Report rules against council on car park FOI response delay
The data watchdog has ruled against a council for failing answer a member of the public’s question about a hillside car park on time.
A decision notice published by the Information Commissioner’s Office says Telford & Wrekin Council received a list of queries about extension and resurfacing work at the woodland site off Ercall Lane, south of Wellington.
It adds that the council responded to all but one of the questions within the four-week legal timeframe, but took four months to answer the remaining one about whether a Natural England consultation process applied to the site.
The ICO found that the delay breached of the Freedom of Information Act, but it does not order any remedial action as the reply was eventually provided.
The anonymised report says: “On February 8, 2021, the complainant wrote to the council and requested information in the following terms: ‘I write to request information on Telford council’s (or Telford council’s contractor’s) recent activities on extending and resurfacing the car parking area, plus the removal of vegetation and several trees, located at the Ercall.
“‘Specifically, this area lies at the foot of the woodland leading off Ercall Lane immediately adjacent to the M54’.”
The ICO report adds that the complainant asked 16 specific questions concerning the ownership and designation of the land and asking for details of tree removal work carried out there.
The council acknowledged the request on the day it was sent, it adds.
The 2000 Freedom of Information Act gives councils and other public authorities 20 working days to respond to requests for information.
Having not received a response, the requester asked for an update on March 29, the report says, receiving a “partial response” the following week.
However, question eight – which asked if the car park was in the SSSI and, if so, whether the work was exempt from Natural England’s SSSI consent process, and why – remained unanswered.
The requester contacted the ICO in May and the council responded on June 7.
“Responses to requests made under the [FOI] act must be provided ‘promptly and, in any event, not later than the 20th working day following the date of receipt’,” the ICO report says.
“The council did not provide a substantive response to the request within 20 working days of receipt.”
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs maps, available online, suggest the car park – like everything else south of Ercall Lane and a 200m stretch of the M54 east of the bridge over the motorway – falls within the SSSI.
The ICO’s report does not include the text of the council’s response to the questions. Telford and Wrekin Council has been approached for copies.
