Surrey Canal Sporting Trust

The request was refused by Lewisham Borough Council.

Dear Lewisham Borough Council,

Please can the following information be released?

> All correspondence (emails, letters, phone calls, and meetings) between the Mayor of Lewisham and the Surrey Canal Sporting Trust?

> All correspondence (emails, letters, phone calls, and meetings) between the Barry Quirk and the Surrey Canal Sporting Trust?

> All correspondence (emails, letters, phone calls, and meetings) between any member of the Lewisham Council Cabinet and the Surrey Canal Sporting Trust?

> All correspondence (emails, letters, phone calls, and meetings) between the Council Officers and the Surrey Canal Sporting Trust?

> How much money has the Council given to Surrey Canal Sporting Trust since May 2011?

> How much money has the Council given to Surrey Canal Sporting Trust since the Mayor of Lewisham became a trustee of Surrey Canal Sporting Trust?

Yours faithfully,

Thomas Turrell

Foi, Lewisham Borough Council

Dear Mr Turrell

 

Re: Freedom of Information Act 2000

Environmental Information Regulations 2004

Reference No: 390295

 

Thank you for your recent request. Your request is being considered and
you will receive a response within the statutory timescale of 20 working
days, subject to the application of any exemptions/exceptions. Where
consideration is being given to exemptions/exceptions, the 20 working day
timescale may be extended to a period considered reasonable depending on
the nature and circumstances of your request. In such cases you will be
notified and, where possible, a revised time-scale will be indicated. In
all cases we shall attempt to deal with your request at the earliest
opportunity.

 

There may be a fee payable for the retrieval, collation and provision of
the information requested where the request exceeds the statutory limit or
where disbursements exceed £10. In such cases you will be informed in
writing and your request will be suspended until we receive payment from
you or your request is modified and/or reduced.

 

Your request may require either full or partial transfer to another public
authority. You will be informed if your request is transferred. If we are
unable to provide you with the information requested we will notify you of
this together with the reason(s) why and details of how you may appeal (if
appropriate). Please note that the directorate team may contact you for
further information where we believe that the request is not significantly
clear for us to respond fully.

 

Kind Regards

 

Maria Kaminski

Corporate Information Team

 

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Gibson, Hanna, Lewisham Borough Council

Dear Mr Turrell,

 

Environmental Information Regulations 2004

Request reference No: 390295

 

I write with reference to your request for information listed above,
copied below, and acknowledged by the Authority as follows:

 

+------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|Request Ref |Received from you |Acknowledged by email |
|-------------------+------------------------+---------------------------|
|390295 |14/01/17, 21:27 |16/01/17, 12:57 |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------+

 

Please can the following information be released?

> All correspondence (emails, letters, phone calls, and meetings) between
the Mayor of Lewisham and the Surrey Canal Sporting Trust?

> All correspondence (emails, letters, phone calls, and meetings) between
the Barry Quirk and the Surrey Canal Sporting Trust?

> All correspondence (emails, letters, phone calls, and meetings) between
any member of the Lewisham Council Cabinet and the Surrey Canal Sporting
Trust?

> All correspondence (emails, letters, phone calls, and meetings) between
the Council Officers and the Surrey Canal Sporting Trust?

> How much money has the Council given to Surrey Canal Sporting Trust
since May 2011?

> How much money has the Council given to Surrey Canal Sporting Trust
since the Mayor of Lewisham became a trustee of Surrey Canal Sporting
Trust?

 

 

We do not consider we are obliged to comply with your request as it falls
within the exception in regulation 12(4)(b) of the Environmental
Information Regulations 2004 (EIR). This exception entitles us to refuse
requests for information which are manifestly unreasonable.

 

In applying this exception we have aggregated all of the individual
requests for information contained within your email (comprising 6
separate requests for a wide range of information and correspondence
spanning an expansive period of time) because they all relate to
information on the same topic: namely the proposed CPO relating to New
Bermondsey and individuals or organisations connected to this. Having
carefully considered the guidance from the Information Commissioner on
this matter, it is our view that your requests are vexatious and that
complying with your requests would impose a wholly disproportionate and
unjustified level of disruption on the Council.

 

In addition, we have also received a number of requests from other
individuals asking for similar information on the same subject matter as
yours, framed in such a similar way that suggests to us that a number of
individuals are acting together as part of a campaign to disrupt the
Council by the sheer weight of requests. When taken together, compliance
with all of these requests would clearly cause a disproportionate and
unjustified level of disruption to the Council and would therefore be
manifestly unreasonable.

 

In applying this exception, we have balanced the public interest in
withholding the information against the public interest in disclosure. We
acknowledge there is public interest in the proposed CPO in relation to
the New Bermondsey scheme, including in the disclosure of information to
promote transparency and accountability in relation to the scheme. However
we consider that the requests in this case are vexatious and the burden
that would be placed on us as a public authority in complying with your
requests would be wholly disproportionate to any potential public benefit
that might be gained from the information that could be obtained. As such,
we consider the public interest in favour of maintaining the exception
strongly outweighs the public interest in disclosure of the information
and that we are entitled to refuse your requests.

 

You have a right of appeal against this response. If you wish to appeal
you must do so in writing to the Corporate Information Manager at the
following address:

 

Corporate Information Team

London Borough of Lewisham

1st Flr, Town Hall Chambers

Rushey Green

Catford

London, SE6 4RY

 

or

 

[1][email address]

 

Yours sincerely

 

Hanna Gibson

Casework Team- Customer Services

London Borough of Lewisham

 

Address 5th Floor Laurence House, 1 Catford Road, London, SE6 4RU.

Phone 020 8314 6097

Email  [2][email address]

 

 

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