Complaint against Tendring District Council
- Freedom of Information Act 2000
- Environmental Information Regulations 2004
- 21.07.09 The Complainant submitted a request to Tendring District Council via email to view the council’s building control department information in order to answer questions on a standard CON29 form.
- 23.07.09 The Council responded via email stating its position is that building control information does not comprise part of a public register nor is it contained in any list of environmental information.
- 28.07.09 The Complainant emailed the Council drawing attention to recent decisions by the Information Commissioners Office and asked the Council to reconsider.
- 29.07.09 The Council responded via email to state that the Council did not agree with the Decisions and was waiting for the situation to be clarified.
- 29.07.09 The Complainant emailed the Council to inform that as the Council position has not changed its position the Complainant would refer the matter to the Information Commissioners Office.
- 31.07.09 The Complainant lodged a formal complaint about the Council to the Information Commissioners Office.
- 24.08.09 The Information Commissioners Office wrote to the Council requesting a copy of the withheld information within 20 working days.
- 15.09.09 The Council wrote to the Information Commissioners Office restating its position and provided a copy of the withheld information.
- 16.09.09 The Information Commissioners Office wrote to the Council supplying them with copies of the two Decision Notices - FER0236058 and FER0240911 (issued on 27 July 2009) and asked the Council to reconsider their refusal of the complainant’s request in light of the Commissioner’s findings.
- 12.10.09 The Council responded to the Information Commissioners Office by letter refusing to reconsider their refusal on the basis that, in their view, the requested information was not environmental. The Council further stated that the Decision Notice FER0236058 is being appealed and that it believes its own case to be similar.
- 4.11.09 Information Commissioner publishes decision notice on the ICO November Decision notices web page.
Elapsed time of case = 106 days
Online decisions and public reporting
Information Commissioners Office – November 2009 Decisions
Summary (Copied from the Decision Notice Reference: FER0265572)
The complainant made a request to inspect the building control information in relation to a named address. The Council agreed to provide the information requested but only on the provision of a fee based on the property search regulations. The Council argued that it was allowed to charge for the information under regulation 8(1) as the information was not in a public register and could not be inspected without further collation by the Council. The Commissioner has investigated and found that the request is a request to inspect environmental information but that the Council cannot charge for the information by virtue of regulation 8(2)(b). The Council must make the information available for inspection in accordance with regulation 5(1) within 35 calendar days of this notice.
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Case last updated: 6 August 2010
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