EDUCATION campaigners have criticised the council for failing to meet targets on releasing information to the public.

The New School Campaign asked Lewisham Council for three sets of documents in June, under the Freedom of Information Act (FOI).

Government guidelines say the council should answer all requests within 20 days.

But three months on, the campaigners do not have the information they requested.

In total, Lewisham Council is failing to meet a quarter of FOI requests within the 20-day timescale.

Campaign secretary John Hamilton says he made four separate requests for information between June 1 and 21.

Despite numerous letters and calls to council officers, Mr Hamilton claims he still does not have all the documents he asked for three months later.

He has now written a letter of complaint to the council, asking them to explain the delay.

Mr Hamilton said: "This all smacks of incompetence. They have had nearly a year to sort this out now.

"We are not trying to cause people extra work for the sake of it. We have a right to the information we have asked for."

The FOI act, which was passed in November 2000, gives people the right to access all recorded information held by public authorities.

Lewisham Council says it recently had a problem with "unforeseen staffing shortages", which meant some requests were not dealt with on time.

A spokesman said: "We have rectified this problem and will continue to respond in a timely fashion wherever we are able."

The information Mr Hamilton did receive concerns a largely vacant section of land in Evelyn Street, Deptford.

Campaigners want a new school built there but the council said the site's multiple ownership would make a single development difficult.

But in a letter to Lewisham's planning department, regeneration specialist Hepher Dixon claims there is "a significant opportunity to bring forward a major redevelopment" of the site.

It goes on to say it favours a residential development.