Rag Lane FOI 2022 – Internal Review

Background

As you will see from previous documents the FOI request received a response which was not considered to be complete and the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) required the council to carry out an Internal Review.  Cllrs Alistair Billington and Matthew Tomkinson were tasked with this review.

In carrying out this review other information was discovered, in the form of emails from both the Chairman’s and Clerk’s emails both past and present.  Due to the lengthy email chains this information turned out to be 130 pages from the Chairman, 213 pages from the Clerk and one page from a past Chairman, Clive Stone.

The written report from that internal review is below which can also be downloaded from the DOWNLOAD link above.  The other reports are available from other tabs in this section but as before please note their size if you have slow internet or if you pay per size of file.  The Chairman’s PDF is 63Mb, the Clerk’s is 124MB and the past Chairman’s, Clive Stone is just one page at 37KB.

Internal Review of Freedom of Information

disclosure to Mr N. Randle concerning Rag Lane

Review conducted by Cllr M. Tomkinson & Cllr A. Billington

Background

Extensive FOI request received on 29^th July 2022 covering multiple areas over a long period of time with information requested back to 1974.

The key areas of request were:

• All Correspondence, Meeting Minutes, Officer Reports, Notes of Councillor Discussions, emails both among members and between members and the Clerk and other records referring to Rag Lane, Yarcombe since 1974.
• Specifically all Correspondence with Devon County Council Highways Department in connection with Rag Lane during that period
• Specifically all minutes of meetings background notes and reports relating to decisions by Yarcombe Parish Council in respect of Rag Lane in the past 2 years including;
  • Background and all Council records including voting records relating to the decision to refer an anonymous complaint to the County Highways department in April 2021
  • Background and all Council records including voting records relating to the Council’s change of stance from neutral in April 2021, to it actively seeking the implementation of enforcement action by the County Council against Yarcombe residents in June 2022. This to include its reasoning and the background to the Council’s decision to ignore advice received from the Area Traffic Officer.
  • Background and all council records including voting records relating to the Council’s decision to reject a suggestion from County Highways that Rag Lane be reclassified as a public Bridalway. This to include records of all community consultations conducted in order to establish the community views on this proposal and steps taken by the Council to inform itself on the background to issues raised
• Specifically, any correspondence, records or other information referring to us by name

The initial response based on extensive searching, collation and coordination with Devon Council was produced by Cllr S. Horner and Parish Clerk D. Frost. A total of 103 pages of information were provided to the requestor within the required time frame.

On 15/9/22 and 23/9/22 e-mails were sent to the Parish Clerk voicing dissatisfaction with the response received and making multiple requests for specific information.

Despite the maximum allowable expenditure of £450 for a response to a FOI already being exceeded (based on the notional rate of £25 per hour), the advice from the Information Commissioner’s Officer directed that an internal review should be undertaken.

Scope and process of review

Cllrs M. Tomkinson and A. Billington were appointed as Internal Reviewers by an extraordinary meeting of the Yarcombe Parish Council on Monday 24^th October 2022.

Collectively Cllrs Tomkinson and Billington undertook the following:

• Discussion with Cllr Horner regarding the process used to provide information for the initial FOI request.
• Review of all information provided in response to the initial FOI request.
• A detailed search of Cllr S. Horner’s home computer which is used for his Parish Council business. E-mail and files were searched for information relevant to the initial and subsequent FOI requests. All relevant identified information was saved as a PDF file. There was no additional written or printed information available.
• A search of the Parish Clerk’s web-mail account which is handed on from clerk to clerk. Again, any e-mails and files relevant to either of the requestor’s requirements were sought. All relevant identified information was saved as a PDF file. There was no additional written or printed information available.
• A detailed search of the Parish Council filing cabinet was performed to identify any relevant documents.
• Parish Councillors were contacted and asked if they held any additional information in any form that was relevant to the areas specified by the requestor.
• Former Parish Clerk S.J. Martin was contacted and asked to provide any additional information in any form that was relevant to the areas specified by the requestor. She responded that all information was held electronically and that had been passed to the current clerk. She confirmed that she held no additional written or printed information available.
• Retired Cllr C. Stone was contacted and asked to provide any additional information in any form that was relevant to the areas specified by the requestor. He has provided some additional information in the form a draft e-mail.
• All identified e-mails and documents were compared to those already released under the initial FOI response and these duplicates were removed.
• The files containing information not previously released, but which contained information originating from Devon County Council were sent to the relevant department of Devon County Council for review.

Findings

The response to the initial FOI request appears to have been made in good faith, with all documents of key significance being released in the initial response. However, the level of detail included was hampered by a number of factors. These include the Parish Clerk and Chairman relying on fairly antiquated computers and software which limited their ability to process the large number documents involved.

The redactions made by Yarcombe Parish Council to the initial FOI release were reviewed and found to be appropriate and in accordance with the Data Protection Act.

Yarcombe Parish Council had limited experience of complying with complex FOI requests, especially when requiring co-ordination with Devon County Council, so there was a learning curve for all those involved, which was especially challenging when operating within a tight time-frame.

Devon Highways Department made several requests that the Rag Lane situation was handled confidentially, this limited the amount of official documentation produced during the initial stages. When he took over as Chairman, Cllr Horner pushed that Rag Lane should be discussed by the full Parish Council under Part B rules.

Response to specific points raised

In an e-mail to the parish clerk on 15/9/22 following receipt of the FOI response, the following points were raised: