High Peak Borough Council – Freedom of information – possible fail
My.society.org runs a number of ‘democracy’ themed websites such as writetothem.com and fixmystreet.com.
They also run a site called whatdotheyknow.com which is aimed at helping people to make freedom of information requests (FOI) to public bodies throughout the UK, the site also allows you to see what requests have been made to public bodies and the reply received.
All good so far, however looking locally at High Peak Borough Council since the site was first started there have been 11 requests made, 6 answered in one form or another, however to some note of concern there is 5 outstanding. 1 from 2008 and the others from 2009, but all outside (without any valid reason shown) the deadlines that FOI requests are supposed to be responded to in.
Now whilst the issues flagged up within the requests may have been dealt with at current from looking at the whatdotheyknow website it would give you the view that High Peak is either ignoring or not responding properly to freedom of information requests.
I’ve flagged up the issue with Mark Trillo who is the council’s strategic director with responsibility for legal and democratic services (amongst a whole range of others areas) and I will flag up details of the reply received.