Fo! about FoI to Brent Council results in no information held!

It is rather odd that a Brent Labour councillor has to resort to a Freedom of Information request to his own Council about their performance regarding Freedom of Information requests. This is what Cllr Dan Filson did on Thursday. He got a response the next day which is amazing, However he did get fobbed off like the rest of us often are:

I am still waiting for the answer to an FoI request made on November 28th 2014. I hasd heard that the maintenance of large trees had been left out of the Publc Realm contract in which Veolia took over parks maintenance. It had been suggested to me that this was an oversight that would result in additional expenditure.

This is the  response to my intial request:

 1. State who is responsible for safety checks, maintenance, felling and replacement
of trees in Brent's parks, open spaces and cemeteries.

The Contractor is only responsible for minor tree works which can be carried out
whilst working at ground level. The Council is responsible for major tree works.
Grounds maintenance staff from Veolia and the Council’s monitoring officers
(horticulture) would look at trees when they are working in the park or carrying out
monitoring visits. The Coucnil would then engage specialist contractors to carry out
the major works.

My follow-up which is still awaiting a response:

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1.     Is the cost of major tree works by a sub-contractor included in
the Public Realm budget out-sourced to Veolia?

2.    If not, what is the expected annual cost of this sub-contracted
work (recognising it might vary considerably due to major weather
events such as storms)?

BREAKING NEWS: Having posted this article at the weekend I got this answer about 9.30am this morning:

 1: No
2: The Council’s street trees maintenance contractor is Gristwood & Toms. The budget for street tree maintenance works was £500,000 in 2014/15, but this is expected to fall to £450,000 in 2015/16.


 

Answer well overdue on Parks Privatisation FOI request

Readers will recall that in December last year I raised concerns about the possible privatisation of the Brent Parks Service.  I made a Freedom of Information request to Brent Council asking for information on the issue on December 30th.

Brent Council should have responded by January 31st in order to meet the statutory requirements attached to the FOI Act but have still not done so. The latest communication from the Council dated February 13th  states LINK

 We are sorry for the delay in answering your request.

Your request has been referred to the Council's Director of Legal Services who is the Council's qualified officer for the purpose of section 36 of the Freedom of Information Act.   Consideration is being given by her as to whether responding to any part of the request is likely to be exempt under those provisions. 

A copy of your complaint has been forwarded to her and she has been asked to deal with your complaint about delay at the same time as she responds to your original request.

I will keep you posted on any further response.