"I find it disturbing that the Council withholds information that the public are legally entitled to..."
Back in March 2014, the Salford Star ran an article about Salford City Mayor, Ian Stewart, parking his personal camper van on Salford Council property at Turnpike House. While Council staff had to pay 1% of their wages to park their cars, we asked whether it was one rule for the Mayor, and one for everyone else.
...Furthermore, the tax disc displayed on the Mayor's vehicle was well out of date surely the Mayor of Salford hadn't driven his camper van, illegally on the roads of Salford? (see previous Salford Star article click here)
When Salford Star asked Salford Council to confirm the truth of the story, it responded "No comment" - which led Salford resident, Anthony Dowd, in June of 2014, to slap in a Freedom of Information request asking, amongst other things, whether the camper van was, indeed, Ian Stewart's, how long it had been parked there and whether it had road tax, an MOT or insurance.
The Council refused to respond, arguing that this request, and others he had submitted, were `vexatious' (dictionary definition: `annoying'). Anthony called for an internal review but the Council didn't respond within the time limit of twenty days. In fact, it didn't respond at all, so the Information Commissioner was alerted.
Six months after the first request was submitted the Council finally responded that it wasn't going to respond...thanks to Section 40 (5) of the Freedom of Information Act which "removes the obligation to confirm or deny whether information is held in respect of information which would amount to personal information, if to provide that confirmation or denial would in itself breach the Data Protection Act.
"In accordance with this section" it added "the council neither confirms nor denies that it holds information in respect of your request."
Anthony went back to the Information Commissioner and, on February 17th, almost a year after the article appeared, and nine months after his request, he got a response... "After further consideration the council has now determined that the following information can be provided..."
The camper van did, indeed, belong to Ian Stewart. It was parked at Turnpike House for four months, between mid March 2014 and mid July 2014, it was approved by the Director of Environment and Community Safety, and he didn't have to pay charges because it was parked at Turnpike House "within the operational depot (not the staff car park) on a temporary basis".
Regarding whether the vehicle had road tax, an MOT and insurance, "the Council does not hold this information...There is no indication that the Mayor has acted illegally".
Following the debacle, Anthony Dowd told the Salford Star: "I find it disturbing that the Council withholds information that the public are legally entitled to. Further, the Council are still refusing to answer important questions as to whether any Road Traffic Act laws were broken....The only reason the Council answered was because the ICO forced them to! That says a lot about so-called 'transparency'."
Now Anthony has created a new Facebook page, Salford Council Freedom of Information, so that residents can share their stories of FOI requests that the Council has dodged... "This page is to highlight how `open and transparent' Salford Council are when it comes to answering Freedom Of Information requests" it states...
To join the group click here
See also: Salford Mayor Wins One Rule for the Mayor and One for Everyone Else Award click here
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