The agreement itself (and I wish to be provided with a copy if it has been signed), between yourselves and Grenadier in regard to the Queen’s Drive development Exmouth..

East Devon District Council did not have the information requested.

Dear East Devon District Council,

Under the Freedom of Information Act AND Environmental Information Regulations 2004

My second request concerns the agreement itself and I wish to be provided with a copy if it has been signed. Cllr Stott questions why I should ask to see all agreements the council makes – I don’t, but this development is of particular interest and in an open and transparent democracy the details should be available to the public. It is a unique agreement, of great public interest and as a one off is unlikely to meet any commercial confidentiality concerns otherwise perhaps Cllr Stott would not have suggested an FOI.

As the agreement appears to have been the subject of negotiation, I would wish to see a copy of the original initial proposed agreement as well as a copy of any final signed agreement.

Yours faithfully,

Deborah Russell

East Devon District Council

Thank you for submitting a request for information. We will respond to your request as quickly as possible, within the 20 working day statutory deadline under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

For updates on this case, please quote your unique reference number 101000873196 .

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East Devon District Council

Dear Ms Russell,

Thank you for your request for information. Please find the response to your query below.

In the first instance, I wish to know what information you hold about the signing of the agreement between yourselves and Grenadier in regard to the Queen's Drive development Exmouth.

There is a development agreement involving the Council and Grenadier in relation to Queen's Drive dated 23rd August 2017. This is being dealt with under your other FOI request 101000873196.

Your Council News of 7th March 2019, reported that the agreement was due to be signed in the coming week but, in a social media exchange yesterday, 9th March 2019, Cllr Stott said that it had been signed but then appeared to backtrack and then appeared unwilling to clarify. So, at present, in the absence of anything on your website or from Cllr Stott, residents are still in the dark. If there have been further delays, then we should know. You should be aware that it has been a matter of concern to the community that a considerable amount of work has been done and considerable expenses have been incurred all without the agreement having been signed off.

Can you confirm that the agreement has been signed and, if so, when and by whom (names of all parties signing please). As the requested information must be already known to EDDC I expect this FOI to be answered promptly as the Act requires, not to take the usual 20 working days that many to EDDC do. Why Cllr Stott suggested this way to obtain the information is unclear and in respect of the question of whether it has been signed or not seems an inappropriate use of the FOI but, as she has declined to clarify the matters I must make this request.

No information held. You are effectively asking for an explanation of the current position and this is outside the scope of FOI. If you would like to email Richard Cohen at [email address] who will provide an answer to your questions.

I hope this information is helpful but, if you feel dissatisfied with the way we have responded to your request, please contact our Monitoring Officer, Mr Henry Gordon Lennox, to request an internal review [email address]

You may also approach the Information Commissioner for advice at www.ico.org.uk

Yours sincerely,

Sara

Ms S Harvey
Information and Complaints Officer
East Devon District Council

[email address]
01395 571659
www.eastdevon.gov.uk

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Dear East Devon District Council,

Thank you for your response. Councillor Pauline Stott advised that I should put in a Freedom of Information Request so I followed her advice. I believe that it was inappropriate of Councillor Pauline Stott to state that the agreement had been signed on social media. I also think that it is now incumbent on East Devon District Council to clarify via the local media whether or not the agreement has in fact been signed. This is an important matter that requires immediate clarification. I believe that this is not something that should be kicked into the long grass or until after the local elections have taken place in May.

Yours faithfully,

Deborah Russell

P Freeman left an annotation ()

The answers posted here are actually to your other FoI request at https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/i... .

I have had this several times in the past, and am never certain whether it is deliberate obfuscation or just a mistake.

However, in my experience the key to successful FoI requests is to break the request down into small pieces which cannot be misunderstood (accidentally or otherwise). In particular you should try to ask for lists of documents held and separately ask for as many different types of document as you can think of. Documents can be formal documents as well as emails - but ask for each type separately.

