Steady State activities -2016/17

The request was refused by Canal & River Trust.

Dear Canal & River Trust,

British Waterways 2009 Steady State Model produced the following output for England & Wales showing spend against activities in £millions -

Major Repairs - 20.7
Intermediate Repairs & PPM - 21.4
Dredging - 10.5
Towpath management - 8.2
Energy Costs & Water Rates - 1.7
Inspections - 2.3
Manned Structures - 2.5
Vegetation - 11.2
Customer Service - 6.9
Boundary & Access Maintenance - 3.7
Water Control & Emergency response - 2.5
Dowries - 3.8
Unattributed Costs - 20.5
Total - 115.7

Please provide via whatdotheyknow.com your actual spend for the financial year 2016/17 against each of those activities.

Yours faithfully,

Allan Richards

Information Request, Canal & River Trust

Dear Mr Richards,

Thank you for your request for information regarding our Steady State Activities Expenditure for 2016/2017.

I can confirm this request was received on 23rd November and I am dealing with it in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000. Under the terms of the Act you are entitled to a response within 20 working days of receipt.

If for any reason we are unable to meet this deadline we will keep you fully informed of the reasons for this and will tell you when you can expect a response.

In the meantime if you have any queries about this email, please do not hesitate to get in contact. Please remember to quote the reference number above in any future communications.

Kind regards,

Frazer Halcrow
Information Officer Assistant

T 01908 351962 M 07584 115258 Ext 1162

Follow us on Twitter @canalrivertrust

Please visit our website to find out more about the Canal & River Trust.

Canal & River Trust, First Floor North, Station House, 500 Elder Gate, Milton Keynes MK9 1BB

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Dear Canal & River Trust,

This request was received by you on 22 November at 20:49 not 23 November.

May I remind you of what it says on the whatdotheyknow.com website -

Canal & River Trust is subject to Environmental Information Regulations and also subject to the Freedom of Information Act 2000 with respect to functions inherited from British Waterways. The Canal & River Trust have undertaken to voluntarily release information where they can regardless of whether they are obliged to do so.

As such, I would suggest you modify you acknowledgement of requests accordingly.

Yours sincerely,

Allan Richards

Dear Canal & River Trust,

I am due a response on this request no later than tomorrow.

Yours faithfully,

Allan Richards

Information Request, Canal & River Trust

Dear Mr Richards,

 

Further to your request of 22^nd November and our subsequent
acknowledgement of 23^rd November, I can confirm that whilst the
information you have requested is held by the Trust some of it is exempt
from disclosure as it is reasonably accessible by an alternative means in
accordance with Section 21(2)(b) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
This is because the ‘actual spend’ figures for both dredging and
vegetation are available on Page 37 of our 2016/2017 Annual Report at the
following link [1]https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/about-us/....

 

I can confirm that the remainder of the information is exempt from
disclosure as the cost of providing the figures for the other 11
categories requested would be over £450 in accordance with Section 12 of
the Freedom of Information Act 2000. This is because we estimate that it
would take us over 18 staff hours (calculated at £25 per hour in
accordance with ICO guidance) to locate, retrieve, extract and send the
information in an appropriate format. As we no longer collect the
information in the same categories, not only would it involve several
different members of the finance team running reports retrospectively in
order to extract the data but also assumptions would have to be made on
the allocation of some of the current data into the classifications of the
Steady State model 2009.

 

We suggest you narrow your request according to a specific activity or
activities listed. However, it must be noted that any narrowed request
may still be subject to the relevant freedom of information exemptions and
for some of the activities, due to the assumptions required, the
information may be impossible to provide in the format requested.  

 

If you are dissatisfied with the handling of your request, you have the
right to ask for an internal review. Internal review requests should be
submitted within two months of the date of this email and should be sent
by email to [2][email address] or by post to
Information Officer, Legal Department, Canal & River Trust, First Floor
North, Station House, 500 Elder Gate, Milton Keynes, MK9 1BB. Please
remember to quote the reference number above in any future communications.
You are also able to contact the Information Commissioner by telephoning
0303 123 1113 although please note they would usually expect you to have
gone through our internal review procedure before contacting them.

 

Kind regards,

 

Frazer Halcrow

Information Officer Assistant

 

T 01908 351962     M 07584 115258     Ext 1162

 

Follow us on Twitter [3]@canalrivertrust

 

Please visit our [4]website to find out more about the Canal & River
Trust.

 

Canal & River Trust, First Floor North, Station House, 500 Elder Gate,
Milton Keynes MK9 1BB

 

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Dear Canal & River Trust,

With reference to -

This is because the ‘actual spend’ figures for both dredging and
vegetation are available on Page 37 of our 2016/2017 Annual Report at the
following link [1]https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/about-us/....

- the information I am requesting relates to your Steady State model not 'actual spend'. As you appear to hold the information relating to these two categories please provide it.

I confirm that I am happy to receive the rest of the information in the categories that you now use rather than those I specified.

I look forward to your reply tomorrow.

Yours sincerely,

Allan Richards

Dear Canal & River Trust,

Further to my reply earlier today.

Page 37 gives the 'actual' dredging spend as just £6.3m. This is some £4.2m less than than the figure given 10 years ago as the amount needed to retain 'Steady State' - £10.5m

Page 37 gives 'actual' vegetation spend as just £7.9m. This is some £3.3m less than the figure given 10 years ago as the amount needed to retain 'Steady State' - £11.2m.

In the, hopefully temporary, absence of up to date Steady State figures it would appear that C&RT is under-spending by £7.5m on these two categories alone.

Yours sincerely,

Allan Richards

Information Request, Canal & River Trust

Dear Mr Richards,

Many thanks for your email.

Your initial request stated " Please provide via whatdotheyknow.com your actual spend for the financial year 2016/17 against each of those activities."

As highlighted in our response of 20th December, our actual spend against vegetation and dredging (two of the activities listed in your initial request) for the financial year 2016/2017 are on Page 37 of the annual report which is in the public domain.

The categories we now use for actual spend are the rest of those categories listed on Page 37 of the 2016/2017 annual report.

Kind regards,

Frazer Halcrow
Information Officer Assistant

T 01908 351962 M 07584 115258 Ext 1162

Follow us on Twitter @canalrivertrust

Please visit our website to find out more about the Canal & River Trust.

Canal & River Trust, First Floor North, Station House, 500 Elder Gate, Milton Keynes MK9 1BB

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Dear Canal & River Trust,

Please accept my apologies. Having reread the request, it was very poorly worded. Your response was entirely appropriate.

I will raise other request.

Yours sincerely,

Allan Richards