How to Annoy LDC

[Bwian]

Do these figures give a true reflection of councillors dibbing their hands into the expenses pot or are they standard allowances?

Ann The Vagi has had a fair old amount....

 

[upnorthnow]

LDC freedom of information

The Freedom of Information Act came into full force on 1 January 2005. The Act gives everyone a right of access to all "recorded" information held by the Council, subject to a number of Exemptions.

This is the biggy. ...

Legal Professional Privilege

This is designed to make sure that the confidential relationship between lawyer and client is protected. Although it is subject to the public interest test, current guidance suggests that it would only be in exceptional circumstances where the exemption would be outweighed by the public interest.


This is the bit to pursue "current guidance suggests that it would only be in exceptional circumstances where the exemption would be outweighed by the public interest"

Keep asking about the meetings that were held behind closed doors, only in exceptional circumstances. It is going to be a brave councillor that puts their head on the block and declares this 'exceptional circumstances'

submit a new (and credible) request every week

 

[Mr Burns]

I just love this forum.

If you get enough people to go with this, you could absolutely blow LDC apart with it. There is no way they could keep up, and the media coverage would destroy them. It would show people power can work, and have people all over the country absolutely shitting themseleves.
It would just be an excellent way of showing people power, and could well bring the leaders of LDC to their sorry little knees.

As the great Rocky Balboa once said....

GO FOR IT

 

[The Clown of Pevensey Bay]

Do these figures give a true reflection of councillors dibbing their hands into the expenses pot or are they standard allowances?

Ann The Vagi has had a fair old amount....

They are pretty standard. Councillors who sit on committees (not that there are many of those left) can claim a bit more; those with cabinet responsibility can claim more still. It's the same at all councils in England.

 

[Dandyman]

Which of these are the Numpty Nine?

Chair of Council (2005 - 2006) Councillor Julie Carr
Vice-Chair (2005-2006): Councillor Marina Pepper


Cabinet
(Committee Officer: Trevor Hayward, 01273 484122)


M P Chartier
(Lead Councillor for Housing)

N A Commin
(Lead Councillor for Planning)

S B Davy
(Councillor without specific responsibility)

A C De Vecchi
(Chair) (Policy and Financial Strategy)

S I C James
(Councillor without specific responsibility)

E W Lee
(Lead Councillor for Community)

S J Osborne
(Lead Councillor for Environment)

D O Rogers
(Lead Councillor for Staff & Corporate Services)

N R Turner
(Councillor without specific responsibility)


Scrutiny Committee
(Committee Officer: David Feintuck, 01273 484201)


A M Craven (Chair)


H B Livings


J A Ost


M A Pepper


J H Webber



Audit Committee
(Committee Officer: David Feintuck, 01273 484201)


R C S Brown


J F Daly


K G Davies


J M Harrison-Hicks (Chair)


C R O'Keeffe


J H Webber



Complaints Panel [back to top]

(Committee Officer: Jackie Gavigan 01273 484145)


This Panel comprises three Councillors who have not had any direct involvement with the complaint.

 

[Caveman]

Oh boy "Here we go, here we go, here we go"!

 

[maffew]

To: John.Clark@lewes.gov.uk
Subject: Freedom of Information Act.

Under the Freedom of Information Act, which came into force in Jan '05, I would like an answer to the following questions regarding "Waste Collection, Street Sweeping, Recycling" the remit of John Clark.

Do you need a special form of license to take to the streets in one of those street sweeping buggies? If so, what is it? And do you have to undergo any training prior to 'hitting the streets'? Also, what are the 'buggies' actually referred to as? And do the drivers have pet names for them?

Please send all correspondence to this email address (Biscuit66@gmail.com), including replies, queries etc.

I also understand that If you are requesting information not contained within the publication scheme, the authority may charge you a fee. I have no wish to pay an such fee, so if the answers to these questions are not attainable without incurring cost then please reply (within the 20 working days time limit) to me stating why such a cost would be in cure and whether I wish to continue to seek the answers to my question.

Richard Tipple

 

[Caveman]

Sniggers like a little girl

 

[The Keeper]

 

[Biscuit]

who else has done it then?

 

[Lord Bracknell]

Best tactic to delay, annoy, derail a Council is to lodge Freedom of Information Requests. They HAVE to respond in 20 working days. You need to make request in writing (emails are fine) and it could be about anything really. e.g. How much does the planning section spend on stationary?
Can you send the minutes of all meetings related to Falmer etc

Failure to provide a suitable response (or a reason why they can't respond e.g. confidentiallity) within the target dates can result in financial penalties.

If a few hundred (or even fewer) Brighton fans lodged a different request then the Council would grind to a halt.

Lord Bracknell,

Is this an option?

It's an option, I suppose.

But, as a resident of Lewes District, I don't actually want my Council to "grind to a halt".

Whatever we think about the Cabinet's decision, the Council has a lot of other work to do that needs to be continued.

Like providing services that people rely on.

We complained about the money being wasted on the fruitless pursuit of a judicial review - on the grounds that it should be better spent in some other way.

Personally, I don't think that tying public servants' time up in answering questions about I Can't Believe It - Snot Butter is a BETTER way of spending Council Tax payers' hard earned money.

Sorry.

 

[looney]

Nice Idea but I tend to agree with the bearded scruff.


Lets not give the scumbags the chance of taking the moral high ground.

 

[Lord Bracknell]

As always, looney is right.

 

[thedonkeycentrehalf]

LDC have been quite cute in setting up the FAQ's section on the website as it provides answers - albeit not necessarily the one's you want - to most of the questions we would want to pose.

Also, once a reason for exemption has been confirmed, it is very easy to refer the same answer to any future requests so it won't cause as much trouble as you think.

As someone with responsibility for FOI requests (not at LDC I hasten to add) I have to say that it appears that they have got themselves quite well prepared for our requests.

Also, Lord B is right - if we argue about LDC wasting money it is somewhat hypocritical to then create additional work for the Council which will require resource (and therefore money) to respond to.

 

[The Keeper]

 

[The Keeper]

It's an option, I suppose.

But, as a resident of Lewes District, I don't actually want my Council to "grind to a halt".

Whatever we think about the Cabinet's decision, the Council has a lot of other work to do that needs to be continued.

Like providing services that people rely on.

We complained about the money being wasted on the fruitless pursuit of a judicial review - on the grounds that it should be better spent in some other way.

Personally, I don't think that tying public servants' time up in answering questions about I Can't Believe It - Snot Butter is a BETTER way of spending Council Tax payers' hard earned money.

Sorry.

This idea came from the somebody on the inside

You mention that you dont want the LDC to grind to a halt, well I dont want them to ruin OUR football club!!!

 

[seagullsovergrimsby]

Excellent, Ive always wanted to know if LDC Council workers knew the diffrence between butter and I cant beleive its not butter

Are we talking about the sodomy scene in Last Tango In Paris - I think Marlon Brando did. I dont think Cllr Devecchi would (allegedly)

 

[Lord Bracknell]

This idea came from the somebody on the inside

You mention that you dont want the LDC to grind to a halt, well I dont want them to ruin OUR football club!!!

They won't.

As I told them on Wednesday, they'll lose.

 

[Lord Bracknell]

This idea came from the somebody on the inside

On the basis of my years working in local government, I would disagree with the opinion that the best way to disrupt a local council is to seek information under the Freedom of Information Act.

Lewes DC are actually fairly well geared up to deal with these requests. The FOI Act requests that they received earlier this year (during the second phase of the Inquiry) were very promptly responded to - and were also quite revealing.

The issue over the past two weeks hasn't been that Council officers have been trying to keep information hidden. It's been that Council MEMBERS have refused to say anything publicly about their stance on the Judicial Review.

You can't get a statement out of a Council member by using the FOI Act route.




PS If you really want to disrupt the work of a council, it's far more effective to use the council's Complaints Procedure:-

How to make a complaint

In the first instance, contact the member of staff who provided the service. If your complaint is not resolved you can contact the Head of Service. The Head of Service will give you a written response within 20 days.

If you are not satisfied with the response to your complaint, you can ask for your complaint to be reviewed by a Panel of three councillors who have not had any direct involvement in the circumstances which gave rise to your complaint. A Panel will normally meet within 28 days of a request.

The amount of work that goes into ensuring that the full facts are properly documented before the Panel meets is unbelievable.

Once the complainant pronounces themselves unsatisfied with the outcome of the Panel meeting, the issue can then be referred to the Local Government Ombudsman - and things can then get really busy.

 

[Caveman]

As I told them on Wednesday, they'll lose.

On a scale of 1 - 10 how optimistic are you? And is this just personal belief or to the best of your professional expertise?