1. The number of people on your housing waiting list who require accessible or wheelchair-accessible housing?
Notes: this may be defined as any one or all of the following:
a. We more broadly mean people who need a property that provides ‘level access’ i e no steps to access the dwelling and/or a lift or an accessible or adaptable home
e g one that meets building regulations part M4(2) Category 2: Accessible and adaptable dwellings, or any equivalent standard such as the Lifetime Homes Standard
b. The number of people who require a home that is wheelchair accessible e g one that meets building regulations part M4(3) Category 3: Wheelchair user dwelling or any equivalent standard
c. The number of people currently in housing who require a minor or major adaptation to their home
d. The number of people currently in housing that cannot be adapted to meet their access needs
2. How many dwellings/homes i e (the total of houses, maisonettes, flats etc) were built in the local authority for each of the past three years? Depending on your budget cycle, these could be calendar years of financial years
3. Of these homes, how many were built as:
a. accessible and adaptable (Part M Building Regulations optional category M4(2))
b. wheelchair accessible (Part M Building Regulations optional category M4(3))
c. Another accessible housing standard (if so, please provide details)
Unfortunately there is no other way in which the information can be gathered as it is not already recorded in a way that it can be easily identified and obtained either by Building Control or Planning
The number of complaints made to the council regarding the following matters from 1 January 2022:
Accumulation of refuse outside garden/yard
All information pertains to fly tipping. Please may you provide:
• GPS locations of the collected fly-tips
• Street Name or postcode of collected fly-tips
Amount and types of fly-tips:
• Number of fly-tips collected in relation to Street Name or Postcode above?
• Collected fly-tip types, for example, household waste, tyres etc in relation to GPS/Street Name or Postcode above
Time of reporting and collection:
• Dates fly-tips were reported in relation to GPS/Street Name or Postcode above
• Dates fly-tips were collected in relation to GPS/Street Name or Postcode above
The timeframe I am requesting the information for is between January 2017 to December 2019
Information provided in Excel format, with all personal data that directly and indirectly identifies third parties redacted throughout (available upon request)
I am acting for the Trustees of Chambercombe Manor in the sale of Chambercombe Manor, Ilfracombe EX34 9RJ
I have attached the results of the Environmental Search and you will note this has revealed a Moderate-High Risk and Action Required in respect of Contaminated Land
In order to have this changed to a Pass/Low Risk, the search provider requires the following:
Information about the previous land use of the area and written details confirming whether the land has been designated “Contaminated Land” (as defined under Part 2A of EPA 1990), and if the Local Authority plans to take any further action. If the Local Authority is considering further action the level of priority assigned to this site and timescale of potential investigation will also be required
Applicant provided with a copy of a plan and spreadsheet of the information the Council’s Environmental Protection team holds regarding this property (which is available upon request)
Further to this, the applicant was advised that the Environmental Protection team does not hold any other records regarding potentially contaminated land in this area. It is recommend that they also contact the Environment Agency and Devon County Council regarding any information they may hold in relation to the site or the land in the vicinity
This is an information request relating to prompt payments
Please include the information for each of the following financial years, broken down by quarter; 2019-20, 2020-21, 2021-22:
The number of invoices not paid within statutory deadlines
The amount of interest accrued as a result of late payments which the council is liable for
Applicant directed to the Council’s website where it publishes a dataset providing payment performance statistics covering some of the requested information and also provided an excel spreadsheet providing the requested information not covered by the dataset (available upon request)
The Council will be combining the data from both into one dataset for future publication in due course
Applicant advised that a decision was made to stop paying the late payment fee and interest whilst the Council was paying out all of the COVID 19 grants. This decision is currently being reviewed
This relates to your authority’s inspections of animal activities carried out by operators licensed to offer the following services:
1. Please tell me, at the date of this email, how many operators licensed to provide the above animal services in your area had a ‘one star’ rating?
