Wednesday 20 July 2011

Another Police Statement and a Breach of Data Protection

 More articles have appeared in the local papers, the Carmarthen Journal and the Llanelli Star about last week's meeting. I have provided the links below.

There are a couple of points I wish to mention. I was aware that Cllr Sian Caiach and Cllr A Davies had tried to challenge the Minutes of the meeting of the 8th June which stated that I, (it was obviously me) had interrupted and disrupted the meeting, which I hadn't. I was unaware until now of the names of the other two Councillors who had also supported their challenge, Cllrs Jenkins and D Williams. So my thanks goes to them too.

There is also a statement from Dyfed Powys Police in an attempt to explain the reason for the phone call I had from a Chief Inspector two days before the meeting;
 "We contacted both parties involved to understand their intentions. The aim of the two conversations was to ensure that everybody understood what could happen if certain courses of action, including any breaches of the law on either side, were followed. We have taken a proportionate, fair and balanced approach to the situation. We did recieve a call asking for assistance to enter the viewing gallery for the Council Chamber, but advised the caller that this was a matter for the council, not the police"
 On the face of it this sounds a fair statement but I get the impression that Dyfed Powys Police are tip toeing around all this and realise their previous mistake without admitting liability, having now decided, contrary to the evidence on the 8th June, that this 'was a matter for the Council, not the police'. However, I very much doubt if breaches of the law on 'either side' were remotely discussed, and from the rather sinister and intimidating phone call I had, it was very clear that I was likely to be arrested (I am not sure what for). I believe it was possibly the timely intervention (on the morning of the 13th July) of an email from @DavidAllenGreen to Dyfed Powys Police to urge them to consider issues of free speech should they attend, that dissuaded them completely.


Back briefly again to yesterday's Freedom of Information response. The Council FoI office goes to great lengths in their response letter to explain why my details were redacted from an email thread, Data Protection, third party etc etc. Very commendable and the details were duly redacted in downloadable version of the email. However, they didn't bother to check, (or maybe even decided to leave) the html version where my name AND address are there for all to see! I have taken screenshots and printouts and now reported this matter to the Information Commissioners Office.

Film Row Blogger not allowed into Council meeting
Council accused of Glossing over events at County Hall
Accuracy is Questioned
From the Carmarthen Journal and the Llanelli Star.

Update 22nd July;
The Council have now removed my name and address from the email thread. Glad they have been reading this post and recified their mistake; this one anyway. However, I have already sent scanned images of the original breach to the Information Commissioner along with my complaint.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The council think they're winning. They're confident they're winning. They aren't.

They will, as they already are, keep on making ever-increasing fools of themselves in their attempts to evade the word 'sorry'.

Keep going, boys. We'll analyse every word, although some people say you're going awful quiet on requests these days...