My Council Are Hiding Spending!

WhiteHorse

aheaton46 wrote: »

No you don't. You would LIKE to know the information. There's a huge difference.

No, you have a legal right to this information. You have a moral right too - it's your money.

WhiteHorse

boozercruiser wrote: »

... each and every one of the people or organisations who got this money are hidden because details have been redacted out.

It may be appropriate to redact certain personal details, but that is unlikely to apply where organisations are concerned.

Firstly, ask the Council to reconsider (you have to show that they are unreasonable and that you have exhausted due process).

Point out that if they won't say where the money is going and to whom they are awarding contracts etcetera, they are leaving themselves wide open to allegations of corruption.

Then, when they refuse, file a complaint with ICO. The local paper might be interested too - unless of course the editor is in their pocket.

Johno100

boozercruiser wrote: »

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.

Your letter is about the failure of the council to provide the information you are seeking. I'm sorry if my question wasn't clear, but what do you do with the raw data you receive? How can you possibly interpret it in any meaningful way without supporting data such as invoices, expenses vouchers, contracts etc?

boozercruiser

WhiteHorse wrote: »

It may be appropriate to redact certain personal details, but that is unlikely to apply where organisations are concerned.

Firstly, ask the Council to reconsider (you have to show that they are unreasonable and that you have exhausted due process).

Point out that if they won't say where the money is going and to whom they are awarding contracts etcetera, they are leaving themselves wide open to allegations of corruption.

Then, when they refuse, file a complaint with ICO. The local paper might be interested too - unless of course the editor is in their pocket.

:TThank you for your very constructive and helpful answer. Most of what I did in respect of this was last year. I will soon be putting in some more similar freedom of information requests and will bear in mind your advice if and when the Councils try and play silly ruggers

boozercruiser

Johno100 wrote: »

Your letter is about the failure of the council to provide the information you are seeking. I'm sorry if my question wasn't clear, but what do you do with the raw data you receive? How can you possibly interpret it in any meaningful way without supporting data such as invoices, expenses vouchers, contracts etc?

Yes, I am now writing to the Council request it to send all...

'invoices, expenses vouchers, contracts etc' to my house for intense scrutiny.

Then I will spend the rest of my life going through each and every bit of raw data.

In the meantime I will leave it up to others to read any generated newspaper articles and the freedom of information requests themselves.

Anyone is welcome in going through data supplied by Councils who seem to take a pride in supplying the raw data in a such a way as to need Einstein to figure it all out .

In the meantime, I have lost the will to live!:wall: