Residents fighting Salford City Council's proposals to sell off open space land at Hill Top Moss, part of Blackleach Country Park, have faced over a year's worth of fobbing off over the release of information relating to the secret deal.
The Council wants to flog the land to developer Redwaters which plans to build sixty houses on the Moss, one of the highest points in Salford with stunning views over the city.
Back in August 2014, a local resident applied under the Freedom of Information Act for the disclosure of all correspondence between the Council and Redwaters relating to the land deal. The Council completely ignored the request. It took six months, and the involvement of the Information Commissioner, before any kind of response was received.
Within this response, in February 2015, some information was sent but whole documents were withheld, while the Council cited Environmental Information Regulations (EIR) exceptions, arguing that the information was `confidential' etc etc...
The commissioner ordered the Council to carry out an internal review which was due by 31st March but the Council didn't comply until 20th May, when twelve more documents were released with redactions (see previous Salford Star article which takes the story up to this point click here).
Residents were convinced that Salford Council was still withholding documents and their hunch was correct, as, in the latest decision by the Information Commissioner on 2nd November, it's revealed that the Council actually withheld 29 PDFs!
While agreeing in part with some of the Council's reasoning for withholding information, the Commissioner ordered the vast majority of documents to be released with a damning indictment attached...
"The Council breached regulation 5(2) of the EIR by failing to provide the requested information within 20 working days, and regulation 14(2) by failing to issue a refusal notice within 20 working days. It also breached regulation 11 by failing to carry out an internal review until requested to do so by the Commissioner...
"The Commissioner finds it particularly disappointing that the Council breached the statutory time limits in respect of responding to the requests, and to carrying out an internal review, because the Council was being monitored by the Commissioner for noncompliance with time limits in its handling of requests from February to April 2015" he added*
"The Commissioner has made a record of this delay and the Council's failure to carry out a timely internal review in this case" he stated "This may form evidence in future enforcement action against the Council should evidence from other cases suggest that there are systemic issues that are causing delays/failure to carry out internal reviews."
He told the Council to comply with the law within 35 calendar days or it "may result in the Commissioner making written certification of this fact to the High Court pursuant to section 54 of the Act and may be dealt with as a contempt of court."
Instead, Salford Council has appealed the ruling and it will go to a tribunal in the New Year...
The whole episode of Hill Top Moss illustrates the arrogance of Salford City Council, both towards other authorities and its own residents. What was it that Salford City Mayor Ian Stewart promised on his election in 2012...
"We as a Council must be more open and transparent with the public..."
To read the full decision notice from the Information Commissioner - click here
See also previous Salford Star articles...
* Commissioner Monitors Salford Council's Abysmal Freedom of Information Record - click here
Blackleach Country Park Sell Off Horror - click here
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