Travel Plans & Vernon Park Museum

The request was successful.

Brigitte Lechner

Dear Stockport Borough Council,

According to Stockport Development Plans [TD1.3] non-residential developments should be supported by a Travel Plan [Explanations 16.21 and 16.22, par example].

1. Please let me know where I can find examples of travel plans submitted in support of a Stockport planning proposal.

2. When the Council applied for change of use of Vernon Park Museum as conference/park visitor centre did it submit a travel plan. If so, please let me know where I find it; if not, why was the Council not required to do this in this instance?

3. Why is Vernon Park and its listed building not included in the list of buildings of local interest: UDP Appendix 3.

4. When does the Council expect to formally notify the Museums and Library's Registration authority of this change of use.

Yours faithfully,
Brigitte Lechner

FOI Officer, Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council

Dear Ms Lechner,

Thank you for your request for information below which has been given
reference FOI 2807. Please quote this on any correspondence regarding your
request.

Stockport Council will respond to your request within 20 working days. If
there will be a charge for disbursements e.g. photocopying in order to
provide the information, we will inform you as soon as possible to see if
you wish to proceed; however such charges are usually waived if they
amount to less than £10.

Yours sincerely,

Claire Naven

Claire Naven

Data Protection & Freedom of Information Officer

Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council

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FOI Officer, Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council

Dear Ms Lechner,

I am writing in response to your request for information below (ref 2807).

1. Travel Plans are required for applications for planning
permission which meets a certain criteria and details of these can be
found on our website relating to validation checklists:

[1]http://www.stockport.gov.uk/services/env...

In particular please see paragraph 6.37 of the Main Validation Checklist
report (see extract below) and Appendix 3

TRANSPORT TOPICS

6.37 Draft Travel Plan

The UDP Review Policy TD1.3 refers to travel plans in developments. The
Council will require applications for development that are likely to have
significant transport implications to be supported by a Travel Plan and
Appendix 3 [page 53] provides indicative thresholds for their use. This
will detail the measures to be implemented to encourage staff, visitors
and residents to travel using less environmentally damaging forms of
transport, improve safety, and deal with freight movements so that
environmental impacts are minimised. The requirement for a Travel Plan
will depend on the nature of the proposal but the Council will have regard
to the guidance in Planning Policy Guidance 13 "Transport" at paragraphs
87 to 91 and Annex D, see:

http://www.communities.gov.uk/planningan...

Further guidance can be found in Using the Planning Process to secure
travel plans: best practice guidance for local authorities, developers and
occupiers [ODPM and DfT, 2002] and Making residential travel plans work
[DfT, 2007].

2. Re a change of use of the Vernon Park Museum to a
`conference/park visitor centre': the Register of Planning decisions shows
no reference to such an application being submitted. It is not intended to
undertake such a change. From information held and from an inspection of
the relevant legislation in particular the Town and Country planning (Use
Classes) Order, it appears that to date no change has taken place which
requires the submission of a new application for planning permission.

3. The building was not included on the original list prepared in
1997; however the Unitary Development Plan represents a snapshot in time
and will be out of date almost straight away. Efforts are currently
underway to request that the building is included on the national list of
buildings of special architectural or historic interest.

4. Please see the response to point 2. In addition, the site has
just undergone an inspection by MLA (Museums, Libraries & Archives
Council) following which we have had verbal confirmation that it has
retained 'Accredited' Museum status.

If you are unhappy with the way we have handled your request you are
entitled to ask for an internal review. Any internal review will be
carried out by a senior member of staff who was not involved with your
original request. To ask for an internal review, contact
[2][email address] in the first instance.

If you are unhappy with the outcome of any internal review, you are
entitled to complain to the Information Commissioner. To do so, contact:

Information Commissioner's Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

[3]www.ico.gov.uk

01625 545 745

Yours sincerely,

Claire Naven

Claire Naven

Data Protection & Freedom of Information Officer

Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council

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Brigitte Lechner

Dear FOI Officer,

The first link you provided leads to a welter of documents making it difficult to find examples or regulations relating to travel plans.

With regard to Point 3 - does this omission also apply to Woodbank Memorial Park?

Yours sincerely,

Brigitte Lechner

FOI Officer, Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council

3 Attachments

Dear Ms Lechner,

I am writing in response to your request for further information below
(ref 2807).

Below the link provided in response to question 1 was an extract of the
relevant section of the guidance (Appendix 3) which was copied out in full
in our response in order to assist you. In addition, attached are examples
of travel plans and the Sustainable Transport SPD.

