Watchdog says council wasn’t helpful enough over relief road information request
Shropshire Council should have been more helpful when dealing with a request for information about objections to the North West Relief Road, a watchdog has ruled.
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) said the authority failed to provide advice to a person who had requested details about how public comments on the planning application had been assessed.
While the commissioner said the council was right to refuse the request on the grounds it would have taken too long to put together the response, it said the council had a duty to help the requester refine what they were asking for.
It also told the council to send the requester an internal document that was identified during the ICO investigation.
The decision notice says a member of the public submitted a request to the council earlier this year for reports and emails between council officers discussing which of the 5,000-plus objections to respond to.
The council refused the request on the grounds that it was “manifestly unreasonable”, as it would take too long to source, collate and provide the information.
The requester disputed this, but the ICO sided with the council. The decision notice says: “In view of the costs of complying with the request, and the rather limited benefit that would flow from disclosure in this case, the commissioner is satisfied that the council has demonstrated that compliance with this request would impose an unreasonable burden upon it and therefore that the request is manifestly unreasonable.”
The report says the council did identify an internal document setting out how objections from statutory consultees – though not the general public – would be addressed, during the investigation.
The ICO said this should now be disclosed to the requester.
The report goes on to say that in such cases public bodies are expected to “provide the applicant with reasonable advice and assistance to help them submit a less burdensome request”, but no such help was offered.
It adds: “The commissioner considers that it would have been reasonable for it to have done so.”
The ICO told the council it should now contact the requester to discuss how the request could be narrowed down.
The council has until the end of this month to comply with the ruling.
A council spokesperson said: “The ICO agreed with the key points that the council made and its interpretation of relevant legislation.
“It also supported the view that the costs and time to respond were prohibitive.
“It was also noted that the council had signposted the customer to relevant information already published.
“We are currently considering the recommendations the ICO has made with a view to sharing a further document and helping the customer to narrow down the scope of their request.”
