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/ NEIGHBOURHOOD SERVICES & RESOURCES GROUP
Town Hall, Darlington DL1 5QT
Tel: (01325) 388905
DX 69280 Darlington 6
Web site:
Mr Ian White
E-mail to: / Date:
Please ask for :
Direct Line:
Your Reference:
Our Reference:
Document Name: / 27 April 2015
Sue Reynolds
(01325)406777
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DBC-0011-15
FOI\DBC-0011-15

Dear Mr White

Freedom of Information Act 2000 - Information Request

Your request for information, received 1 April 2015, has now been considered. Your request is outlined below with our response added alongside.

You requested:

Please could I have the following under the Freedom of Information Act 2000?

Q1, Is it possible for a person who owns their own property to qualify for a council house/flat?

Q2, If a person does qualify for example under a disability would they be expected to sell their house? Please could you send copies of all legistaltion/council rules that cover this?

Q3, Is a person who does own their own property, somehow gets a council property and they then privately rent their original house out (for more than the council rent is probably) are they breaking any laws? If so please provide any documentation relating to this/these laws?

Q4, Would a private owner not be expected to move/downsize etc. if they had a disability as appose to being allowed to rent from the Council? Can I have any paperwork you have relating to this practice?

Q5,

a, If this was to have happened would it be construed as fraud? and would the Council take action?

b, Please provide all documentation covering the fraudulent obtaining of council/social housing to include the options open to the council to recover any such fraudulently obtained property?

Our response:

Section 14 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) allows public authorities to classify requests as vexatious and/or repeated. In such circumstances a public authority is not obliged to comply with the request. The purpose of this provision is to prevent abuse of the “right to know”.

The Council has decided to refuse your recent freedom of information request under section 14 of the FOIA.

If you are dissatisfied with the handling of your request or would like to request an internal review of our response, please write to:

Complaints and Information Governance Manager

Darlington Borough Council

Neighbourhood Services and Resources Group

Town Hall

Darlington

DL15QT

E-mail:

You can also obtain further information from the Information Commissioner at:

Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Tel:01625 545 700
Website:

Enquiries:

Yours sincerely

Freedom of Information Officer

Refusal Notice – Section 14(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000

Section 14(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the Act) provides:

“14. Vexatious and repeated requests

(1) Section 1(1) does not oblige a public authority to comply with a request for information if the request is vexatious.”

We believe that the current request is vexatious for the following reasons.

1. Frequency of requests – the Council has received 25 freedom of information requests, containing 219 questions from you since 1 April 2014. Many of these were multi-part questions, for example, ‘…the number of complaints against children's social services since January 2010 (broken down by year)…’ We have also received 17 internal review requests from you since 1 April 2014. Whilst this may not seem like a large number in the scheme of the overall number of requests that the Council receives each year, it is a significant number to receive from a single applicant, particularly considering that each request contains multiple questions. These requests are often overlapping.

2. Scope of the request – while this request centres on a single theme i.e. the allocation of Council Housing, the information requested would need to be obtained from various sources within the Council. This is common to your other requests. In addition, a number of your requests are for information pertaining to unrelated items, for example, one request was for information about the Mayoral lamp post, FOI requests and internal reviews while another request was for information about Sunday markets, park and ride and wheeled bins.

3. Pattern of requests – each request that is answered by the Council leads to further requests and/or internal reviews. It is also common to receive a request in relation to any article that appears in the local press or decisions directly affecting you. This has a significant impact on our already scarce resources. Furthermore, having taken the decision to refuse one of your recent requests under S.14 we believe rather than challenging the decision, as is your right, in accordance with the provisions of the FOIA, you attempted to obtain the information by asking another individual to submit the same request on your behalf. We believe this is further evidence that your behaviour is unreasonable.

4. Duration – as stated above, you have made a significant number of requests and internal reviews since 1 April 2014 and this reflects our previous involvement with you. You have consistently submitted a large number of requests since the introduction of the Act in January 2005, approximately 147 requests containing some 949 separate questions since August 2006 (the Council no longer holds records for 2005 and the first seven months of 2006). As a result we have previously refused information under, section 14(1) of the Act.

5.

5. Motive – Your requests appear to either stem from your personal dissatisfaction with the Council or unfounded allegations of malfeasance. While we understand that you have concerns about the Council other than making our responses available to the public via whatdotheyknow.com there is no indication that the information we provide has ever been put to constructive use. Indeed, when we have informed you that information is already published in the public domain, there is no evidence that you have ever accessed it or used it to hold the Council to account. Further, you have stated in the past, and more recently during our attempts to improve relationships, that you are aware that submitting a high volume of requests for information has a serious impact on our resources and you intend to continue trying to disrupt the working of the Council. Given these statements and the fact that you recently requested information similar to that which you partner had already requested we can only conclude that your current pattern of requests is aimed primarily at disrupting service delivery more so than achieving transparency and accountability, which are the fundamental aims of the Act.

6. Impact on staff – the fact that each request answered leads to further requests, internal reviews and correspondence, has the effect of harassing staff in the Complaints and Information Governance Team and in the services handling your requests. In addition, many of your requests contain accusations and use intemperate language, which is distressing for those staff to whom the accusations are directed.

7. Burden – the volume and complexity of your requests has a significant burden on the Council’s resources, diverting such resources from service delivery.

For the reasons outlined above, we are refusing your request under section 14(1) of the Act. You have the right to appeal against our decision; further information is provided in the letter that accompanies this refusal notice.

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