ICO The complainant made a request to Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council (the ‘Council’) for information relating to the granting of planning permission for a development. In response to the request, the Council provided the complainant with details of how to access the planning file on its website where some of the information was held, and invited the complainant to view the paper planning file on which some of the requested information was held. Additionally, the Council provided the complainant with copies of minutes of the relevant Design Panel and advised that the Planning Board Report and addendum could be accessed by a URL link. The Council explained that, with the exception of the Design Panel minutes, all the requested information was held on the planning file. It confirmed that it did not hold any minutes of internal or external meetings. The complainant asked the Commissioner to consider whether further information was held on the matter. The Commissioner found that the information requested constitutes environmental information and therefore should have been considered under the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (EIR). He has concluded on the balance of probabilities, that with the exception of the above information which was made available to the complainant, the remainder of the information requested was not held by the Council. It therefore complied with regulation 5(1) and 5(2) in making available the information it held within 20 working days and in stating that no further information was held.
Section of Act/EIR and Finding: EIR 5 – Complaint Not upheld, EIR 5 – Complaint Not upheld, EIR 14 – Complaint Upheld
[2010] UKICO FS50277216
Bailii
England and Wales
Information
Updated: 12 December 2021; Ref: scu.531680