct an internal review to reconsider your refusal. In conducting your review, please consider the following points:

1. Several other Councils have already permitted re-use of their equivalent datasets of Public Rights of Way information in response to almost identical requests under the Re-Use of Public Sector Information Regulations 2015. These successful requests have been for the same purpose I have requested re-use (OpenStreetMap). The Councils include Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, Warwickshire, Cumbria, and East Riding of Yorkshire. On the occasions where Councils have initially refused these requests or sought to place restrictions on re-use, the Information Commisioner has instructed them to permit the re-use under the Open Government Licence. For example, here is the ICO's decision notice regarding Cambridgeshire County Council's Rights of Way Data https://ico.org.uk/media/action-weve-tak... It does not seem a good use of public resources for the Council to attempt to oppose such a request when all other near-identical requests have ultimately been successful.

2. It appears that LCC is interpreting Section 4 of the Regulations as providing a broad exemption from the duty to permit re-use. I suggest that it merely excludes re-use in the narrow circumstances where that re-use directly duplicates the initial use for which the council created the document. To iterpret it so broadly as to exclude re-use of public rights of way data for my clearly-distinct purposes runs contrary to the intention of the Regulations and the underlying European Directive 2013/37/EU to encourage open re-use of data. It should be noted that none of the Councils listed above nor the Information Commisioner viewed re-use in OpenStreetMap as being the same as the Councils' initial purpose for creating the Public Rights of Way datasets and thus exempt from the requirement to allow re-use.

3. In any case, my stated re-use purposes are clearly significantly different to the Council's initial purpose in creating the datasets. For example, the Council did not create these datasets in order to contribute its information to a free, open geographic database like OpenStreetMap which allows people to re-use the data and combine it with other data to create unique works.

4. As of 2017, over 100 councils and national park authorities have already released their Public Rights of Way GIS data under the Open Government Licence (source: ICO decision notice linked above, p.11). Indeed, Lancashire County Council has previously released an older version of the GIS dataset under the old OS Open Data Licence: http://www.rowmaps.com/datasets/LA/ . Given the clear public interest in this information being available and up-to-date, it is unclear what the Council has to gain by seeking to prevent re-use of this newer GIS data and the accompanying Definitive Statement scans under the current Open Government Licence.

As this request has already been subject to an unusually long delay, I would be grateful if you could please conduct the review of this decision promptly.

Yours sincerely,

Adam Snape

Adam Snape left an annotation ()

Statement scans and a slightly updated GIS file received on CD 23/3/18. Somewhat frustratingly it appears that the CD was prepared back in January!

Dear Freedom of Information,

On 20th March I asked you to review your decision to refuse my request to reuse information under the Re-use of Public Sector Information Regulations 2015. You have not yet communicated the outcome of this review with me. Could you please do so. I think that a month should have been sufficient, but if you do still need more time could you please explain the reason and let me know when I can expect the review to be completed.

If the outcome of the review is to uphold your original decision could you please help me to understand your decision by explaining your application of the Regulations. Specifically, if you maintain that Section 4 means that the Regulations do not apply in this case, could you please explain a) what was the initial purpose for which the Council created these documents and b) how each of my stated re-use purposes contained in my original request is the same as this original purpose

As the processing of the initial request was subject to an exceptionally long delay (we’re now almost 6 months down the line), I would be very grateful if you could deal with this matter promptly.

Many thanks,

Adam Snape

Freedom of Information, Lancashire County Council

Dear Mr Snape,

Thank you for your email of 20 March.

Please accept our apologies for the delay in responding.

Firstly, we apologise for emailing you with details of your address to the whatdotheyknow website which has then been published. We receive approximately 2000 EIR/FOI requests per year, and sometimes it is not possible given the workload to recognise that an email may automatically be published. We often email applicants to ask for a postal address if we are unable to send the requested information via electronic means. However I have reminded colleagues to be mindful of such matters.

With regard to the substantive matters, I can confirm that we have reversed our decision and have no objection to your request for the re-use of information.

Yours sincerely,

Michael Sayles

Senior Information Access Officer
Information Governance Team
Lancashire County Council

www.lancashire.gov.uk

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Dear Michael Sayles,

Thank you very much for your reply.

Don't worry about the email containing my address. It didn't bother me unduly but I just thought I'd raise the potential issues. I suggest the simplest and safest policy to avoid unwittingly revealing personal information would be to always ask the other party to send you their information, rather than (as in this case) sending out the details you hold and asking the other party to confirm them. This would avoid the problem of automatically published emails, but also other potential pitfalls such as incorrectly addressed emails being read by someone other than the intended recipient.

Thank you very much for reconsidering your initial decision and agreeing to my request to re-use the information under the Open Government Licence (version 3). I did mention in my initial request that it would be in everyone's interests if future users of these datasets did not to have to go through the FOI process. In accordance with your Publication Scheme could you please now publish these datasets (and proactively publish updated versions) under the Open Government Licence. I suggest the Open Data portals http://lis.lancashire.gov.uk/ and/or https://data.gov.uk/ would be appropriate locations for these datasets.

Yours sincerely,

Adam Snape