Beacon Villages
Under Cosdon Beacon Dartmoor Devon UK
Freedom of Information |
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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. |
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South Tawton Parish Council |
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West Devon Borough Council |
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| The West Devon complaints page is http://www.westdevon.gov.uk/doc.asp?doc=7192&cat=1513complaints@westdevon.gov.uk Your West Devon Councillors are : |
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BERE FERRERS BUCKLAND MONACHORUM HATHERLEIGH |
LYDFORD MARY TAVY NORTH TAWTON TAMARSIDE |
TAVISTOCK NORTH WALKHAM |