FOI Response Letter

Our Ref: / FOI 5283
Your Ref:
Please Contact: / Suzanne Butterfield
Telephone: / 01422 392043
Fax: / 01422 393073
Email: /
Date: / 11 March 2016
Mr Michael Bradley
/

Democratic and Partnership Services

Northgate House
Northgate
HALIFAX
HX1 1UN

Dear Mr Bradley

Freedom of Information Act 2000

Request for information

Thank you for your request for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Request

I am writing to request information as to the planned location for the Reserve Book Store, Discover the (Libraries, Museums & Arts Education Service) and the Bibliographical Services Department and NOT any temporary/short-term location which the departments/services outlined above may be relocated into, in order to facilitate the disposal of the Northgate site by March 2016 so not to compromise the funding received from the Leeds City Region for the Halifax Town Centre Project.

Please note that although this request is similar to the one submitted on the 6th December 2015, this request is specific to the long term plans/permanent home over in relation to the

aforementioned services/departments.

Response

We first provided you with this information in response to your Freedom of Information request of 6 December 2015, our reference 4698, which was as follows:

I am writing to request information as to the planned location for the Reserve Book Store, Discover the (Libraries, Museums & Arts Education Service) and the Bibliographical Services Department.

Our response to you dated 22 December 2015 was as follows:

“The Council intends to relocate the Reserve Book Stack and Discover service to bespoke accommodation at the Heath Training Centre in Halifax. Bibliographic Services will relocate to accommodation at the King Cross Library. This will occur in the first quarter of 2016.”

You sent two further letters in this respect (which I had not had sight of prior to the response sent above). The first on the 21 December 2015 as follows:

And the second received on the 22 December 2015 as follows:

PLEASE NOTE THIS IS NOT A FOI REQUEST!

In relation to my letter sent on the 21st December 2015. Regarding the FOI Request made by myself on the 6th December 2015, Calderdale Council ref: 4698 seeking to clarify the information I requested.

Did you receive this letter prior to the finalization of the response dated 22nd December 2015 into the aforementioned request?

I responded to you by email on 23 December 2015 as follows:

“Further to your letters of 21 December 2015 and 22 December 2015, I can confirm that both of the advised sites are presently intended to be permanent locations.”

You then sent a further letter dated 3 January 2016, received 4 January 2016, as follows:

PLEASE NOTE THIS IS NOT A FOI REQUEST!

In relation to the FOIR Request made by myself on the 16th December 2015, Calderdale Council ref: 4698.

Thank you for your response in relation to my letter of clarification dated 21st December 2015 and my follow up letter dated 22nd December 2015 when I wrote to seek information as to the receivership of my aforementioned letter. However can you please answer the question in my letter dated 22nd December 2015 as this information will be the fundamental factor in deciding whenever or not to submit a refined FOI Request.

I responded to you by email on 8 January 2016 as follows:

“I confirm that when I sent out our response to your request reference 4698 on 22 December 2015, I had not had sight of your clarification request letter of 21 December 2015.

However, the response we gave was that of the planned permanent locations, as requested in the latter letter.

I trust this clarifies the information given.”

You replied on the same day by email with the following:

Many thanks for finally answering my question.

On 18 January 2016 we received your request for a review of FOI 4698, as follows:

We sent the following review response to you on 21 January 2016:

“Your original request reference 4698, received 6 December 2015, was as follows:

“I am writing to request information as to the planned location for the Reserve Book Store, Discover (the Libraries, Museums & Arts Education Service) and the Bibliographical Services Department.”

We acknowledged receipt of your request on 9 December 2015.

We sent the following response to you on 22 December 2015:

Thank you for your comments on our proposals. However in the above response it was clearly confirmed that the Bibliographic Services team were to be relocated from Northgate House to King Cross Library, and not to Heath Training Centre. Only the School’s Library Service (Discover) and Reserve Book stack will be accommodated at Heath Training Centre. Proposals for moving these services have been in consideration for some time by the Council and Officers have explored a variety of different property solutions in conjunction with the staff that run these facilities. Accommodation allocated to each of the services will be fitted out to the specifications requested by the services themselves to ensure that activities continue to be run efficiently and effectively. The Heath Training Centre site is a mixed use facility. We are satisfied that the accommodation we have chosen will provide excellent facilities for these services and operational benefits.”

Therefore, as previously advised to you through the above series of communication, I can again confirm the following:-

The Discover Service and Reserve Book Stack will be re-located to permanent accommodation at Heath Training Centre.
The Bibliographic Services Department will be moving to permanent accommodation at King Cross Library.

The locations described above are to be the permanent home for these facilities and are not temporary/short term accommodation.

I hope this is helpful to you and any feedback from you would be welcomed.

If for any reason you are unhappy with our response, you are entitled to approach the Head of Democratic and Partnership Services, Northgate House, Northgate, Halifax HX1 1UN.

If you remain dissatisfied with our decision, please contact the Information Commissioner, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, SK9 5AF.

Yours sincerely

Suzanne Butterfield

Information Governance Officer