Good luck.
Paul

FOI EDDC, East Devon District Council

Dear Ms Russell,

 

Thank you for your email.

 

It is not clear to me whether you are actually asking for an internal
review of the original response, or whether you are actually making a
statement about what you consider the Council should be doing. However, as
the answer to your request was that the 'information is not held', this
should tell you that there isn't a signed agreement because otherwise we
would have had to provide a copy to you or provide you with the reason why
we didn't consider it appropriate to do so. If you want explanation /
information about what is happening currently in relation to the dealings
with Grenadier, which falls outside of the scope of the FOI regime as the
answer makes clear, then please contact Richard Cohen, as lead officer for
the project, who will provide you with answers.

 

Richard Cohen can be contacted by email: [email address]

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Sara

 

Ms S Harvey

Information and Complaints Officer

East Devon District Council

 

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Dear FOI EDDC,
There seems to be some confusion in the way that you have responded to this FOI.
You are confusing two FOI's with what appears to be a catch all statement on this one.
In recognition of this, I believe that your response to both needs to be reviewed.
I hope that this clarifies matters.
Yours sincerely,
Deborah Russell

Henry Gordon Lennox, East Devon District Council

Dear Ms Russell,

 

I am writing in relation to your recent FOI requests and the related
correspondence.

 

I apologise that there has been some confusion with your FOI requests and
I hope to clarify why this has happened. We have to manually change the
email address on our CRM system for each subsequent 'what do they know'
request you raise, as the email address is different for each new case. If
this isn’t done then on the 'What Do They Know' website our responses are
automatically posted to the wrong request, usually the most previous
request you made. This was not done and so essentially the response to
your second request (our reference 101000873196) should have been posted
as the answer to your first request (our reference 101000873194). This was
down to human error for which I apologise.

 

Initial assessment of both of your FOI requests led to the conclusion that
part of your first request (ref 101000873194) was seeking a copy of
development agreement in relation to Queen's Drive entered into between
the Council and Grenadier on 23rd August 2017 along with a copy of the
completed document.  We also thought that your second request
(101000873196) was also asking for the same information. However, I see
that actually your first request (101000873194) was after confirmation of
detail on the latest agreement that has been the subject of the recent
Cabinet report and media comment, while your second request (101000873196)
was after a copy of the completed latest agreement. To be clear, it is
because of our misunderstanding that our response - to your first request
(erroneously posted to your second request) – cross referred saying that
that part of the first request was being dealt with under your second
request.

 

Finally, in relation to your email which suggested an internal review was
being sought, our response should have come from me as the Monitoring
Officer.

 

For the avoidance of doubt and further confusion I have clarified our
position to both of your request below;

 

First request (ref 101000873194).

Q: 'In the first instance, I wish to know what information you hold about
the signing of the agreement between yourselves and Grenadier in regard to
the Queen's Drive development Exmouth.

 

'Your Council News of 7th March 2019, reported that the agreement was due
to be signed in the coming week but, in a social media exchange yesterday,
9th March 2019, Cllr Stott said that it had been signed but then appeared
to backtrack and then appeared unwilling to clarify. So, at present, in
the absence of anything on your website or from Cllr Stott, residents are
still in the dark. If there have been further delays, then we should know.
You should be aware that it has been a matter of concern to the community
that a considerable amount of work has been done and considerable expenses
have been incurred all without the agreement having been signed off.

 

Can you confirm that the agreement has been signed and, if so, when and by
whom (names of all parties signing please). As the requested information
must be already known to EDDC I expect this FOI to be answered promptly as
the Act requires, not to take the usual 20 working days that many to EDDC
do. Why Cllr Stott suggested this way to obtain the information is unclear
and in respect of the question of whether it has been signed or not seems
an inappropriate use of the FOI but, as she has declined to clarify the
matters I must make this request'.

 

A: No information held. You are effectively asking for explanation of the
current position and this is outside the scope of FOI. If you would like
to email Richard Cohen at [1][email address] who will provide an
answer to your questions.  

