26th June 2018
At the Town Council meeting of the 26th June, Town Mayor Wendy Stamp said:
‘Burnham on Crouch Town Council is required by statute and convention to publish official notices relating either to actions that it has taken or may take or simply to provide information about aspects of the Council.
‘All members have received a copy of the ICO (information commission’s office) report regarding an FOI request from a resident regarding the title to the allotments and the purported transfer of land.
‘The ICO found Burnham Town Council had breached regulation 5 (2) of the EIR (Environmental Information Regulations 2004, taking longer than 20 working days to disclose the information to the complainant. The commissioner also found the Council to in breach of regulation 5 (1), a public authority that holds environmental information shall make it available on request.
‘I wish to reassure members of the public and press that BTC have reviewed existing policies, introducing new policies and procedures in line with EALC and NALC rules and regs Essex Association of Local Councils and National Association of Local Council and will continue to do so.
‘Members will also note paragraph 29 states the all Council officers should undergo training and review its management processes. I wish to state clearly that the town clerk was not in any way responsible for the way this FOI was handled from the outset in August 2017. In future all FOI requests will be processed by the town clerk not Councillors.’