Parish Councils

There was a meeting of the South Tawton Parish Council on 26th July.

John Darch said that he had attended a meeting with the Managing Director of First National Bus services who promised to look into the early bus service problem but said that changes, if any, would not be implemented until the new September timetable. The Victory Hall Committee thanked everyone for painting the railings on the Parish Day. Jane White was seconded by Ray Souness in a proposal to buy a memorial bench in memory of Arthur Madders. Everyone thought the best site would be in the Playing Fields. Ray Souness said that the new lights had now been repositioned in the recreation ground. West Devon Borough Council asked if the Parish Council wanted to be represented on the Local Sports Council that was being set up. The members thought that they should be represented, involved with the Chagford/North Tawton group. The Council did not think that they needed their own display board in Victory Hall. The Radio Devon In Touch Show will be in South Zeal on 4th November 11am - 4pm. John Darch could not remember any planning application for a wind farm at Denbrook but promised to look into it before the next meeting. Andy White was seconded by Clifford White and everyone agreed to give £200 to the Common Players, performing on the Recreation Ground on 28th August. Clifford and Jane White will attend the DAPC annual general meeting at Exeter University on September 25th.

Freedom of Information

Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, Government and Local Authorities are required to produce a "Publication Scheme" (for local government from 28th Feb 2003), with details of all information available to the public under the act. This information may be provided in a number of ways. For example, it may be available from a database on the council's web site or it may be contained in a printed publication, leaflet or document which you can get from the council.

If the information you want is not available in another form. you will be able to use a Freedom of Information Act Individual Access Request process, which should be up and running by January 1st 2005. Councils will probably be expected to charge 10% of the cost of finding and preparing the information, and all the costs of photocopying and postage, up to a certain limit. Beyond that limit, it is likely that a council can refuse to answer the enquiry on grounds of cost or ask the applicant to restrict to the request, for example finding only information covering the last six months rather than a longer period, etc.

They will be unable to release any personal information under any circumstances, as that would be prohibited under the Data Protection Act. For your request to count as an Individual Access Request under the Act, it needs to meet certain conditions. One of these is that the request is in writing (probably on a council form) and another is that the council has a correspondence name and address. By completing the form, it commences an official "start date" for your request, and the council will then have 20 working days to complete your request,

I have tried this system out, acting as a guinea pig for Cornwall County Council and found them both courteous and very helpful. One thing I did learn, however. You need to be very careful to use exact wording to phrase your question, if you do not want to be disappointed with the results. For example, you might ask "does the council have an Individual Access Request process?" and simply receive the answer "yes", instead of the details you were expecting. A silly example, OK, for the council wouldn't be that rude. But the principle remains the same. I am now in a position of having to make another information request because I didn't think it through in enough detail first.

West Devon Borough Council