 

 

Second request (101000873196)

Q: ‘My second request concerns the agreement itself and I wish to be
provided with a copy if it has been signed. Cllr Stott questions why I
should ask to see all agreements the council makes – I don’t, but this
development is of particular interest and in an open and transparent
democracy the details should be available to the public. It is a unique
agreement, of great public interest and as a one off is unlikely to meet
any commercial confidentiality concerns otherwise perhaps Cllr Stott would
not have suggested an FOI.’

 

‘As the agreement appears to have been the subject of negotiation, I would
wish to see a copy of the original initial proposed agreement as well as a
copy of any final signed agreement.’

 

‘A: In relation to a copy of the ‘signed agreement’ there is no
information held. In relation to the request for a ‘copy of the original
initial proposed agreement', these are considered to be unfinished / draft
documents and are therefore exempt from publication under EIR regulation
12(4)(d). If you are unhappy with this response, then you are at liberty
to request an internal review of the decision.’

While I have noted your right to ask for an internal review, in relation
to a copy of the signed agreement I would ask you to note the internal
review comment below which essentially covers the position.

 

Internal review

We have responded to your request for an internal review under FOI ref
101000873194 already, but for ease I repeat it below;

 

‘It is not clear to me whether you are actually asking for an internal
review of the original response, or whether you are actually making a
statement about what you consider the Council should be doing. However, as
the answer to your request was that the 'information is not held', this
should tell you that there isn't a signed agreement because otherwise we
would have had to provide a copy to you or provide you with the reason why
we didn't consider it appropriate to do so. If you want explanation /
information about what is happening currently in relation to the dealings
with Grenadier, which falls outside of the scope of the FOI regime as the
answer makes clear, then please contact Richard Cohen, as lead officer for
the project, who will provide you with answers. Richard Cohen can be
contacted by email: [2][email address].’

 

If you are not happy with this response you can refer this complaint to
the Information Commissioner. Their website is [3]https://ico.org.uk/.

 

Further questions

You have subsequently posed a new set of questions in your email received
from [4][email address], as set out below;

 

'You have not accounted for or explained the misleading information that
Councillor Stott has been delivering via social media. You have still not
addressed why there has been a delay in signing the agreement?  You have
not clarified when the agreement will be signed this week, as was stated
in your Council News.'

 

You are asking for an explanation as to the actions of the Council, Cllrs
and / or officers in regard to the current position and the position
surrounding the signing of the agreement and, as set out in the above
internal review, this is outside the scope of FOI and EIR. As has already
been advised, if you have any questions that fall outside of the scope of
FOI/EIR then you are most welcome to put these to Richard Cohen, who is
the Deputy Chief Executive for Development, Regeneration and Partnership
and lead officer for this project. His email address is
[5][email address].

 

I hope I have been able to clarify the confusion that has occurred in
relation to your requests and my apologies that this happened. I should
also say that while I have advised that you contact Richard Cohen, you can
also email me separately for further discussion on this matter should you
wish to do so and I will endeavour to help. My email address is set out
below but for ease it is [6][email address]. Finally, if
you would like a copy of this email sent to a normal email address
(appreciating that What Do They Know is not always the easiest place to
read correspondence) then please contact me.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

 

HENRY GORDON LENNOX

 

Monitoring Officer

East Devon District Council

Tel: 01395 517401

Ext: 2601

Email: [7][email address]

 

East Devon District Council

Blackdown House,

Border Road,

Heathpark Industrial Estate,

Honiton,

EX14 1EJ

DX 48808 HONITON

 

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Dear Henry Gordon Lennox,

Thank you for your timely response, clarification, and apology. I note that you have advised that I can 'contact Richard Cohen' I can 'also email' you 'separately for further discussion on this matter ' or ' refer this complaint to the Information Commissioner'.

I will take some time now to consider your response in full. Furthermore, I will after taking expert advice decide how best to proceed.

Yours sincerely,

Deborah Russell