Mayor Councillor Wendy Smith - In the Chamber



Its that time again when our Mayor has her chance to write her piece in the Chronicle, which she did on March 4th 2011.

This time she included comments on the Freedom of Information Act.

" I believe that as individuals we do have a right to know just what information is stored about us all" 

I think in the context of Biggleswade Town Council, she must be thinking of another Act. The FOI Act 2000 says :

An Act to make provision for the disclosure of information held by public authorities or by persons providing services for them.

I would hope that BTC are not gathering and holding information on its Council Tax payers!

She goes onto to say :

"If though, anyone needs to access specific information from the town council's activities, then I would ask that they are very specific about their concern rather than submitting a general enquiry."

There is a problem with that. Most of the time we do not know what the Council are doing as the minutes of meetings are generally meaningless and uninformative (as the Town Clerk has admitted) and none of the Councillors hold surgeries.  I am always concerned about what they are doing. If they released more information then perhaps they would not have so many requests.

I submitted a request, naming over 20 documents, I had obtained for previous years, and wanted the latest copies, only to be told :

" could you be more specific with regard to the precise document you require"

Sometime ago I asked for a copy of their works programme, only to be told it did not exist, but later found out it was called a programme of works.

Sometimes you know what information you want but you are not sure in which documents it is contained. Under the FOI Act, Part I, S16, BTC have a  "Duty to provide advice and assistance" .

Another comment:

"....cuts down on the costs of processing a query"

It took 6 months and 24 emails to obtain a copy of BTC accounts for year ended 31.03.10. During that time I paid for a summary, which was not the document I asked for. A breakdown in the right format, which again I paid for but it was for the year before! I was initially told I had missed the opportunity to look at the documents, and the others were with the auditors.

Another good delaying tactic and time waster, hoping you give up, is to claim a "qualified exemption". I am not sure BTC know what that is because when I asked which of the 23 exemptions were being claimed all I got was silence.

Two months later and numerous emails and a complaint to the Information Commissioners Office finally got me the information!!

Another good one is to wait until the 20 working days  are nearly up and then ask a question and later claim the request has been satisfied within the timescale!!

Another one "I was on official annual leave" so could not respond in the timescale!!

I truly believe that BTC have a policy of trying not to provide information , if they can help it, that could put you and I in a position to ask questions they do not want asked. Or perhaps it's just me! I have some outstanding specific FOI requests.