Whitchurch Toll Bridge Inquiry June 2009

The request was partially successful.

Dear Sir or Madam,

In June 2009 your Mr Martyn Heyes conducted an Inquiry into the Whitchucrch Bridge, Berkshire, in relation to an increase in the tolls collected from 20p to 40p. In view of this, can you please provide a copy of Mr Heyes professional qualifications in respect of his appointment into conducting an inquiry of this nature. This would best be presented in the form of certificates actually received by Mr Heyes.

Yours faithfully,

Mr Bowen

Long, Martin,

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Bowen

Thank you for your email requesting information from the Planning
Inspectorate.

The professional qualifications held by Martyn Heyes, and which he has
put into the public domain, are stated on his report to the Secretary of
State for Transport in respect of the Whitchurch Bridge Inquiry. The
Inspector's report is already publicly available on the Department for
Transport's website by following the attached link -
http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/roads/statutor...
urchbridgeinspectorrep.pdf.

Whilst I note your preference to supply the 'certificates actually
received by Mr Heyes', the Freedom of Information Act requires us to
provide information and not copies of actual documents. However, for
completeness, I confirm that we do not hold copies of the relevant
certificates.

You may wish to note that the Inspector was appointed following an
assessment of the case, including any specialist skills demanded. In
this particular case, an Inspector with our Roads & Traffic specialism
was considered to be required, and Martyn Heyes held this specialism.

If you have any queries about this response then please contact me at
the address below.

If you are unhappy with the outcome or handling of your request then you
may ask for a review. Details of our review procedures, and right of
appeal to the Information Commissioner are set out in the attached
leaflet.

Yours sincerely

Martin Long
Information Management
The Planning Inspectorate
Room 5/05 Temple Quay House
2 The Square
Temple Quay
Bristol
BS1 6PN

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Dear Martin,
Many thanks for your prompt response.
I appreciate the fact the you have been open about not holding copies of the relevant Certificates. Is one to assume this is the case for all staff and all qualifications ? Can you confirm the the certificates of staff are seen when an application is made for a job or is this assumed on a trust basis ?

You talk of an assessment of the case, can you please supply all documents relating to this and in particular the decision to appoint Mr Heyes as the right and proper , suitably qualified person.

I have already duly noted Mr Heyes qualifications and memberships of associations from the report, these are quite specific in terms of the qualifications as a Chartered Engineer and Highways and transportation.Can you confirm what qualifications, if any, Mr Heyes has in Finance, accounting , Law and Mathematics at any level. Can you also confirm any internal or external courses or qualifications have been attained by Mr Heyes in terms of his work as an inspector.

Yours sincerely,

Mr Bowen

Long, Martin,

Dear Mr Bowen

Thank you for your further email. Unless I require further information
from you to answer your requests you should expect a response by 2
December 2009.

Your sincerely

Martin Long

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Long, Martin,

4 Attachments

Dear Mr Bowen

Thank you for your requests for information regarding the qualifications
and appointment of Inspectors in respect of particular toll order
inquiries. The relevant 'whatdotheyknow.com' references are 22388 and
22610.

Inspectorate's assessment of Whitchurch and Humber Bridge cases

Please find attached extracts of PINS guidance in the form of the
'Allocation Matrix' and our 'Transport Specialisms' that will have related
to both toll order inquiries.

<<ALLOCATION guidance.doc>>

I also attach the relevant correspondence in respect of the Whitchurch
Bridge and Humber Bridge inquiries. Please note that I have redacted from
the email exchanges the specific contact details of the relevant
individuals (email address, direct telephone numbers and full address
details - these are not relevant to the assessment process); and
information which is not related to either the Whitchurch or Humberside
Inquiries.

<<whitchurch_redacted.pdf>> <<humber_redacted.pdf>>

As you will note, the assessment was made based on an estimated duration
of the inquiry by the Department for Transport and the specialist skills
required for a toll order. In each case, the Inspector was appointed
based on the fact they hold the Road and Traffic specialism and were
available to run the inquiry.

