Means by which communication to be made
(1) Where, on making his request for information, the applicant expresses a preference for communication by any one or more of the following means, namely—
(a) the provision to the applicant of a copy of the information in permanent form or in another form acceptable to the applicant,
(b) the provision to the applicant of a reasonable opportunity to inspect a record containing the information, and
(c) the provision to the applicant of a digest or summary of the information in permanent form or in another form acceptable to the applicant,
the public authority shall so far as reasonably practicable give effect to that preference.
but Stephen McNamara, Head of Legal Services at Bristol City Council, maintains that we have no right to copies of Council documents and have no right to inspect Council files.
The right is there in the Act for all to see, the preference is the applicants, appears to be deliberate delaying tactics. Perhaps we should call him "Speaker of Bristol City Council", and who is that hiding behind his chair, its only the Chief Executive.
Further developments expected.
Bristol City Council has been declining to release correspondence for some time now, since some correspondence embarrassing to the head of planning and transport was released last year in fact.
ReplyDeleteVarious examples can be found here:
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/body/bristol_city_council