Dear Mr. Milan,

Thank you for your request for information, which was received on 8th January, 2013 and is being dealt with under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. We are therefore required to provide you with a response within 20 working days, which will be on or before 5th February, 2013.

If we require any clarification or further details, we will contact you as soon as possible - if this is the case, then the timescale for response specified above may be subject to change.

In the meantime, if you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact me, remembering to quote the reference number provided above in any communications.

Yours sincerely
John Tillman
Swyddog Gwybodaeth a Diogelu Data
Adran y Prif Weithredwr
Cyngor Sir Gaerfyrddin

Information & Data Protection Officer
Chief Executive's Department
Carmarthenshire County Council
Mewnol/Internal: 4127
Allanol/External: 01267 224127

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Dear Mr Milan,

I refer to your request for information, which was received on 8th January, 2013 and has been dealt with under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

The specific information you requested was as follows:

"I write this morning with reference to enquire as to the reason two blogs have deliberately made inaccessible to members of the council using council owned hardware. The first blog is Jacqui Thompson's Carmarthenshire Plannning Problems and More, which can be found at http://http://carmarthenplanning.blogspo....
The second blog is the Y Cneifiwr blog, which can be found at http://cneifiwr-emlyn.blogspot.co.uk. Both blogs report traffic from the council, which I suspect to be originate from it's officers. Can you also therefore explain why whatever reason justifies preventing access to the blogs by members apparently does not apply to council officers?"

In response, we do not hold any information relevant to your request.

This is because the Council has not made the blogs you refer to "inaccessible to Members of the Council”.

As with other Local Authorities or Public Bodies, software supplied by private companies is used by the Council to filter access to inappropriate sites or Social Networking Sites. These controls have been in place for some time and apply to both Elected Members and officers.

Any officer or Elected Member having difficulty in accessing a website required for legitimate work purposes is required to contact the Council's IT Helpdesk.

Yours sincerely

John Tillman
Swyddog Gwybodaeth a Diogelu Data
Adran y Prif Weithredwr
Cyngor Sir Gaerfyrddin

Information & Data Protection Officer
Chief Executive's Department
Carmarthenshire County Council

Mewnol/Internal: 4127
Allanol/External: 01267 224127

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[ WhatDoTheyKnow note: The above text was badly encoded, and has had strange characters removed. ]