In relation to point 3, there are no plans to change the designation of
Woodbank Park.

Yours sincerely,

Claire Naven

Claire Naven

Data Protection & Freedom of Information Officer

Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council

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Brigitte Lechner

Dear FOI Officer,

Thank you for the plans. Could you explain one more thing, please:

what does "there are no plans to change the designation of Woodbank Park" mean in concrete terms?

Yours sincerely,

Brigitte Lechner

FOI Officer, Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council

Dear Ms Lechner,

`there are no plans to change the designation of Woodbank Park' means just
that; I am not sure how this can be stated any more clearly.

Yours sincerely,

Claire Naven

Claire Naven

Data Protection & Freedom of Information Officer

Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council

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Brigitte Lechner

Dear Stockport Borough Council,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Stockport Borough Council's handling of my FOI request 'Travel Plans & Vernon Park Museum'.

Councils sometimes use language that is not intelligible to outsiders. The phrase I queried is one such case in hand: `there are no plans to change the designation of Woodbank Park' tells me nothing in the context of my original question even though the definition of each word can be looked up in a dictionary.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address:
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/tr...

Yours faithfully,

Brigitte Lechner

FOI Officer, Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council

Dear Ms Lechner,

I am writing in response to your request for an internal review below
regarding request reference FOI 2807.

The purpose of internal reviews is to enable applicants to complain if
they believe the Council has not complied with the FOI Act e.g. by
responding late, by saying information is exempt when you believe it is
not, by not providing information you believe it holds. Please clarify why
you think the Council has not complied with the FOI Act in this case so we
can proceed with your request for an internal review.

Yours sincerely,

Claire Naven

Claire Naven

Data Protection & Freedom of Information Officer

Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council

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Brigitte Lechner

Dear FOI Officer,

In my original request I asked why Woodbank/Vernon Parks and their listed buildings were not included in the list of buildings of local interest [UDP Appendix 3].

In response to this query your office said there are no plans to change the designation of Woodbank Park. I asked what that means as this is clearly administrative language. Your office declined.

I asked you to review this response as I assumed access to information might include the qualifying of terminology a resident cannot be expected to understand.

Yours sincerely,

Brigitte Lechner

Brigitte Lechner

Dear FOI Officer,

I had asked why Vernon Park and its listed building were not included in the list of buildings of local interest: UDP Appendix 3. You said the building was not included on the original list prepared in 1997 but you gave no reasons.

Because Woodbank Park is of late conjoined with Vernon Park via Council policy, was also not listed, and also hosts a Grade II listed building, I asked if this omission also applied to Woodbank Memorial Park. You replied: there are no plans to change the designation of Woodbank Park. With respect, this is not an adequate response.

I then asked what ‘plans to change the designation of Woodbank Park’ meant in concrete terms. You replied that you were not ‘sure how this can be stated any more clearly’ whereupon I elaborated along the lines of Councils sometimes using language that is not intelligible to outsiders; that the phrase I queried was a case in hand.

Someone will surely be able to pen a short paragraph explaining the term as it is used in civic administrative parlance. There would also be committee papers, surveys or reports detailing plans to designate/not designate Woodbank Memorial Park. These might not only shed light on the meaning of the term. They would provide the reasons for designation of the one park [Vernon] and non-designation of the other [Woodbank Memorial Park].

In short, I should wish to know what 'designation' means as I wish to know in what sense Woodbank Memorial Park and its Grade II listed building is not being designated in the way that Vernon Park and its Grade II listed building now are [and know the reasons for its omission from the UDP in 1997]. My initial request did not result in clarification. I therefore asked for a review. I hope this explanation helps.

Yours sincerely,

Brigitte Lechner

FOI Officer, Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council

Dear Ms Lechner,

There are no plans to apply for designated status for Woodbank Memorial
Park (although the Hall is already listed). The Conservation & Heritage
team does not have any plans to recommend Registration of Woodbank Park.
The park forms part of the curtilage of the Listed Woodbank Hall and there
is no reason at present to think that registration would be appropriate.

English Heritage has been asked to consider adding the museum to the
national List, but its omission from the list attached to the UDP is not
an error and it is still not yet Listed.

Please confirm if you still wish to proceed with your request for an
internal review.

Yours sincerely,

Claire Naven

Claire Naven

Data Protection & Freedom of Information Officer

Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council

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