INDIVIDUALS and organisations who make Freedom of Information (FoI) applications to Bexley Council are to have have their details published on the council’s website.

The decision follows a steady rise in applications over the past three years.

Cabinet member for corporate affairs, Councillor Colin Campbell said there was no reason why the public should not know who was making the requests.

He revealed 70 per cent of requests for information from residents in the three months from July to September last year, had come from just three residents.

He said between them, they had made 33 of the 46 FoI applications from residents.

Of the 33 requests, Cllr Campbell said the information for six was already available on the council’s website; 14 requests had been answered and the rest had been refused because they related to personal information.

Cllr Campbell told the Bexley Council meeting FoI requests had risen from 75 in the year ending December 2007, to 820 in the year ending December 2009.

In the first two months of 2010 the council had already received 75 requests.

Cllr Campbell said the cost of processing the requests from the three prolific members of the public alone, using the minimum wage as a calculation, was more than the council leader’s salary.