2. For all of the one-star-rated businesses currently licensed to carry out the above-listed services, please provide me with
a) the names of the businesses
c) the details of why this one-star rating was given, including a list of the higher standards that the business currently fails to meet, or a list of the minimum standards it’s failing to meet; and a copy of the risk management table showing the scores under each point
The applicant requested a schedule of costs which will be involved regarding the Yelland planning Appeal decline (ref 3283943). This is to respond to the Appeal in officers and costs' terms, the applicants' costs for the Appeal awarded against the Council and also the lost s106 benefits (infrastructure etc) and lost new homes' bonus (from appealing rather than accepting the planning application
Applicant provided with a PDF document which sets out the costs in respect of the consultants, venue hire, stationery etc. paid so far (available upon request)
At this time, the Council does not have the developer’s costs so it is unable to provide this information. It may take up to a couple of months for the figures to be submitted to the Council and then agreed. Applicant advised that they may wish to consider submitting a further request for this information at a later date, perhaps in another month or so
With regard to Section 106 benefits, the Council does not consider that it will lose any Section 106 contributions as the “package” agreed with the developer prior to the decision made by committee will remain and part of it will be reallocated from highways to either biodiversity or affordable housing
The Council does not believe at this stage that there will be any impact on New Homes Bonus
The applicant believes that North Devon District Council, Devon Highways, Acorn Trust and English Heritage all have an interest in the Hillsborough Estate gifted to the town (Ilfracombe) in 1895. Under the Act, the applicant requests to know who is responsible for this estate what budgets from all four entities are available for maintenance
Applicant provided with three pdf documents confirming what the Council owns and therefore maintains at Hillsborough. The Estates team confirms that they are not familiar with the extent of the land that was part of the original Hillsborough estate. They understand that the applicant is referring to the gate at the end of the Hillsborough Road that leads up to the AONB and confirm that this is the Council’s
With regards maintenance, there is no specific budget set aside for Hillsborough. Much of the work is carried out in-house now, so there is no cost there. The Council does however employ private contractors to cut the meadow grass once a year, these costs are incorporated into one budget for the district wide meadow cuts. The Council also responds to tree issues from time to time, but again no specific budget for this as the costs will vary from year to year
The Council does not hold information regarding Devon Highways (this comes under Devon County Council) Acorn Trust (The Council is unsure if they are bound by the FOIA) or English Heritage, and so the applicant was advised to contact these separately for a response
Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment data, ideally in a shape file
The Council’s 2021 information disclosed to the applicant in their requested format (available upon request)
1. The number of licensed dog breeders between 1 Jan 2021 - 31 Dec 2021
2. Additionally can you provide a breakdown as follows:
a) The number of dog breeding licences issued in 2021 to licence holders who have bred one or two litters?
b) The number of dog breeding licences issued in 2021 to holders who have bred three or more litters?
3. The total number of breeding bitches present at licensed premises in your local authority between 1 Jan 2021 - 31 Dec 2021
2. a) The Council does not hold this information
1. How many vehicles collided with property owned by your local authority – such as buildings, railings, lampposts, street furniture etc. – in each of the calendar years 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018 and 2017? Please provide the data broken down by year
2. How much money did your local authority spend in each of the calendar years 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018 and 2017 repairing council-owned property that was damaged by vehicles? Please also state how much, if any, of each annual amount, in £s, was recovered through insurance policies. Please also state how much, if any, of each annual amount, in £s, was recovered through uninsured loss recovery (ULR) programmes. Please provide the data broken down by year
1. The Council does not have this data, it only records the number of incidents. The number of vehicles involved is not known in most cases:
2. Unless stated, amounts were not claimed via insurance:
The total quantity and value of fines issued under Public Spaces Protection Orders in your authority in 2022
For the period 1 January 2022 to 9 August 2022 we have issued a total of 4 Fixed Penalty Notices for breaches of PSPOs . The total value is £400
Whether any applications have been submitted or decided by the council for proposals incorporating a care home for elderly persons or for a nursing home within the District from August 2019 up until the present day
The Council’s Planning team confirms that the applicant should be able to retrieve this information via a search of the Council’s Planning Tracker on its website for by entering in the date parameters (in the Received date between box) and entering “care home” or “nursing home” or even “elderly” in the “Proposal” box and they should be able to find all of the relevant planning applications that fall within the parameters of the request (the applicant will also be able to filter accordingly to the time period requested)
In accordance with Section 21(1) of the Act, the Council is not obliged to provide information that is already in the public domain. However, it does have a duty under Section 16(1) to provide all applicants advice and assistance in order to assist with locating the information, which it has done so in providing the applicant with the link to the Planning Tracker above
Word document questionnaire completed and returned to applicant, which is available upon request
In relation to First Floor, 115, Taw Wharf, Sticklepath, EX31 2FE
1. Has the property been identified for inspection under Part 2A of the Environmental Protection Act 1990?
2. If the answer to question 1 is ‘Yes’:
a) What prioritisation category has the Property been assigned (i.e. Low, Moderate, High)?
b) Approximately how many properties are in this category?
c) What is the likely timescale for investigation?
3. Do you consider the Property suitable for its current use?
Applicant provided with a copy of a map and spreadsheet (QGIS contaminated land report)in relation to the requested site (which is available upon request)
The Council’s Environmental Protection team does not hold any other records regarding potentially contaminated land in this area. It is recommend to the applicant to also contact the Environment Agency and Devon County Council regarding any information they may hold in relation to the site or the land in the vicinity
1. i.) Please state the local authority’s expenditure (including use of Government grants) on clearing the arrears of tenants in the following financial years:
ii.) For each of the above years, please provide a breakdown of expenditure on clearing the arrears of council housing tenants, housing association tenants and private rental sector tenants
2. i.) Please state the local authority’s expenditure (including use of Government grants) on discretionary housing payments to assist ongoing renting costs of tenants in each of the requested years (as set out in Q1 above)
ii.) For each of the above years, please provide a breakdown of expenditure on assisting the ongoing renting costs of council housing tenants, housing association tenants and private rental sector tenants
Q1.i) and ii) Information not held
a) 2017/18 = Discretionary housing payments to assist ongoing renting costs £89,596.00, Discretionary housing payments to assist with rent deposits = £86,916.19
b) 2018/19 = Discretionary housing payments to assist ongoing renting costs = £73,014.26, Discretionary housing payments to assist with rent deposits = £65808.10
c) 2019/20 = Discretionary housing payments to assist ongoing renting costs = £73,961.46, Discretionary housing payments to assist with rent deposits = £80,809.14
d) 2020/21 = Discretionary housing payments to assist ongoing renting costs = £107,412.45, Discretionary housing payments to assist with rent deposits = £89,002.04
e) 2021/22 = Discretionary housing payments to assist ongoing renting costs = £108,325.76, Discretionary housing payments to assist with rent deposits = £60,591.58
2.ii) This information is not recorded in a way that it can be easily provided and so the only way in which it can be identified and collated would require an officer within the Benefits department to manually go through a total of 1,223 claims covering the requested years. Each claim has been estimated to take approximately 2 minutes to identify, locate, retried and collate the information
Section 12 of the Act makes provision for public authorities to refuse requests for information where the cost of dealing with them would exceed the appropriate limit, which for Local Authorities is set at £450 by the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004. This represents the estimated cost of one person spending 18 hours at £25 per hour in determining whether the Council holds the information, locating, retrieving and collating the information
It has been estimated by the Benefits department that it would take approximately 40.7 hours to provide the requested information, the procedure would cause serious disruption to the day to day working of the Benefits department. Therefore the Council is unable to process this part of the request any further. As set out in the previous paragraph, the Council has the right to refuse to provide the information in accordance with Section 12 of the Act
With respect to your local authority’s register of performing animals:
1. How many animals are currently registered under the Performing Animals (Regulation) Act 1925 in your area to be trained and/or exhibited for performance?
4. For those that are not dogs or cats, please state a) their species and b) the number of each of the different species
5. Please can you provide a sample of the types of performances in which some of the registered animals are engaged?
NOTE: For question 5, I am looking for a flavour of the range of performance types and the species involved. I appreciate there could be a lot of animals registered with many different performance details, so to avoid running into a Section 12 cost exemption, could you please give me the performance details from just the FIVE most recently approved applications?
1. The number of children’s playgrounds in your area in 2022
2. The number of accidents reported at children’s playgrounds in your area in 2022 so far, 2021, 2020 and 2019
3. The name of the playground where the most reported accidents have occurred in this timeframe (and total number between 2022 and 2019 here)
4. The number of complaints made in relation to the safety of equipment at playgrounds in your area in 2022 so far, 2021, 2020 and 2019
5. The name of the playground which has received the most complaints in relation to the safety of its equipment, in this timeframe (and total number between 2022 and 2019 here)
6. Any details on playground closures or equipment that has been removed due to safety complaints or reported accidents since 2019
2. Zero for each requested year
4. Zero for each requested year
1. Does your local authority currently operate a selective licensing scheme? If so, what kind of designation is it i e, city wide/borough wide/single designation/multi designation
2. Is your local authority currently running/about to run a consultation for selective licensing and/or launching a selective licensing scheme in the next 12 months?
3. Does your local authority currently operate an additional licensing scheme? If so, what kind of designation is it i e, city wide/borough wide/single designation/multi designation
4. Is your local authority currently running/about to run a consultation for selective licensing and/or launching an additional licensing scheme in the next 12 months?
5. As part of the authority’s council tax registration process, do you collect data on property tenure? Please specify which of the following options applies:
- Yes for rental properties only
- Yes for council/social housing properties only
- No (please give reasons why)
6. Which council department/services can access the tenure/landlord data?
7. If you limit which departments can access this data, for what reasons do you do so?
8. Is the landlord data used when assessing the size of the private rented sector?
9. Does your local authority have any Article 4 Directions currently in place for HMOs? (C3 to C4)
10. If answered yes to Question 9, what kind of designation is it?
Please specify which of the following options applies:
- Single designation of an area
- Multiple designation of an area
- Borough/city wide designation
CON29 information relating to a property at EX33 2JD
Applicant provided with the information, where held and also directed to the Council’s website for some of the information
1. The number of petrol stations fitted with fuel interceptors in your area
2. Any data on recorded fuel spillage accidents from tankers or petrol stations in your area
3. Any data on recorded flammable liquid pollution incidents within your area (from COMAH sites)
1. The Council has 18 petrol stations which it permits in its area, however it does not record whether they have fuel interceptors
1. The number of Enforcement Cases that are currently under investigation for the parish of Brayford
2. If there are Enforcement Cases under investigation, how many of these cases are against [Name Redacted or Trees Farm or Shutscombe Hill?
3. If there are any Enforcement Cases under investigation against [Name redacted] or Trees Farm or Shutscombe Hill, when were they raised? Who were they raised by? What is the detail of the investigation, and at what stage of the investigation are they, and the relevant planning application reference for each?
2. Yes, there are two cases that fall within these parameters; 12485 and 12083
3. 12485 raised 22 July 2020 - Alleged breach of condition of Prior Approval 60840 – not built in accordance with submitted details, Agricultural Barn, Trees Farm, Land off Shutscombe Lane, Brayford EX32 7QE – Unacceptable – Retrospective Planning Permission Refused. Any further Planning or Enforcement involvement will be dependent on the outcome of the current planning appeal (72649). Planning application reference: 60840
12083 raised 28 August 2019 - Alleged unauthorised change of use - residential use of land, Trees Farm, Brayford EX32 7QE – Passed to Planning Officer and awaiting Planning Officer decision. Unable to find record of Planning Application/reference number of a planning application
Details of who raised these cases cannot be disclosed. The Council considers this withheld information to be exempt under Section 40 of the Act as the information constitutes personal data which those third parties would have no reasonable expectation for the Council to make their personal data publicly available. Section 40(2) provides that personal data is exempt information if one of the conditions set out in section 40(3A), (3B) or (4A) is satisfied
In this case Section 40(3A)(A) is met because disclosure of this information would breach the fair processing principle contained in the General Data Protection Regulation. This is an absolute exemption and there is therefore no requirement to consider the public interest
The following information regarding Discretionary Housing Payments (DHPs):
1. How many applications for DHPs did the council receive in 2020/21?
2. How many of the applications in question 1 did the council approve? (ie the council decided to award DHP in response to the application, either in full or in part)
3. How many of the applications in question 2 were awarded in full? (ie the council decided to award the full amount applied for in the DHP application)
4. How many of the applications in question 1 did the council refuse? (ie the council decided not to award any DHP in response to the application)
5. How many applications for DHPs did the council receive in 2021/22?
6. How many of the applications in question 5 did the council approve? (ie the council decided to award DHP in response to the application, either in full or in part)
7. How many of the applications in question 6 were awarded in full? (ie the council decided to award the full amount applied for in the DHP application)
8. How many of the applications in question 5 did the council refuse? (ie the council decided not to award any DHP in response to the application)
9. Please provide any data the council holds on reasons for DHPs being refused in 2020/21 and 2021/22
10. What was the average amount of DHP awarded in response to successful DHP applications in 2020/21? This is the amount awarded for each application, not to each household (ie three successive awards to one household count as three separate awards). Successful applications in this question are those that were awarded any money
11. What was the average amount of DHP awarded in response to successful DHP applications in 2021/22? (See notes accompanying question 10)
Please note that these questions treat each application for DHPs separately – regardless of whether more than one such application was made by the same household in a financial year, or whether they were made to renew previous awards.
For example, if in 2020/21 one household applied for DHP and was awarded it in full for a fixed period, and then applied again and was awarded it in full again, then applied a third time and was awarded 50 percent of the requested amount, and then applied a fourth time and was refused with no money awarded – then in relation to this household:
• the question 1 figure is four (four separate applications)
• the question 2 figure is three (three applications were awarded in full or in part)
• the question 3 figure is two (two applications were awarded in full)
• the question 4 figure is one (one application refused with no award)
I wish to emphasise that if a council did not award any money to a DHP applicant but signposted the applicant elsewhere or provided support outside DHPs, this counts as a ‘refusal’ for the purposes of questions 4 and 8
9. Not rent liability to award DHP. Income exceeds declared expenditure. No short fall between Housing Benefit or the housing element of the Universal Credit and the amount charged. For fairness of all customer DHP can be limited to the amount of awards
1. How many households in your council area receive a discount on their council tax because one or more people at the property are considered severely mentally impaired?
a) How many receive a 25% discount
b) How many receive a 50% discount
c) How many receive a 100% discount
All site scrap metal licenses granted by yourselves along with their addresses and any contact details you may have
Applicant provided with a PDF document providing the requested information apart from any telephone numbers and email addresses of the licence holders (which is available upon request)
The Council is unable to disclose any telephone numbers/email addresses that it holds for the licence holders as this information is considered to be personal data. It is provided to the Council by those licence holders purely for the purposes of the Council to be able to maintain a line a communication with them. The Council does not have the consent of the licence holders to make their contact information that is held publicly available
An internet search of each of the licence holders from the disclosed PDF document will provide contact information that those licence holders have chosen to make publicly available (this may be different to the contact information that is held by the Licensing team)
1. Office and building cleaning – Service contract that is focused around office, commercial and building cleaning services
2. Lift service and maintenance – Service contract for lift service and maintenance
3. Food – Service contract that is focused around catering services
4. General waste services contracts – The organisation’s primary general waste service contract
5. Laundry services where clothes and linen can be washed and ironed
Contract profile questionnaire for each type of contract:
1. The current office and building cleaning contract in place is published on the Council’s contract register
In response to the specific information for this contract:
1. Supplier/Provider of the services = Please refer to the link above
2. Total Annual Spend – The spend should only relate to each of the service contracts listed above = 2022/23 = £71,547.56, 2023/24 = £71,547.56
3. A description of the services provided under this contract please includes information if other services are included under the same contract = Please refer to the link above
4.The number of sites the contract covers = Please refer to the link above
5. The start date of the contract = Please refer to the link above
6. The end date of the contract = Please refer to the link above
7. The duration of the contract, please include information on any extensions period = Please refer to the link above
8. Who within the organisation is responsible for each of these contracts? name, Job Title, contact number and email address.= Please refer to the link above
2. The Council’s Property Services team confirms that the Council’s lift service and maintenance for three lifts is on a rolling 12 month agreement with Safe Working Lifts Ltd, Barnstaple from 1 April 2022. The value is very low, approximately £720 per annum, so quotes are obtained as a when required
3. Food – Service contract that is focused around catering services = No contracts held
4. No contracts held, the Council provides an in-house waste (refuse, black bags, bins) service to the residents of North Devon
5. Laundry services where clothes and linen can be washed and ironed = From 1 October 2021 the Council entered into a seven year contract for vehicle maintenance with Specialist Fleet Services Ltd for the supply of vehicles and plant including maintenance. Specialist Fleet Services Ltd are providing their own overalls and paying the associated laundry bills to Buckleigh Linen
Between August 1 2017 and August 1 2022, how many times has the council been the victim of a cyber-attack/hack?
Request fully refused under Section 31(1)(a) states that information which is not exempt information by virtue of section 30 is exempt information if its disclosure under the Act would, or would be likely to, prejudice (a) the prevention or detection of crime. Under section 31(3) the duty to confirm or deny does not arise if, or to the extent that, compliance with section 1(1)(a) would, or would be likely to, prejudice any of the matters mentioned in subsection (1)
In light of the above, the Council neither confirms nor denies whether the information you have requested exists or is held as it is exempt from disclosure under section 31(3) of the Act. Confirming or denying its existence would be likely to prejudice the prevention or detection of crime. It is the Council’s opinion that the confirmation or denial of the possession of the requested information would be likely to compromise the Council’s
information security strategies by giving cyber criminals insight into vulnerabilities which may, or may not, exist
In the ICO decision FS50600199 it was submitted that disclosing the information would help an IT attacker establish that its attack had or had not been detected. The ICO confirmed this and stated that revealing whether the public authority holds or does not hold the number of cyber security/details of would pose a real and significant threat to the authority’s operations, and consequently, the prevention or detection of crime. The test is whether the prejudice envisaged from complying with section 1(1)(a) is real and significant and in this case the compliance with section 1(1)(a) would be likely to assist a determined attacker, and consequently, that the risk to the authority’s IT systems as a result, is real and significant
When applying this exemption, the Council is required to carry out a Public Interest Test which considers the factors that favour disclosure and the withholding of the data:
Factors in favour of disclosure
Would promote openness and transparency about how the Council deals with cyber-crime and demonstrate its accountability in managing this in order that the public can be reassured that the Council is doing everything it is practicably able to keep the information is holds safe
Factors in favour of withholding
When the Council releases information to an individual pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act 2000, it is effectively releasing it into the public domain for all to see, that includes those who may not have genuine and honest reasons for wanting to see the information and maybe seeking the information in order to identify, expose or take advantage of potential weaknesses in the Council’s specific ICT security software and hardware, in order to cause intended damage to the Council’s systems or theft of information held
The Council operates a multi layered approach to ICT security. One of these layers is to obfuscate information that could be used to comprise its security
The Council considers that the answering of your request could be used to jeopardise the integrity of the Council’s systems via current or future vulnerabilities. Revealing the requested information would provide some of the Council’s security counter measures and mean that potential hackers would have an insight into both the strengths and weaknesses of the Council’s cyber security measures and ultimately provide them with an advantage in identifying, or being able to easily find potential vulnerabilities and accordingly weaken and/or breach the Council’s security controls currently in place. There is a strong public interest in not making it easier for crime to be committed and so the Council is required to consider very carefully the amount of information is chooses to disclose in this regard
The Council’s ICT team indicates that the risk of cyber-attack is greater than even given today’s current climate and raise valid concerns that we are unable to expand upon further as that information in itself would disclosure information that could be used to target the Council negatively
The Council determines that for the reasons as set out above, the public interest in preventing crime from being committed outweighs the public interest in releasing the information on this occasion
The ICT documents I require are the most recent update (2022 onwards documents)
I wish to obtain the following documents:
If some of these documents are not valid, please state when the 2022 onwards ICT documents are planned to be published
1. The Council does not currently have an ICT strategy document. It is currently focussed on:
- Review mobile and desktop deployment
2. Applicant provided with a structure chart with job titles (available upon request)
3. Please see response to 1. above
4. The figures in the capital programme are as follows:
ICT Improve Back-up and Recovery Capabilities = £7,703
Office Technology Fund - End User Assets and IT Assets in Data Centre = £522,754
1. What CMS/software and version does your public facing council website use? (eg In-house, Sharepoint, Jadu, Drupal 7)
2. Is your public facing council website hosted and supported by a third party IT partner or on-premise? If a third party, when does your current contract expire?
3. When was your public facing council website launched?
4. What are your separate budgets for hosting/supporting and development for your public facing council website?
5. Which team/department/individual is responsible for maintaining your public facing council website?
1. When was your public facing council website last audited for accessibility compliance?
2. Which team/department/individual is responsible for maintaining accessibility compliance across your public facing websites?
1. Do you work with external marketing/communications suppliers to create content for your public facing services?
2. When was the last time you conducted a content audit on your website to remove outdated content?
1. An external software service is used to produce a weekly report
2. ICT, Communications and departmental web authors
1. No, content creation is made in-house.
2. A review will be commencing in the near future.
Whether the council has had any contact with the MOD at RMB Chivenor regarding access to the Taw Estuary. Access steps have been removed literally overnight with no consultation to residents, claiming there is no right of passage to the estuary from the estate. Has the council:
1. Been in contact with the MOD regarding any necessary planning permissions or enforcement regarding access (especially construction of steps) in the last 2 years?
2. Been in contact with the MOD regarding access rights for residents to get onto the estuary at the south east end of Taw Road in the last 2 years, regarding concerns about footfall and the effect on the SSSI?
3. Are there any legal easements regarding access to the estuary from the Chivenor estate?
1. A search of the Planning Tracker on the Council’s website of all applications under ‘Chivenor’ has been carried out and it was confirmed that no applicable planning applications were found
The Planning department also checked the history for this area of Chivenor and found no planning applications or pre-application enquiries submitted by the MOD with regard to the removal of the steps. Further to this there is no record of any enforcement case being opened and no enforcement notice has been served
3. No, there are no legal easements in place
CON29 information relating to a property at EX31 4LE
Applicant provided with the information, where held and also directed to the Council’s website for some of the information
The number of complaints submitted to the council in relation to the installation of a domestic heat pump, specifically in regards to a loss of amenity
I would like the data sets for the following time periods:
I would also like to know the number of complaints during these periods that were upheld and in how many cases a heat pump was ordered to be removed
The Council has not received any complaints in relation to the installation of a domestic heat pump, specifically in regards to a loss of amenity during the requested periods
Environmental Contamination Enquiries Search-Bickington Car Sales, Bickington:
We act for a proposed purchaser of the Property, the approximate extent of which is edged in red on the enclosed plan
Please let us have replies to the following enquiries:
1. Has the Council issued its written strategy on the strategic approach to the inspection of contaminated land? If so, please provide a copy or provide details of how we may obtain a copy
2. Has the Council pursuant to this written strategy, or for any other reason, undertaken an inspection of the Property within the last ten years?
3. Has the Property been identified as ‘contaminated land’ under Part IIA of the Environmental Protection Act 1990. If not, does the Council have any reason to believe that the Property may be identified as ‘contaminated land’ under this legislation in the future?
Please could you reply to let us know the costs for this information and how to pay?
The following response from the Council’s Environmental Protection team was provided to the applicant:
Please see the attached map and spreadsheet (QGIS contaminated land report)
This department does not hold any other records regarding potentially contaminated land in this area. It recommends that you also contact the Environment Agency and Devon County Council regarding any information they may hold in relation to the site or the land in the vicinity
North Devon Council has not yet fully inspected its area to identify sites of contaminated land as required by Part 2A of the Environmental Protection Act 1990. As such, it is not possible to say whether or not this site will be classified under this legislation. At this time, it is considered unlikely that this site would be the subject of inspection under this legislation to the future
1. How much are your FPNs for dog fouling?
2. How many fixed penalty notices for dog fouling were issued in 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022 to date
3. How many fixed penalty notices for dog fouling were paid in full in 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022 to date
1. Applicant referred to this webpage on dog fouling on the Council’s website
2. Applicant referred to Council’s published Environmental Fixed Penalty Notice datasets which are published annually and will include information relating to dog fouling and associated fines
regarding the council's refuse collection vehicles:
1. Whether the council has a written policy, procurement strategy, practice, order, direction or other document which sets out your policy on the procurement of refuse collection vehicles. If the answer is affirmative, please provide a copy
2. How many refuse collection vehicles are currently in control of or procured by the council and in operation in your local authority?
3. For each of the refuse collection vehicles currently in control of and procured by the council and in operation in your local authority, please provide the following details:
1. The Council is currently in a seven year contract with Specialist Fleet Services Ltd which all refuse collection vehicles are procured through
Number plate 66 – Daf 55 Fuel Diesel
14 – Dennis Elite Euro 6 Fuel Diesel (Yard Tuck only)
16 – Dennis Elite Euro 6 Fuel Diesel
16 –Dennis Elite Euro 6 Fuel Diesel
16 - Dennis Elite Euro 6 Fuel Diesel
16 – Dennis Elite Euro 6 Fuel Diesel
16 –Dennis Elite Euro 6 Fuel Diesel
16 – Dennis Elite Euro 6 Fuel Diesel
71 –Dennis Elite Euro 6 Fuel Diesel
71 - Dennis Elite Euro 6 Fuel Diesel
71 –Dennis Elite Euro 6 Fuel Diesel
71– Dennis Elite Euro 6 Fuel Diesel
71– Dennis Elite Euro 6 Fuel Diesel
68 - Mercedes Econic Euro 6 Fuel Diesel
CON29 information relating to a property at EX31 3RV
Applicant provided with the information, where held and also directed to the Council’s website for some of the information
CON29 information relating to a property at EX32 0QU
