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[pscocoa]

Getting sick of getting the runaround on trying to get a road resurfaced near me (it's on the list but we have no money!!!) a few days ago I decided to ask some questions of the local authority and here are the answers:

Dear Mr PS

I am writing regarding your request for information, which was received on 16th November 2011.

Request
1.            What road repairs of all types within XXXX area were carried out in 2010 and 2011 giving the locations and nature of repairs and costs per repair and the names of the contractors
2.            Please let me have a copy of the schedule of future road repairs together with addresses and proposed dates of repair.

Response

However, I am instructed that the cost of complying with your request would exceed the appropriate limit of £450. The appropriate limit has been specified in regulations and for local government it is £450. This represents the estimated cost of one person spending 2.5 working days in locating, retrieving and extracting the information.

1.            There is no central record of the information requested. The Council issues over 2500 orders a year to our contractors to repair roads and it would involve an officer extracting the information requested. It may be that a narrower request could be dealt within the time limit, such as repairs or resurfacing to a particular road?
2.            The council does not hold this information as repairs are dealt with as they arise.

Under section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act the Council  is not obliged to comply with your request and will not be processing your request further.


If you wish to discuss any of the above, please contact me. Please remember to quote the reference number above in any future communications.

The Constitution Unit, a research body at University College London, is carrying out a study of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and its effect on local government. An important part of the evaluation process is gathering the experiences and opinions of FOI requesters like you. Any information you provide will be handled in accordance with the privacy policy explained in the survey. If you would like to take part in this study, please the survey at http://xxxxxx-foi-request-survey.htm . Please contact Ben Worthy at b.worthy@ucl.ac.uk or on 020 7679 4974 to find out more about the study or to speak to him further about your experiences.

If you are unhappy with a service you have received in relation to your request and wish to make a complaint or request a review of our decision please use the comments, compliments and complaints procedure which can be found

If you are not content with the outcome of your complaint, you may apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. Generally the ICO cannot make a decision unless you have exhausted the complaints procedure provided by XXXXXX Council. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: The Information Commissioners Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF.


My reply:

"Thank you for your pathetic reply.

This information should be at your fingertips if XXXX is an efficient organisation.

I shall take up with Ombudsman and Press that you have abused the FOI process. "

I might have been a bit heavy on question 1 but they must have a plan for road resurfacing and road repairs  to answer Question 2.

[Paddy Flannery]

Keep pushing them for answers. I'm no expert, but don't they have to comply with FOIA requests no matter the cost or inconvenience to them ? I appreciate if you were asking for sensitive information, they probably have a get out.

Happy to take your council tax and road tax, but not prepared to keep our roads repaired or to give out information.

Things like this really wind me up.

Don't give up. Keep writing to the council and write to your elected MP if council still stall on answering your questions.

Good on you.

[Vamps]

Keep pushing them for answers. I'm no expert, but don't they have to comply with FOIA requests no matter the cost or inconvenience to them ? I appreciate if you were asking for sensitive information, they probably have a get out.

Happy to take your council tax and road tax, but not prepared to keep our roads repaired or to give out information.

Things like this really wind me up.

Don't give up. Keep writing to the council and write to your elected MP if council still stall on answering your questions.

Good on you.

[RobG]

Keep pushing them for answers. I'm no expert, but don't they have to comply with FOIA requests no matter the cost or inconvenience to them ? I appreciate if you were asking for sensitive information, they probably have a get out.

Happy to take your council tax and road tax, but not prepared to keep our roads repaired or to give out information.

Things like this really wind me up.

Don't give up. Keep writing to the council and write to your elected MP if council still stall on answering your questions.

Good on you.

Nope. Sec. 12 is a "get out clause".

Under section 12 of the FOI Act, the Council does not have to comply with a request for information if the cost of compliance exceeds the Appropriate limit for the estimated or calculated prescribed costs. The regulations define an ‘Appropriate Limit’, for local government, this limit is currently £450.

[cleggy]

You could always try the local MP give them something constructive to do

[pscocoa]

Just got in from event. They came back and offered to set up some other internal procedure to which my reply has been as follows:

"I really do not see why I or the public should put up with such jobsworth beaureaucratic nonsense.

