Information Governance Report

Responses to Requests

Period: 01/09/2012 - 30/09/2012

Type / Sub Enquiry ID / Date Received / Date Responded / Service / Enquiry Details / Response Details
Public / 13519 / 03/08/12 / 03/09/2012 / Legal Services / Subject :
London Pleasure Gardens
1. If London Pleasure Gardens (LPG) goes into liquidation what is Newham's financial exposure? Is it the full £2.6 million?
2. How much other public funding has the Pleasure Gardens received through grants, including lottery and European funding?
3. What arrangements are in place for the site to be de-commissioned (i.e. tidied) if LPG were to fail as a company or at the end of the 3 year term?
4. What evidence underpinned the conclusion that the '[LPG] project will play a major role in the period immediately leading up to, during and beyond the Olympic Games'?
5. What evidence was your conclusion that the LPG will 'be a catalyst for the regeneration of the Royal [sic] and Newham as a whole'?
6. What evidence underpinned the conclusion that LPG would act as a 'sponge' for people from Exel during the Olympics?
7. What evidence underpinned the conclusion that the project was 'low risk', especially when other investors had pulled out?
8. Your assessment that there is 'a high level of support locally' is based on the fact that out of 10,413 letters received there was only 1 letter objecting to the proposals. How many letters from local residents explicitly supported the proposal?
9. Please can you supply a copy of the Mayor's submission in response to the consultation process.
10. How many complaints has Newham, your counsellor's and the Mayor of Newham received about the LPGs? / Summary
1. The Council has provided a commercial loan of £3.3 million.
2. None
3. There is a provision in the lease for this site which requires that the site is to be handed back in good order, following expiry.
4. The business plan submitted by London Pleasure Gardens set out a range of
significant and unique events and activities that were planned to take place in the lead
up to, Games Time and beyond the London Olympics. The site was also considered in
discussions with LOCOG during Olympic planning, where the egress of visitors from
the Excel Centre to nearby DLR stations was considered to a significant factor in
securing a high footfall of visitors to the site and the provision of further entertainment opportunities for Olympic visitors in the area.
5. The London Pleasure Garden’s concept was selected as a winner of the Meanwhile
London competition which aimed to kick-start regeneration. The key driver for this was
the planned bringing back into use vacant Brownfield sites to organise and deliver
creative and entrepreneurial activities, create visitor destinations, deliver jobs locally
and showcase the potential of the Royal Docks.
6. Information was provided by LOCOG over a long period as part of Olympic planning
on the number of Olympic visitors expected to be exiting the Excel centre. This information suggested that there would be a high number of people queuing for Pontoon Dock DLR station and that the LPG site could help 'absorb' these people through providing an alternative offer of entertainment through unique activities and
special events to enjoy whilst in the area.
7. Prior to reaching a decision on the commercial loan to the organisers full legal and
financial due diligence was carried out. The decision was subject to full debate at Council and reports of external business and legal consultancies were commissioned to fully advise of the business implications of the grant of the loan.
8. The assessment of support was gauged through the positive responses that LPG
received via their extensive consultation with ward members and local residents about
the project. This included providing a number of leaflets locally, local meetings and
LPG running a number of site visits for the local community. The reference to the very
low number of objections received was used as an example in relation to the numbers
of residents reached during the consultation.
Further information in respect of comments submitted in relation to the site’s use can
be found on Newham’s Planning Portal, where the planning applications submitted for the site received two supporting statements.
http://pa.newham.gov.uk/onlineapplications/
simpleSearchResults.do?action=firstPage
9. There was no Mayoral submission in response to this matter as the decision was
subject to full debate at the meetings of Cabinet.
For your reference, the minutes of the meetings of Cabinet in relation to the London
Pleasure Gardens are available online. For your ease of reference, please see the link
to the relevant webpage below
http://mgov.newham.gov.uk/ieSearchResults2.aspx?SS=LONDON%20PLEASURE%20
GARDENS&DT=3&CA=false&SB=true&CX=10988678&PG=1
10. Unfortunately we are unable to compile a full and complete record of the requested
information from our systems. Complaints, enquiries and service requests can be
received within the Council through a number of different routes, whether through the
contact centre via telephone, by letter, or via email to services, through online forms
or direct to individual officers or Members.
There are also a number of different
methods through which such correspondence are recorded both centrally and by
individual services. It should also be noted that for some services complaints and
service requests are recorded by the complainants name or address and not recorded or searchable by the specific nature of the complaint, other than by pre-selected
headings.
Therefore to search specifically for any nature of complaint regarding the
London Pleasure Gardens would require a manual retrieval through records.
We publish an anonymised list of requests and responses on the Council’s website.
Therefore in order to retrieve a full and accurate compilation of the information
requested would require an officer to manually interrogate all services’ complaints
and general correspondence records, together with the correspondence received by
sixty local Councillors and the Mayor individually, which even for the past six month
period is likely to exceed thousands of records, to be able to identify if the
correspondence or complaint related to London Pleasure Gardens. This manual
exercise would exceed the appropriate time limit.
Under the Freedom of Information Act the Council has a right to refuse a request for
information held if the cost of complying with a request exceeds the appropriate limit.
The appropriate limit for local authorities is £450 or 2.5 days or 18 hours. We believe in
this case such an exemption applies and has decided to refuse your request for
information under section 12(1) of the Act.