Other courses\qualifications held by the Inspectors

In the last 3 years, Mr Taylor and Mr Heyes attended Inspectorate courses
on Road Orders, Toll Orders and Traffic Regulation Orders (October 2007)
and the Inspectors Annual Conference (2008). We also have records of Mr
Taylor attending Inspectorate courses in Design (July 2008),
Advertisements (November 2008) and a Planning course (March 2009).
Inspectors are also subject to various casework observations and feedback
as part of their initial training and ongoing development.

As a result of their internal training, the Inspectors have attained the
following Inspectorate specialisms:

Mr Taylor
Roads and Traffic;
Transport;
Advertisements; and
General Allocation

Mr Heyes
Roads and Traffic;
Transport;
Waste;
Advertisements; and
General Allocation

There is no record of either Inspector attending external training courses
funded by the Inspectorate. This does not necessarily mean that they have
not attended such courses or carried out additional professional
development at their own cost.

As you are already aware, details of the professional qualifications held
by Inspectors, for which they have provided explicit consent to disclose,
are stated on their reports and decision letters.

In respect of your request for details of other qualifications, including
those in relation to finance, accounting, law and mathematics, I confirm
that we hold further details of other qualifications for the Inspectors.
These are recorded in application forms on their respective personnel
files, and this information is considered to be personal data, as defined
by the Data Protection Act 1998. Whilst the Freedom of Information Act
2000 and Environmental Information Regulations 2004 permit the disclosure
of certain third party personal data, both sets of regulations provide an
exception for the disclosure of personal data where it would breach any of
the principles set out in the Data Protection Act (s40(2) and Regulation
13 respectively).

The first data protection principle requires that personal data be
processed fairly and lawfully, and not processed unless a condition in
Schedule 2 of the Data Protection Act is met. In this case, the
information held was submitted in support of their job application to the
Inspectorate, and we do not consider that we have the consent of
Inspectors to disclose this information. Inspectors have a reasonable
expectation that this information on application forms will be used for
recruitment purposes only, will be confidential information and will be
held securely. They have a reasonable expectation that this information
will not be released to the general public.

Noting that the Inspector's were appointed to the respective inquiries in
accordance with our internal procedures, and in light of the circumstances
outlined above, disclosure of the qualifications of Mr Heyes and Mr Taylor
is considered to be unfair, and not justified by any of the conditions in
schedule 2 of the Data Protection Act. This information is therefore
being withheld by virtue of section 40(2) of the Freedom of Information
Act, or regulation 13 of the Environmental Information Regulations if
these are considered to apply..

Further information about the role and recruitment of Inspectors is also
made available on our website
[1]http://www.planning-inspectorate.gov.uk/.... It
is perhaps also worth noting that Inspectors are not required to be
specialists in every area, rather they should have the skills, ability and
experiences to conduct an independent inquiry and to interpret and weigh
the evidence before them. There are circumstances where Inspectors may
have to take on a more investigative role; however, as a general
principle, Inspectors are intended to act as impartial adjudicators.

Policy on Educational Certificates

As previously confirmed, the Inspectorate does not hold educational
certificates for Mr Heyes. Our current Inspector recruitment process
requires candidates to bring originals of their professional certificates
to the final interview. To this end, I enclose an extract of the letter
used in our last (2006) recruitment campaign.

<<Invite to interview.doc>>
Copyright

The information supplied to you continues to be protected by the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. You are free to use it for your
own purposes, including any non-commercial research you are doing and for
the purposes of news reporting. Any other re-use, for example commercial
publication, would require the permission of the copyright holder. The
documents supplied will have been produced by government officials and
will be Crown Copyright. You can find details on the arrangements for
re-using Crown Copyright from the Office of Public Sector Information at:
[2]http://www.opsi.gov.uk/click-use/index.htm.

Please contact me if you have any queries about this response. If you are
dissatisfied with either the handling or outcome of the response then you
may ask for an internal review. Details of review procedures, and the
right to appeal to the Information Commissioner were sent to you with our
previous response.

Yours sincerely

Martin Long
Information Management
The Planning Inspectorate

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Dear Martin,

Thank you for your response, I understand the reasons for not disclosing further qualifications.
In light of this and the fact that inspectors are not required to be specialists in every field perhaps you could confirm details of experience gained since working in this field by way of providing details of past inquiries held by each gentleman and length of service with yourselves as inspectors.
For completeness it would save much time by confirming if either inspector has any qualifications in law or finnance.

Yours sincerely,

Mr Bowen

Long, Martin,

Dear Mr Bowen

Thank you for your email below.

I note that you understand the reasons for not disclosing further
qualifications and therefore are requesting other information. Your
latest request, our reference RFI564, will be considered under the
provisions of the Freedom of Information Act and you should expect to
receive a response within 20 working days (i.e. by 16 December 2009).

Yours sincerely

Martin Long

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Dear Long, Martin,

In addition to the current request, can you please confirm any apeals process to the inquiry please ?

Yours sincerely,

Mr Bowen

Long, Martin,

Dear Mr Bowen

As the Secretary of State for Transport commissioned the inquiry into
the Whitchurch Bridge Toll Review Application, and had responsibility
for making the subsequent Order, the Department for Transport will be
best placed to answer your query regarding any appeals process. Contact
details are on their website - www.dft.gov.uk.

Yours sincerely

Martin Long

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Martin,

Many thanks for your very prompt response on this.
Can you please provide coppies or point me in the right direction where I can find online, the copies of the documents mention in the appendix of the report;
IN 1 / 2
PA 1 - PA7
OB1 - OB11
IP1

Regards

Mr Bowen

Long, Martin,

Dear Mr Bowen

Again, as the Inquiry was commissioned by the Secretary of State for
Transport, the Department for Transport will have been provided with
both the Inspector's report and the documents mentioned in the appendix.
Contact details are on their website www.dft.gov.uk.

Yours sincerely

Martin Long

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Long, Martin,

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Bowen

Thank you for your email requesting information from the Planning
Inspectorate.

Please find enclosed an excel spreadsheet listing details of previous
inquiries undertaken by each Inspector. The spreadsheet contains
details of cases where the Inspector was appointed to make the decision,
and where they produced a report for the Secretary of State or other
sponsor body. In Mr Roberts' case, the information provided is based on
the information held from 2000/2002 (the first records available in the
relevant system).

Should you require them, details of how to obtain copies of decisions
made by the Inspector are available on our website -
www.planning-inspectorate.gov.uk/pins/ag...
and www.planning-inspectorate.gov.uk/pins/he.... Where the
jurisdiction for the decision lay with the Secretary of State or other
sponsor body, the decision and copy of the Inspector's report will be
available from that sponsor body. Contact details should be available
on the relevant sponsor's website.

You also asked for the length of service of each Inspector:

Neil Roberts - 21 years and 5 months
Martyn Heyes - 4 years and 5 months.

If you have any queries about this response, please contact me. Should
you be dissatisfied with this response or my handling of your request
then you may ask for a review. Details of our review procedures, and
the right of appeal to the Information Commissioner, have previously
been sent to you and remain current.

Yours sincerely

Martin Long
Information Management
The Planning Inspectorate
Room 5/05 Temple Quay House
2 The Square
Temple Quay
Bristol
BS1 6PN

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Dear Long, Martin,

Thank you for your response ,Mr Roberts does seem the more senior and experienced gentlemen, can you please confirm what experience Mr Heyes has of these matters prior to the 4 years and 5 months he has spent with yourselves.

Yours sincerely,

Mr Bowen

Long, Martin,

Dear Mr Bowen

Thank you for your further email. As your previous request was for
details of inquiries of two named Inspectors and their length of service
at the Inspectorate, I am not sure what information you now require and
would be grateful if you could clarify your request for "what experience
Mr Heyes has of these matters prior to the 4 years and 5 months he has
spent with yourselves".

As the Whitchurch Toll Bridge Inquiry was commissioned by the Department
for Transport, should you require details of work undertaken by Mr Heyes
for them prior to joining the Inspectorate then you may wish to approach
the Department for Transport directly.

Yours sincerely

Martin Long

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