1. Does the Local Authority disregard all payments made under the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme (2005) as income, when assessing eligibility for:
b. Council Tax Support/ Council Tax Reduction
d. Disabled Facilities Grants (England and Wales only)
2. Does the Local Authority disregard all payments made under the War Pension scheme, as income, when assessing eligibility for:
b. Council Tax Support/ Council Tax Reduction
d. Disabled Facilities Grants (England and Wales only)
3. Does the Local Authority disregard a Service Invaliding Pension or Service Attributable Pension, paid under the Armed Forces Pension Scheme, as income, when assessing eligibility for:
b. Council Tax Support/ Council Tax Reduction
d. Disabled Facilities Grants (England and Wales only)
CON29 information relating to a property at EX31 3DS
All reports made against [full property address redacted] in relation to barking dogs, including which properties have made complaints and the dates that the complaints were made. Can you also please advise if any steps have been taken by environmental health department following these reports, or if any advice has been given
Environmental Health confirms that it has received one complaint regarding barking dogs at [full property address redacted] which was received by the Council on 9 June 2022
Two letters were sent to the subject property and Environmental Health received a telephone call from the complainant(s) in response
Environmental Health then received an email from the complainant(s) which indicated that the situation had improved, so the case was then closed accordingly
You will note that the information identifying the complainant/address of complainant(s) has been withheld. The Council considers this withheld information to be exempt under Section 40 of the Act as the information constitutes personal data. The complainant(s) would have no reasonable expectation for the Council to make their personal data publicly available. Further to this, the Council does not have the consent of the complainant(s) parties to provide this information under the Act
Section 40(2) provides that personal data is exempt information if one of the conditions set out in section 40(3A), (3B) or (4A) is satisfied. In this case Section 40(3A)(A) is met because disclosure of this information would breach the fair processing principle contained in the General Data Protection Regulation. This is an absolute exemption and there is therefore no requirement to consider the public interest in this instance
CON29 information relating to a property at EX31 2BW
1. What software you are using for your grounds maintenance?
2. What is the annual spend on this contract?
3. What are the start date and duration of the contract?
4. Is there an extension clause in the contract and, if so, the duration of the extension?
5. Has a decision been made yet on whether the contract is being either extended or renewed?
6. Who is the senior officer (outside of procurement) responsible for this contract?
1. What software you are using for your tree management?
2. What is the annual spend on this contract?
3. What are the start date and duration of the contract?
4. Is there an extension clause in the contract and, if so, the duration of the extension?
5. Has a decision been made yet on whether the contract is being either extended or renewed?
6. Who is the senior officer (outside of procurement) responsible for this contract?
1. What software you are using for your Playground management?
2. What is the annual spend on this contract?
3. What are the start date and duration of the contract?
4. Is there an extension clause in the contract and, if so, the duration of the extension?
5. Has a decision been made yet on whether the contract is being either extended or renewed?
6. Who is the senior officer (outside of procurement) responsible for this contract?
The Council does not use grounds maintenance or tree management software, however it does use an app to record play area inspections.
1.The app is provided by the Play Inspection Company
a) How many pieces of art, broadly defined, do you currently have in storage that are not on display? I use 'storage' as loosely defined too
b) Please provide the name of and price of the most expensive piece of art that is council-owned and not on display
c) Do you have any Banksy art (authenticated or not)
d) How many pieces of art have you sold since 2017-18. Please provide a breakdown for the last five full financial years
e) How much money did the council receive from the selling of this art?
b) The Torridge Valley by J.A.H Jameson, 1889, £600
Please provide your Council Licensing Register(s) for licensing schemes (Selective, Additional 254 and 257 and Mandatory)
1. What was the value of spend on temporary staff from recruitment agencies by the council in 2021-2022?
Please also ensure that a gross spend value is detailed and include all spend associated to any contract let for the management/provision of temporary staff by a contracted provider (whether Vendor neutral or Master vendor). Please ensure that all figures are provided separately by year
2. If you have a managed service provider (MSP) in place for the provision of temporary agency staff, please provide the following;
a. How was the contract to manage/provide the supply of agency/temporary staff let?
b. Who was the contract to manage/provide the supply of agency/temporary staff let to?
c. When did the contract to manage/ provide the supply of temporary/agency staff commence, how long does it run for and what is the end date?