12 Exemption where cost of compliance exceeds appropriate limit
(1) Section 1(1) does not oblige a public authority to comply with a request for
information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying with the request
would exceed the appropriate limit.
We are only able to provide accurate recorded information on the complaints which
have been recorded centrally through the Corporate Complaints and Member
Enquiries system. Our complaints system shows there have been no complaints
received which have progressed through the Corporate Complaints procedure. Our
Member enquiries system shows a total of four Mayoral enquiries, one Member
Enquiry and two enquiries progressed through local Members of Parliament, which
related to the London Pleasure Gardens.
Public / 13471 / 06/08/12 / 03/09/2012 / Communications / Subject :
Newham Live Sites - Olympics
1. I would like to know how much money has been spent on security?
2. I would like to know how much money has been spent overall so far on funding for both of the live sites.
3. I would also like to know alternatively how much money has been spent so far on the live sites? / Summary
1. Newham Live is Newham Council’s programme of free screenings of action from the Olympic and Paralympic Games and family entertainment at Stratford and Central Parks. It will finish on Sunday 9 September and to date more than 165,000 local residents and visitors have visited both sites. As the programme runs until 9th September the final figure spent on security is not yet available.
2. As of August 8th the amount spent on Newham Live was:
Stratford Live Site total = £100,783.02
Central Park Live Site total = £134,923.38
The total for both sites = £235,706.40
This includes all upfront and set up costs so includes the majority of expenditure.
Organisation / 13485 / 06/08/12 / 03/09/2012 / Lettings Agency / Subject :
Allocation of Social Housing
This request relates to "General Needs" social housing lets made in the financial year 2011/12.
a) How many applicants for social housing to Newham were allocated social housing? (this includes all lets – new applicants, transfers, homeless etc.)
b) How many applicants for social housing to Newham were allocated social housing in council owned or managed stock and;
c) how many of these lets were recorded in the Continuous Recording of Lettings and Sales (CORE)?
d) How many applicants for social housing to Newham were allocated social housing provided by a registered social landlord? / Summary
1. 1524 allocations of social housing.
2. 771 allocations in council owned or managed stock.
3. None
4. 753 allocations to registered social landlords.
Public / 13542 / 10/08/12 / 03/09/2012 / CYPS - Schools Traded Services / Subject : Out of School Clubs
Number of breakfast, homework or other after school clubs operating in your local authority during the 2011/12 school year compared to the 2010/11 school year. / Summary
Please find attached a list of before and after school clubs in the borough.
The number of breakfast, homework or other after school clubs operating in your local authority during the 2011/12 school year compared to the 2010/11 school year;
2010/11 = 33
2011/ 12 = 31
The number of Homework Clubs operating in the authority during the 2011/12 school year compared to the 2010/11 school year:
2010/11= 10
2011/12 = 10
Newham Libraries run Homework Clubs in all 10 libraries. Homework Clubs are run term time only, every week (including half term breaks) and provide study support to children and young people aged 7 -14. The duration of these sessions are 2 hours.
Public / 13547 / 10/08/12 / 03/09/2012 / Adult Services (FOI) / Subject:
Nursing Home Charges - Placement outside the borough.
1. The policy or criteria for determining what your usual charges are for nursing home placements and the rules for increasing these payments in order to take account of inflation.
2. Your usual charge for placement in a nursing home.
3. The average charge for nursing homes in your borough, or the range of charges that you know of.
4. How many placements you have made, which were solely funded by the council, which were above your usual charge:-
i) Within your borough
ii) Outside of your borough / Summary
1. Providers have signed up to a framework agreement, including all the residential and nursing homes in Newham. In reference to Price Variation the following has been stated in Clause 9 of the Service Contract.
Annual price reviews will be initiated by the Council and it is at the Council's discretion as to the final outcome of such a review. The Council shall take a number of factors into account including, but not exclusively:
i) Where applicable, the Contractor’s performance rating with the Local Authority – for the avoidance of doubt no increase in fee shall be payable where a Contractor has fallen below 80% for 2 consecutive quarters;
ii) The Council’s Adult Services Directorate’s and NHS Newham overall financial position including the level of any increase in budget and priorities.
2. The ceiling cost for placements in nursing homes in 2012-13 is £641.94 inclusive of Free Nursing Care element (£108.70).
3. The average cost of currently loaded nursing care packages in the borough is £518.66
4. We can advise that the number of current open placements above the usual charge rate that are solely funded by LBN are:
i) 25
ii) 6
Public / 13670 / 21/08/12 / 03/09/2012 / Economic Regeneration / Subject: Contaminated Land
I am currently updating our database and would be grateful if you could confirm if you have any contaminated land entries on your public register?
If there are no sites of contaminated land on the Part IIA register would it be possible to confirm this by replying to this email stating 'No New Data?' / Summary
We can advise that in relation to this request there are two properties in Coopers Walk, London E15 listed on the Part IIA Public Register for the London Borough of Newham. These properties were declared as statutorily contaminated, but have been cleared by the developer and no longer pose a risk to health.
It maybe helpful to explain that a determination will be registered where a property is at first identified as contaminated, even though the property is then subsequently cleared. We can advise that there is also a remediation statement on the register for these properties, stating that all reported faults have been rectified.
Public / 13554 / 14/08/12 / 04/09/2012 / Community Participation Unit / Subject: Budgets for Community Participation Schemes
The 2012/13, 20111/12 and 2010/11 budget for holiday activities (holiday schemes and clubs) aimed at young people.
It is clarified as schemes administered/funded by the Council for children 15 years or younger. / Summary