Firstly, a brief update on a previous Freedom of Information request; Sometime ago I requested information and copies of the registers of officers' interests, gifts and hospitality. After a month's delay I had a partial answer. The outcome of an internal review decided, surprise surprise, that all the information had been supplied. I was not happy with this and reported the matter to the ICO. The ICO have just informed me they are investigating the matter, including delay in responding. I suspect this may take some time. I have also asked Mrs Rees-Jones, Acting Head of Law to remove my full address from her review response, clearly breaching data protection legislation. To date, this has not been done.
An indication of the reasons for the delayed FoI response can be found in the minutes of the last Policy and Resources Scrutiny Committee. The Assistant Chief Executive (Customer Focus and Policy) - yes there are two Assistant CEOs (the other one is 'People Management and Performance') - said that the authority were having difficulty responding by the deadlines as the requests were more complex and they expected to recieve over a thousand requests this year. It is not noted whether anyone, not least of all the two attendant Assistant CEOs, suggested that more information was published online, or even that the What Do They Know site could be used as an easily accessible disclosure log - something some of the more enlightened councils are considering. Far to logical for Carmarthenshire who appear to be reacting with some horror to the accelerating requests for transparency.
The same meeting saw questions asked about the future of County Hall and the large offices in Spilman Street as they were 'likely to become redundant' in the future. Apparently as they were structurally sound and energy efficient they would be kept for now. Hence the permanent scaffolding I suppose, and, slightly further down the minutes it was mentioned that Carmarthenshire had one of the highest energy costs for it's buildings in Wales, so not very 'energy efficient' then really. With the Council splashing the cash on new offices in the new East Gate development in Llanelli, Parc Y Scarlets, St David's Park and no doubt, eventually, squeezed in between the bowling alley and the food bank at the Towy Community Church, buildings such as County Hall will become surplus to requirements. We may soon be able to pay our council tax, and pray it's well spent, all under one roof.
On the subject of Council Tax, the committee suggested that residents could perhaps get a discount if they paid it in a lump sum at the beginning of the year. I assume this will be rejected immediately by the officers from Resources. In case it had passed the committee by, most people couldn't afford to do that, hence, as with so many things, arrangements are in place to make monthly/weekly payments. A move such as this would, in effect, be discriminatory by penalising those on low incomes.
One last thing, I noticed the new Chair of the Press Complaints Commission, Lord Hunt, suggesting that the PCC should be replaced with a new body which would regulate not only the recently exposed excesses of the tabloid press but also the 'blogosphere' - suggesting that bloggers who write about current affairs, local politics etc should volunteer themselves to be regulated - for a fee of course - and then be given a 'kite mark' of 'trust'. Hmm. Mrs Angry, one of the famous five Barnet Bloggers has something to say about all that here; 'Let's go fly a kite...Lord Hunt asks Mrs Angry to behave herself and pay him for suggesting it'
An indication of the reasons for the delayed FoI response can be found in the minutes of the last Policy and Resources Scrutiny Committee. The Assistant Chief Executive (Customer Focus and Policy) - yes there are two Assistant CEOs (the other one is 'People Management and Performance') - said that the authority were having difficulty responding by the deadlines as the requests were more complex and they expected to recieve over a thousand requests this year. It is not noted whether anyone, not least of all the two attendant Assistant CEOs, suggested that more information was published online, or even that the What Do They Know site could be used as an easily accessible disclosure log - something some of the more enlightened councils are considering. Far to logical for Carmarthenshire who appear to be reacting with some horror to the accelerating requests for transparency.
The same meeting saw questions asked about the future of County Hall and the large offices in Spilman Street as they were 'likely to become redundant' in the future. Apparently as they were structurally sound and energy efficient they would be kept for now. Hence the permanent scaffolding I suppose, and, slightly further down the minutes it was mentioned that Carmarthenshire had one of the highest energy costs for it's buildings in Wales, so not very 'energy efficient' then really. With the Council splashing the cash on new offices in the new East Gate development in Llanelli, Parc Y Scarlets, St David's Park and no doubt, eventually, squeezed in between the bowling alley and the food bank at the Towy Community Church, buildings such as County Hall will become surplus to requirements. We may soon be able to pay our council tax, and pray it's well spent, all under one roof.
On the subject of Council Tax, the committee suggested that residents could perhaps get a discount if they paid it in a lump sum at the beginning of the year. I assume this will be rejected immediately by the officers from Resources. In case it had passed the committee by, most people couldn't afford to do that, hence, as with so many things, arrangements are in place to make monthly/weekly payments. A move such as this would, in effect, be discriminatory by penalising those on low incomes.
One last thing, I noticed the new Chair of the Press Complaints Commission, Lord Hunt, suggesting that the PCC should be replaced with a new body which would regulate not only the recently exposed excesses of the tabloid press but also the 'blogosphere' - suggesting that bloggers who write about current affairs, local politics etc should volunteer themselves to be regulated - for a fee of course - and then be given a 'kite mark' of 'trust'. Hmm. Mrs Angry, one of the famous five Barnet Bloggers has something to say about all that here; 'Let's go fly a kite...Lord Hunt asks Mrs Angry to behave herself and pay him for suggesting it'
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