FOIs - waste of your cash - The Weston Mercury
FOIs - waste of your cash - The Weston Mercury (UK)
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
8:25 AM
FOIs - waste of your cash
18 November 2008
CONCERNED parish councillors in Backwell appealed to three people to explain why they are bombarding the council with FOI requests.
Speaking at a council meeting on Thursday, Councillor Bob Day said the requests were an 'utter waste of public money for no apparent reason' and he urged the three people involved to ask their questions at meetings instead.
Since January, Backwell Parish Council has had 26 FOI requests.
Cllr Day said: "As a parish council we have approximately 5,000 residents. Out of this number only one person, Mrs Lloyd, keeps asking each month for information about the parish council under this act, despite taking copious notes at every meeting. We've received 13 requests from her this year.
"She does not come back to us to say something is wrong so why does she persist and what is she trying to achieve?"
"The question I want to ask is why does she keep asking for this information?
"She attends regularly and has plenty of opportunities to ask questions but she doesn't.
"The information required takes a considerable amount of time for our clerk to find.
"It's time consuming and very costly. These costs are met by residents through the precept."
He added: "Furthermore, we have two other people from Nailsea who have put in 12 requests between them so far this year - Maureen Sage, the council's former clerk, and Tom Wilson, who used to be a councillor and chairman of the council. I would like to ask them the same questions.
"This money could be used to improve village life. It's for these people to stand up and come along to these meetings and tell us what they want."
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