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BEXLEY: Freedom of Information applicants to be named by council

11:50am Wednesday 10th March 2010 in


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.

Comments(17)

Creaky says...
2:12pm Wed 10 Mar 10

Sounds like Bexley council want to deter people from making FOI requests. I wonder why? Could it be they are getting a bit frightened of being exposed as a bunch of shoddy crooks?

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TruePatriot says...
4:27pm Wed 10 Mar 10

Of the 33 requests only 13 were answered....

This along with the 'naming and shaming' of people merely wanting to discover the truth about what the council gets up to, makes you wonder what Bexley Council are trying to cover up.

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TruePatriot says...
4:28pm Wed 10 Mar 10

Sorry, only 14 of the requests out of 33 were answered.

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shergars ghost says...
7:56pm Wed 10 Mar 10

'Information already available on Councils website'. ..............

Not good enough. Sounds like our Councillors are trying to duck there responsibilities, they must keep abreast of legislation. FOI requests dictate a response to each and every point made, read the legislation.

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Howly says...
8:36pm Wed 10 Mar 10

shergars ghost wrote:
'Information already available on Councils website'. ..............

Not good enough. Sounds like our Councillors are trying to duck there responsibilities, they must keep abreast of legislation. FOI requests dictate a response to each and every point made, read the legislation.
If the information is already available on the website then the request is exempt under section 21 of the FOI Act. Explained on foi.gov.uk

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Dizzy12 says...
8:46pm Wed 10 Mar 10

Hahaha looks like theres 3 people here who are upset, guess the top 3 commentors are the guilty parties. So are you gentleman are the responsible ones costing us money by asking questions which you could find answers to by a bit of looking???

Can we have our money back please??

Looking at the name 'true patriot' I guess your going to be some jibbering wreck looking for a conspiracy about people taking jobs and spending our money....well looks like your the one creating work and wasting our money!

Please stop, and go learn how google works

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Eggthang says...
9:44pm Wed 10 Mar 10

How can this be a waste and resources ? If the information is already available or exempt it takes just a few moments to tell them. If not, and the requests are not vexatious,they are exercising a democratic right to access a service which the Council has a duty to provide. Are people who borrow library books for nothing wasting Council resources ? The Council needs to grow up and acceot that providing information is a service like any other.

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TruePatriot says...
10:28pm Wed 10 Mar 10

No, I'm not one of the people making FOI requests Dizzy12.

Also, if you judge people via their usernames what does your's say about you?....

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John, Sidcup says...
8:38am Thu 11 Mar 10

Is anyone else struck by the irony of how the people complaining here about freedom of information all refuse to give their names out????

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cargy says...
9:14am Thu 11 Mar 10

The council seems to be grudgingly familiar with the Freedom of Information Act, so maybe they should now examine their responsibilities under the Data Protection Act!

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F Mud says...
2:09pm Thu 11 Mar 10

As a Bexley resident who has requested a FOI I have no objection to my name being placed on the web site as long as my request and the answer Bexley Council replied with is also given.
So far all the FOI that Bexley Council have replied to have been incomplete, missing vital information or in one case where I requested vital information on correspondence, they claimed it did not exist even thou I had a copy and the responses from the Highway department.

I have sent FOI on the same subject, not to cause mischief but to get information they refuse give.

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Excalibur says...
2:21pm Thu 11 Mar 10

Well it does seem to me like Bexley Council are attempting to scare people off from making FOI requests. Why not go the whole hog and publicise details of all of the people who write letters in to the council and what their complaints are. Surely these people take up more time than the relatively few FOI requests that the council receive?
The Freedom of Information Act was brought in to promote accountability and transparency in the spending of public money and in the decision making process. Bexley Council obviously don't want the light shone on them for some reason!

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F Mud says...
3:04pm Thu 11 Mar 10

Howly wrote:
shergars ghost wrote: 'Information already available on Councils website'. .............. Not good enough. Sounds like our Councillors are trying to duck there responsibilities, they must keep abreast of legislation. FOI requests dictate a response to each and every point made, read the legislation.
If the information is already available on the website then the request is exempt under section 21 of the FOI Act. Explained on foi.gov.uk
May be – however when Bexley council replied with “information already on web site” to me, they did not give the URL ie the information to find it on the web site. A bit like saying you will find the information in a SIFI book in one of Bexley’ Libraries - Oh... would that also be exempt under section 21 of the FOI Act.

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bexleyman says...
4:24pm Fri 12 Mar 10

Lets be fair to Bexley council here. I mean, the leader of the council is one of the top earning civil servants in the country it was recently revealed. So, if I remember rightly, that was about £200,000, and between the three nosey parkers in question, they have clocked up in excess of around 34,400 hours of council time - can we really think that this is acceptable??
To have the time to send off the number of requests they probably do they must be unemployed. Perhaps they'd be better off getting jobs and lives rather than draining the council coffers and taking away resources from genuine FoI applicants

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Dizzy12 says...
10:13pm Fri 12 Mar 10

bexleyman wrote:
Lets be fair to Bexley council here. I mean, the leader of the council is one of the top earning civil servants in the country it was recently revealed. So, if I remember rightly, that was about £200,000, and between the three nosey parkers in question, they have clocked up in excess of around 34,400 hours of council time - can we really think that this is acceptable?? To have the time to send off the number of requests they probably do they must be unemployed. Perhaps they'd be better off getting jobs and lives rather than draining the council coffers and taking away resources from genuine FoI applicants
The Leader of the Council is on £200,000 REALLY???? I want that job, sounds easy!!!!! Surely thats not right?????

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John, Sidcup says...
2:04pm Sat 13 Mar 10

The Leader of the Council is paid £30,000 not £200,000. Maybe time would be better spent looking things up rather than making things up.

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GODUPERE2 says...
8:41pm Sat 13 Mar 10

John, Sidcup wrote:
The Leader of the Council is paid £30,000 not £200,000. Maybe time would be better spent looking things up rather than making things up.
Referring to earlier comments about silly usernames, this ones gotta take the biscuit!

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