My Council Are Hiding Spending!

taker920

uk-tyler wrote: »

How much do you think your requests for this information is costing the council?

Every DPA request costs money in the time spent on it. With staff cuts at councils everywhere you are actually adding to the tax burden. How many hours will it take for the staff to respond?

Is that fair on other people in your area who pay tax?

I'm not a lover of the way councils spend, but I suspect you are doing more harm than good.

Probably only stoking the fire but I know of at least two Councils who have a full time member of staff, (albeit low paid) spending the majority of their time organising the spending data on a monthly basis :think:

boozercruiser

Sent to F.O.I. Internal review....

28 April 2011


Dear FOI Queries,
Thank you for this information. Please note that I am requesting
that the Wirral Council way of presenting this over £500 spending
information be used as a template example.

http://www.wirral.gov.uk/my-services/cou...

There have been no redactions.

I can however understand that there may be a minority of very
sensitive information which may need to be redacted to perhaps
protect someone.

However, this blanket redaction carried out by Powys County Council
is uncalled for to my way of thinking.

I also understand that the cost of redacting items does not fall
within the £450 costing limit for carrying out an F.O.I. request.

Yours sincerely,

boozercruiser

uk-tyler wrote: »

How much do you think your requests for this information is costing the council?

Every DPA request costs money in the time spent on it. With staff cuts at councils everywhere you are actually adding to the tax burden. How many hours will it take for the staff to respond?

Is that fair on other people in your area who pay tax?

I'm not a lover of the way councils spend, but I suspect you are doing more harm than good.

Let us not forget....that if my council had responded to the Eric Pickles request for this information (which all but one of the English Councils have done) ...then I would not be having to send in a F.O.I. request to try and obtain it in the first place!:D

dianemk

I know this isn't directly related to the thread, but it's along the sames lines (ish!). I'm trying to find out what income a council receive for the renting of a particular premises. It's fairly recently built and was built partly with tax payers money (partly EU Funding). I've contacted the council who have replied "
I write to advise that it is not Council policy to disclose this information which is confidential between the current tenant and the Council as Landlord."
Surely this should be in the public domain? They might be leasing this prime property out for a penny to mates otherwise. Anyone know the legal requirements? Thanks

boozercruiser

dianemk wrote: »

I know this isn't directly related to the thread, but it's along the sames lines (ish!). I'm trying to find out what income a council receive for the renting of a particular premises. It's fairly recently built and was built partly with tax payers money (partly EU Funding). I've contacted the council who have replied "
I write to advise that it is not Council policy to disclose this information which is confidential between the current tenant and the Council as Landlord."
Surely this should be in the public domain? They might be leasing this prime property out for a penny to mates otherwise. Anyone know the legal requirements? Thanks

Put in a Freedom Of Information request here......

http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/

Councils always like to hide behind so called 'Confidentiality'.....

An FOI should help open the Clam!

Make a new
Freedom of
Information
request

Start now »
Search over
104227 requests and
5699 authorities

First, type in the name of the UK public authority you'd like information from. By law, they have to respond.

Johno100

boozercruiser wrote: »

Let us not forget....that if my council had responded to the Eric Pickles request for this information (which all but one of the English Councils have done) ...then I would not be having to send in a F.O.I. request to try and obtain it in the first place!:D

Out of interest what are you going to do with the information if and when you receive it?

asbokid

aheaton46 wrote: »

I disagree. You have a need for food, you cannot live without it. You have no need to know what the council is spending money on. If you never find out, the worst that can happen is you're a few pounds poorer. You ought to know. You don't need to know.

Don't be a smart alec. We directly fund local government. As such, it is our money. We need to know that our money is being spent appropriately. Where it is being wasted or abused, we need full information before taking remedial action.

boozercruiser

Johno100 wrote: »

Out of interest what are you going to do with the information if and when you receive it?

Below is a link to all my Freedom Of Information requests and replies, including this issue.

What do I do with them? Well I write to the Welsh Newspapers about them and almost all get published, including the letter below.

This in turn brings any problem to the notice of the general population, including MPs, Councilors etc. etc. etc. through publicity.

On top of this all requests are then a matter of public record which other people might wish to use and get to know and possibly investigate things they may not already know.

I hope that your interest is satisfied.

http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/user/kenneth_thain/requests

3rd May 2011

Readers Letters
Western Mail
Dear Sir,

In these hard times when council tax continues to rise, can someone from the Welsh Assembly please tell me exactly why they have not told Welsh Councils to implement Communities Secretary Eric Pickles instruction that all Councils publish complete details of spending over £500 in full and online every single month, as part of wider action to bring about a revolution in town hall openness and accountability? Mr. Pickles said "The public should be able to see where their money goes and what it delivers".

In England 325 out of 326 councils have published this information. However here in Wales only two (Vale of Glamorgan and Newport) out of 22 Councils have chosen to want council taxpayers to have this level of transparency. Because of this I put in a freedom of information request to Powys County Council in order to try and obtain just the one month of December 2010 individual council spending payments over £500. The full details of December spending can now be found at

http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/details_of_council_spending_over#incoming-168538


All Welsh Councils should be operating a policy of fair and open competition by following transparent and auditable procedures in all tendering and contracting activity, which I do not believe that they are doing at the moment. The secrecy which surrounds far too much Welsh council spending is nothing short of a disgrace. This is OUR money and we have a right to know 100% of their expenditure and 100% of their actions - there should be no secrets at all!


Best Regards

boozercruiser

asbokid wrote: »

Don't be a wise alec. We directly fund local government. As such, it is our money. We need to know that our money is being spent appropriately. Where it is being wasted or abused, we need full information before taking remedial action.

Wise Alec 46 definitely is NOT!

That person is supposed to be a Serious Money Saving Stalwart.........

He should be done under the Trades Description Act!

VT82

If no one will stick up for Camewrong, then I'll give it a go.

The Gary Glitter comment was a joke lampooning your original claim that he clearly worked for a Local Authority, a claim which made me roll my eyes with the childishness and naivety of it. And unsurprisingly, as the terrible bore you come across as, the joke went *whoosh* straight over your head.

Whilst I'm glad that some people are that fussed about Council and Government spending that they are kept reasonably in check, I'm with Camewrong in that I don't really care that much - I concentrate on worrying about my own finances and career prospects.

If you then argue that as a council tax payer, their finances are my finances, well even if letter writing saves a million quid, I'd only get the paper benefit of a tenner of it. For that amount of time and effort, I'd want more than that, so would choose to do overtime, or a training course, or a car boot sale.

Your actions might be a mixture of curtain twitching and genuine altruism, but don't expect everyone to feel the same. And when people don't, forumites generally don't appreciate it when people turn nasty.