I have repeatedly asked when will YYYY Road be resurfaced. There is total prevarication by XXXX Council therefore I want to know how priorites in this respect are addressed, budgeted, planned and where does YYYY Road stand in the grand scheme of things.

In order to ensure transparency in the process and integrity in the responses from XXXX Council I can only do this by seeing data which sets out the dimensions of the road repair/resurfacing regime in XXXX Council  and compares the past with the immediate future.

I have no intention of going through the appeal process when you are in such dereliction of duty. Your first reply is just outrageous for a public body.

Asking street specific questions allows you to get off the hook - delay etc.

Regards

[Vamps]

You could always try the local MP give them something constructive to do

[/highlight]

They do not really deal with such things they get on of their lackeys to do so, and just waste Council Tax Payers money with ridiculous questions unrelated to the actual complaint but have to be responded to.......

[geoffr70]

You could just break down your FOI request into smaller chunks, which would obviously mean alot more work for you, but it would negate their 'costs too much get out cause', and make alot of work for them but you would get the info you're after.

There's too much local authority staff/governance/regulation/mind control anyway. It's run like a business, they're like legalised scroungers. They seem to forget that they are just clerks who rubber stamp the decisions made by us, the people. The problem is people submit to it all.

[Bionic]

 
Seriously, what did you expect from a bunch of pen shuffling, seat polishing, tea swilling, gossiping pack of overpaid and pampered so called Public Service workers? I have had the same sorts of waffle and pathetic excuses spanning many years. Its a shame for the very tiny minority of Public Service workers who do try to do a good job for us and actually do know there own field of expertise. As always its the larger majority who think that as long as they are sat at their desks they are working efficiently for us and are providing a valuable service!
Now the same poor souls are going on strike because they are excpecting us to finance their own overly inflated pensions whilke ours lag many £s behind!

Defies belief? Not really when you look back at the history of the Public Sector strikes of old...........and the reasons for them

[feeutfo]

Looks like this is going to take more than two and a half days work to respond too anyway.

[jonnycool]

2 1/2 days to get information about a set of roadworks? Since when??

Somebody's having a laugh..

[Shelby]

You could just break down your FOI request into smaller chunks, which would obviously mean alot more work for you, but it would negate their 'costs too much get out cause', and make alot of work for them but you would get the info you're after.

There's too much local authority staff/governance/regulation/mind control anyway. It's run like a business, they're like legalised scroungers. They seem to forget that they are just clerks who rubber stamp the decisions made by us, the people. The problem is people submit to it all.

I would look at this route.  It is a bit more work and effort from you, but by breaking it down into a number of smaller FOI requests.  Work around the limit they have specified and see what they do.  If each individual request (send them a few days apart etc and don't reference any other request in each one) requires less that £450 of work, they surely can't use that 'get out of jail free' card.

[Entwood]

Let me see if I've got this right .....

Your local council - like most other council's - has no extra money to do the repairs you are demanding requesting.

So you wish them to spend MORE money answering your imperious demands requests as to why they have no money to do those repairs..

When they indicate that to answer would cost a disproportionate amount, you come up with a wheeze to bypass that system and get them to spend even MORE money answering a lot of minor demands requests.

Has someone given the keys to the asylum to the wrong folks here

 

[pscocoa]

To Shelby - you are probably correct - if I break it down I may get some answers. But they could come back and advise to what extent they have information which is more easily available and which may answer part of what I am seeking.

To Entwood - simple issue is my road needs fixing. They say they agree it needs fixing. They say they have no budget to fix it - that was 2 years ago almost. They are resurfacing roads. I simply want to know when does my road fit into the plans. They say nothing and therefore it is fair that I try and identify just how much they are spending on repairs, where they are spending it and what plans for next year have they got. They must know of all of this tp set a budget with the excption of emergency road repairs. All this Council tax payers money rubbish they trot out is to avoid making information public - they simply have to have all of this in a database that a database querycan drag out - if not all of it, then a lot of it.

We should not be fooled for one moment about these self preserving parasites