All properties within the Billing Authority area where there is either a credit held on the account or there was previously a credit which has now been written on
The fields required are all non-personal:
The Council no longer publish the details of individual business rates credits. Following careful consideration of the ICO decision for Wandsworth Council (FS50619844) and discussions with the Council’s Revenues team which holds this data, the Council considers that the continued publication of this data would be likely to prejudice the prevention and detection of crime and therefore the Council considers that this data is now exempt from disclosure under Section 31(1)(a)
When applying this exemption, the Council is required to carry out a Public Interest Test which considers the factors that favour disclosure and the withholding of the data
Factors in favour of disclosure
• Withholding the information could be perceived as the council attempting to retain monies that belong to the public
• It is in the public interest to be open and transparent about its use of public funds
• It is also in the public interest to be transparent regarding the records held in respect of the administration of business rates. This could be of interest to the minority of people who are due a refund, but have somehow failed to receive the notifications that money is owed to them
Factors in favour of withholding
• There is a public interest in ensuring that monies from the public purse, such as rebates on business accounts, are not fraudulently claimed and also a public interest in not making it easier for fraud to be committed
• The Council’ current verification procedure for refund claims is simple and cost effective however the Council cannot be certain as to whether some claimants are who they really say they are for every refund processed. If the Council were to continue to publish this data then this would ultimately result in additional verification processes needing to be implemented by the Revenues team at additional cost to the public, which would be disproportionate to the benefits that would accrue from disclosure. The additional verification procedures would also be likely to slow the verification process, resulting in detriment to the genuine ratepayer in that it would take longer for their credit to be refunded to them
• In relation to any new verification processes that might be needed, these would be likely to require the production of additional documents by those claiming a rebate which would place a new administrative burden on the majority of those legitimate claimants that did not currently exist. This would be compounded by the fact that the level of scrutiny of those documents would be higher than at present, given the increased suspicion that some of the claims (and associated documents) might well be fraudulent. The result would be that a new verification process would be likely to slow the rate at which credit balance claims could be considered and refunded, causing delay in all refunds and the likelihood of complaints, which would further burden the Council’s limited resources
• Disclosure of the requested information would result in the need to implement disproportionate steps and additional expense to the Council to counter an increased fraud risk
The cost consequences of a successful fraudulent claim would:
• have incurred the cost of paying out to the fraudster
• remain liable to the legitimate rate payer for an equivalent amount, raising the prospect of paying out twice; and
• be faced with the cost (legal and incurrence of internal management time) of seeking to recover the funds wrongly paid to the fraudster
It would not be in the public interest to expose it to such potential costs and expenses, given that they would be funded from the public purse
It is considered that the greater public interest, therefore, lies in no longer publishing the data. In coming to that conclusion, the public interest in providing the information has been carefully weighed against any prejudice to the public interest that might arise from withholding the information; in all the circumstances of the case, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information
Instead, in accordance with Section 21 of the Act, the Council publishes a dataset which provides:
• the total amount of credit refunded
• the total amount of outstanding credit
• the number of outstanding refunds
The dataset is updated on a quarterly basis and will be due for updating again in October 2022, in accordance with Section 22 of the Act
1. Do you have a homelessness policy?
2. Has a homeless health needs audit been completed?
3. Has a local homelessness review been completed to consider health and wellbeing and the role of health services?
4. Do you provide training for those working with people experiencing homelessness in health care services e g, standards for GP receptionists in primary care and practice managers?
5. Do you have Pathways/protocols/ services in place to prevent homelessness at discharge from hospital (including mental health and on release from prison)?
6. Do you have a multidisciplinary team that works with people who are homeless?
1. Yes, a copy of North Devon Council’s Homelessness Prevention Policy is published on the Council’s website
2. No, however one is currently being undertaken by partner agencies
4. Yes the Council can/does officer bespoke training and have a set of dates in the diary to present to a number of GP practices. The Council’s Service Lead for Housing Advice, Homelessness and Temporary Accommodation attends meetings with the Social Prescribers in the North Devon area also contacts the Service Lead if they require any on spot information
5. Duty to refer and in addition good relationships/communication between hospital and physical health Nurse attached to the Outreach team. The Council has been working with North Devon District Hospital regarding a new process for discharge. Due to the impact and demands of Covid-19 this was delayed but work will resume in the coming months
6. Yes for rough sleepers and vulnerably housed. The Council’s Housing team has networks with external services such as Refuge, Social Services, Mental Health, Early Help
1.What is the name of your organisation?
2. How many employees are at your organisation?
3. How many mobile phone and mobile broadband (data only) connections do you currently have in total?
4. How many of these are data only (for laptops and tablets)?
5. How many of these are voice and data (for mobile phones)?
6. Who is your mobile phone network provider?
7. Do you have a shared data bundle or individual allowances?
8. What is your organisations average total data usage across all connections?
9. What was your total spend on mobile phone contract and overage costs in April 2021?
10. What was your total spend on mobile phone contract and overage costs in May 2021?
11. What was your total spend on mobile phone contract and overage costs in June 2021?
12. What was your total spend on mobile phone contract and overage costs in July 2021?
13. What was your total spend on mobile phone contract and overage costs in August 2021?
14. What was your total spend on mobile phone contract and overage costs in September 2021?
15. What was your total spend on mobile phone contract and overage costs in October 2021?
16. What was your total spend on mobile phone contract and overage costs in November 2021?
17. What was your total spend on mobile phone contract and overage costs in December 2021?
18. What was your total spend on mobile phone contract and overage costs in January 2022?
19. What was your total spend on mobile phone contract and overage costs in February 2022?
20. What was your total spend on mobile phone contract and overage costs in March 2022?
21. Do these numbers include VAT?
22. When did you renew your mobile phone contract?
23. How long does your contract run for?
24. What is the renewal date of your contract?
25. How did you source your contract?
26. What is the value of your hardware/technology/transformation fund provided with the contract (if none provided please mark as n/a)
27. Who is the stakeholder/primary contact for this contract?
8. Total for year August 21/22- 197.73GB
9. Unable to access data on our Online VCO portal as it only goes back to August 21
The Council can only provide details from last 12 months - did August 21/ August 22. Invoices are broken down to departments and some are monthly and some are quarterly- so a month is not a true reflection of monthly costs. Did average for the year- £12574.43- divided by 12- £1048.00 average per month
25. All information published via the Council’s Contract Register