R&A Agreement

The request was partially successful.

Dear Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council,

This is a request made for the R&A Agreement dated 25th January 2001 between Wirral Borough Council, The Royal Liverpool Golf Club and the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews.

It is also a request for the R&A Replacement Agreement and R&A Transport Agreement (both these terms are described in Wirral Council's Development Agreement with Nickalus Joint Venture Group Limited).

I consider this to be a request under the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 as some of what is in the agreement will be "environmental information" as defined by reg 2(1) of the Environmental Information Regulations 2004.

Moving to regulation 6 (1) of the Environmental Information Regulations 2004, I am requesting that the information be supplied in an electronic format such as a PDF file.

If this is not possible, I am happy to accept a hard copy through the post (if this is the case please inform me and I will supply an address).

I remind you of your duty under regulation 9(1) to provide advice and assistance to those who make EIR requests.

Yours faithfully,

John Brace

InfoMgr, FinDMT, Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Brace

 

Thank you for your recent request below, which is being processed in
accordance with the Environmental Information Regulations 2004.  We write
as we require further time to process your request.

[1]Regulation 7 of EIR 2004 states

7.—(1) Where a request is made under regulation 5, the public authority
may extend the period of 20 working days referred to in the provisions in
paragraph (2) to 40 working days if it reasonably believes that the
complexity and volume of the information requested means that it is
impracticable either to comply with the request within the earlier period
or to make a decision to refuse to do so.

The Council is thereby relying on Regulation 7 to extend the response
period to 40 working days. The amended deadline for the Council’s response
is therefore 10 November 2017  and we trust that this is acceptable to
you.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

 

Tracy O'Hare

Information Management Officer

Business Services - Digital

Treasury Building

Cleveland Street
Birkenhead
Wirral
CH41 1AH

[2]Tel:0151 691 8397

[3][Wirral Borough Council request email]

 

 

[4]LGC Awards15_Winner_MIP

 

This information supplied to you is copyrighted and continues to be
protected by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.   You are free
to use it for your own purposes, including any non commercial research you
are doing and for the purposes of news reporting. Any other reuse, for
example commercial publication, would require our specific permission, may
involve licensing and the application of a charge

 

 

 

 

 

 

InfoMgr, FinDMT, Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council

2 Attachments

Dear   Mr Brace,          

 

I refer to your email dated 15 September, when you made the following
request for information:-

 

Dear Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council,

 

This is a request made for the R&A Agreement dated 25th January 2001
between Wirral Borough Council, The Royal Liverpool Golf Club and the
Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews.

 

It is also a request for the R&A Replacement Agreement and R&A Transport
Agreement (both these terms are described in Wirral Council's Development
Agreement with Nicklaus Joint Venture Group Limited).

 

I consider this to be a request under the Environmental Information
Regulations 2004 as some of what is in the agreement will be
"environmental information" as defined by reg 2(1) of the Environmental
Information Regulations 2004.

 

Moving to regulation 6 (1) of the Environmental Information Regulations
2004, I am requesting that the information be supplied in an electronic
format such as a PDF file.

 

If this is not possible, I am happy to accept a hard copy through the post
(if this is the case please inform me and I will supply an address).

 

I remind you of your duty under regulation 9(1) to provide advice and
assistance to those who make EIR requests.

 

Yours faithfully,

 

I refer to the email from the Council dated 10 October in which the
Council informed you that it was extending its time for response in
accordance with provisions of Regulation 7 of the EIR.

 

I consider that the information you have requested is environmental
information under the Environmental Information Regulations 2004, (“EIR”).
Regulation 2 (1) (c) of the EIR provides that measures including
administrative measures), such as policies, legislation, plans,
programmes, environmental agreements, and activities affecting or likely
to affect the elements is environmental information. Plans and activities
in connection with the Open Championship are likely to affect  the element
of land and come within the definition of environmental information.

 

The Council has a duty to make environmental information available on
request unless one or more of the exceptions in the Regulations apply.
Having consulted with Merseytravel, the successor body in respect of the
Merseyside Transport Executive, I enclose a copy of the Agreement dated 26
March 2002 between the Council and the Merseyside Transport Executive. The
Council does not hold information with regard to your request for a copy
of an R&A Replacement Agreement

 

I refer to your request for a copy of the Agreement dated 25th January
2001 between Wirral Borough Council, The Royal Liverpool Golf Club and the
Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews .I consider that the exception
contained in Regulation 12 (5) (e) of the EIR applies to this part of
 your request for information. Regulation 12 (5)(e) provides that a public
authority may refuse to disclose information to the extent that its
disclosure would adversely affect the confidentiality of commercial or
industrial information where such confidentiality is provided by law to
protect a legitimate economic interest.

 

I have had regard to the guidance issued by the Information Commissioner’s
Office: “Confidentiality of commercial or industrial information
(regulation 12 (5) (e)0,201205`6 : Version:1.2.  I consider that the
requested information has the necessary quality of confidence. The
information is not trivial and is not in the public domain. I refer to
paragraph 38 of the ICO guidance:- “Legitimate economic interests could
relate to retaining or improving market position, ensuring that
competitors do not gain access to commercially valuable information,
protecting a commercial bargaining position in the context of existing or
future negotiations, avoiding commercially significant reputational
damage, or avoiding disclosures which would otherwise result in a loss of
revenue or income” I also refer to paragraph 46 of the guidance which
provides that “If it is a third party’s interests that are at stake, the
public authority should consult with third party unless it has prior
knowledge of their views”. The Council has consulted with relevant third
parties.

The exception contained in Regulation 12 (5) (e) of the EIR is subject to
the public interest test. I have had regard to paragraph 48 of the
guidance, which provides that “ Although public authorities should
consider the views of the third party, it is still the public authority’s
responsibility to decide whether or not the exception applies”.

 

 

Public Interest Test

 

Factors in favour of disclosing the requested  information

o The public interest in disclosure to promote transparency and
accountability of public authorities
o That public money is being used effectively

 

 

o Factors in favour of maintaining the exception
o there is an inherent public interest in maintaining commercial
confidence
o that disclosure would cause harm to the legitimate economic interests
of one or more of the parties to the agreement
o other organisations may be reluctant to bid for or enter into
arrangements with the public sector if doing so means that
confidential and commercially sensitive information will be disclosed
to the public where disclosure would adversely affect the legitimate
economic interests of those organisations

 

I am satisfied that the public interest in maintaining the exception
outweighs the public interest in disclosing  part of the information
requested,.

 

I  am therefore refusing part of your request for information under
Regulation 14 of the EIR, relying on the exception contained in
Regulation 12 (5)(e) of the EIR .You have the right to make
representations under Regulation 11 of the 2004 Regulations, which should
be sent  to [1][Wirral Borough Council request email] and your request will be
allocated for review.

 

If you are dissatisfied with this response to your request for
information, you also have the right to complain to the Information
Commissioner, but would normally be expected to make representations
before complaining to the Commissioner. The address is the Information
Commissioner’s Office,

Wycliffe House,

Water Lane,

Wilmslow,

Cheshire SK9 5AF

Tel -0303 123 113

[2]https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Sent on behalf of

 

Rosemary Lyon,

Solicitor,

Law and Governance

Business Services

CH44 8ED 

 

 

[3]LGC Awards15_Winner_MIP

 

This information supplied to you is copyrighted and continues to be
protected by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.   You are free
to use it for your own purposes, including any non commercial research you
are doing and for the purposes of news reporting. Any other reuse, for
example commercial publication, would require our specific permission, may
involve licensing and the application of a charge

 

 

 

 

 

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References

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