Rawtenstall Bus Station Development

The request was partially successful.

Dear Lancashire County Council,

I am writing to make an open government request for all the information to which I am entitled under the freedom of information act. In order to assist you with this request, I am outlining my query as specifically as possible. If however this request is too wide or too unclear, I would be grateful if you could contact me as I understand that under the act, you are required to advise and assist requesters.

In regards the proposed bus station development I would be grateful if you could provide the following information:-

1. Details of any meetings taken place within Lancashire County Council including dates, minutes and attendees including agreed actions and outcomes with regards to the Rawtenstall bus station development

2. Details of any meetings taken place with external stakeholders (including Barnfield and Day Architecture) including dates, minutes and attendees including agreed actions and outcomes with regards to the Rawtenstall Bus station development

3.Copies of all correspondence be it email, telephone messages, letters, faxes that has taken place internally within the Council with regards to the Rawtenstall Bus station development

4. Copies of all correspondence be it email, telephone messages, letters, faxes that has taken place with external stakeholders (including Barnfield and Day Architecture) with regards to the Rawtenstall Bus station development

5. Details of any future proposals to discuss the Rawtenstall Bus station development

I understand that under the act, I should be entitled to a response within 20 working days. I would be grateful if you could confirm in writing that you have received this request. I look forward to hearing from you in the near future.

If there are specific areas of the request that may hold up the other information then I am happy to receive the information in a staggered fashion.

Yours faithfully,

Yours faithfully,

Matthew

Freedom of Information, Lancashire County Council

Request for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000
Reference: 876.498
 
Dear Matthew,
 
I am writing to acknowledge receipt of your email dated 16 April regarding
Rawtenstall Bus Station. I 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 15 May. 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. 876.498.
 
Yours sincerely,
 
On behalf of the Information Governance Team
 
Information Governance Team
Lancashire County Council
T: 01772 531116
[1]www.lancashire.gov.uk
 

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Freedom of Information, Lancashire County Council

Dear Sirs,

 

Access to information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000

 

I am writing further to your request for information, in which you request
copies of all correspondence relating to Rawtenstall Bus Station.

 

Due to the complex nature of the request, and the volume of information,
we will be unable to meet our legislative deadline of the 15^th May.
Please accept my apologies for the inconvenience this may cause you.

 

I am hoping that I will be in a position to respond by no later than 19^th
May. I appreciate this is well beyond the legislative timeframe and again,
I can only apologise for this and hopefully assure you that I will be in
touch as soon as I am in a position to do so.

 

As we will have failed to supply you with a response within the statutory
20 working days, you have the right to refer the matter to the Information
Commissioner, whose contact details are as follows:

 

The Information Commissioner's Office,

Wycliffe House,

Water Lane,

Wilmslow,

Cheshire,

SK9 5AF.

Telephone:       0303 123 1113

Website:           [1]http://www.ico.gov.uk/

 

In the meantime, if you have any queries, please do not hesitate to
contact me.

 

Yours sincerely,

Miss P. Burman

Access to Information Officer

Information Governance Team

Lancashire County Council

[2][Lancashire County Council request email]

[3]www.lancashire.gov.uk

 

 

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Freedom of Information, Lancashire County Council

4 Attachments

Dear Matthew

 

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 the response we received from our Transport
Policy Team.

Please accept my apologies for the delay in not providing you this
information by the 19^th May. This was an error on my part, as the
information was passed to the Team whilst I was on annual leave, and
unfortunately was missed. I apologise for the inconvenience it has caused
in not providing you with a response within the legislative timeframe.

REQUEST:

I am writing to make an open government request for all the information to
which I am entitled under the freedom of information act. In order to
assist you with this request, I am outlining my query as specifically as
possible. If however this request is too wide or too unclear, I would be
grateful if you could contact me as I understand that under the act, you
are required to advise and assist requesters.

 

In regards the proposed bus station development I would be grateful if you
could provide the following information:-

 

1. Details of any meetings taken place within Lancashire County Council
including dates, minutes and attendees including agreed actions and
outcomes with regards to the Rawtenstall bus station development

 

2. Details of any meetings taken place with external stakeholders
(including Barnfield and Day Architecture) including dates, minutes and
attendees including agreed actions and outcomes with regards to the
Rawtenstall Bus station development

 

3.Copies of all correspondence be it email, telephone messages, letters,
faxes that has taken place internally within the Council with regards to
the Rawtenstall Bus station development

 

4. Copies of all correspondence be it email, telephone messages, letters,
faxes that has taken place with external stakeholders (including Barnfield
and Day Architecture)  with regards to the Rawtenstall Bus station
development

 

5. Details of any future proposals to discuss the Rawtenstall Bus station
development

 

I understand that under the act, I should be entitled to a response within
20 working days. I would be grateful if you could confirm in writing that
you have received this request. I look forward to hearing from you in the
near future.

RESPONSE:

Section 1(1) of the Act provides that a public authority has a duty to
state in writing whether it holds information of the description specified
in a request; and in accordance with our obligations I am able to confirm
that Lancashire County Council does hold the information you have
requested in respect of all correspondence relating to Rawtenstall Bus
Station.

However, section 43(2) of the Act permits information to be withheld,
subject to the application of a public interest test, where disclosure
would, or would be likely to, prejudice the commercial interests of any
person.

Organisations operate in a highly competitive environment and invest
considerable amounts of time and money developing expertise in their
field. To disclose such commercially sensitive information would
undoubtedly be advantageous to competitors, allowing them to benefit
unfairly from the organisations' efforts. As a consequence, this would be
likely to improve their prospects of securing business at their expense.
In addition, disclosure could affect the commercial interests of
Lancashire County Council by diminishing its ability to obtain best value
in its dealings with contractors in this, or similar fields; and could
seriously jeopardise the competitive nature of future procurement tenders.

In considering the public interest test, I acknowledge that, as a general
principle, there is a general public interest in public authorities being
as open and transparent as possible. Disclosure would improve the
accountability and transparency of the Authority by showing how it has
used public funds and obtained value for money. However, there is also a
considerable public interest in safeguarding the ability of organisations
to benefit from the competitive advantage gained through developing best
practice in their chosen field of business. In addition, the Authority
obtaining the best rates and good value in its dealings with contractors
is clearly in the public interest; and disclosure of detailed information,
would be likely to compromise that ability. In balancing the public
interest, I have concluded that these factors outweigh any benefit that
would be gained by disclosure of the information to which the exemption
applies.

In light of the above, it is my view that in all the circumstances of this
case, the public interest in disclosure is outweighed by the public
interest in maintaining the exemption; and therefore your request
partially is refused. However, we are able to provide you with some
information relating to Rawtenstall Bus Station, and have attached
redacted copies of the correspondence you have requested.

 

I trust the above information is informative.

 

In the event that you wish to complain about the manner in which your
enquiry has been handled, or want to request a review of a decision to
withhold information, you should write in the first instance to the
Information Governance Manager, Information Governance Team, Lancashire
County Council, PO Box 78, County Hall, Preston PR1 8XJ, or email
[1][Lancashire County Council request email].

 

If, after this stage, you remain dissatisfied, you have the right to refer
the matter to the Information Commissioner, whose contact details are as
follows:

 

The Information Commissioner's Office,

Wycliffe House,

Water Lane,

Wilmslow,

Cheshire,

SK9 5AF

Telephone:    0303 123 1113

Website:       [2]http://www.ico.gov.uk/

 

If you have any queries regarding our response, or you require any
additional information, please do not hesitate to contact us.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Miss P. Burman

Access to Information Officer

Information Governance Team

Lancashire County Council

[3][email address]

[4]www.lancashire.gov.uk

 

 

 

 

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