Email sent – Wed 10/12/2008 18:36
Dear Ms Naven
This is raising more questions than it answers. What if the vexatious council taxpayer is proved to be right by external agencies? Then she or he was correct to continue questioning and we have to acknowledge that people who have something to hide don’t want to be questioned about it.
Take me for example – as I point out to my husband I am always right. I was right in that John Schulz had to publicly apologise to me in the Express, I was right in the Harcourt Street contamination was not carried out sufficiently – the Environment Agency have demanded more investigations. I was right when I got 22 lorry loads of contaminated waste removed from the Trident Foams site. The council had to apologise when they didn’t tell the Environment Agency until three days before the planning meeting about the school they are proposing to build on a still gassing toxic waste dump and I had a hand in exposing that, the Department for Children’s Schools and Families laywers are worried that SMBC did not consider the human rights of local residents at Harcourt Street, which I pointed out, I will be shown to be right about the waste of millions of pounds at Harcourt Street and I have the backing of hundreds and hundreds of local people, as I have repeatedly shown. So you see, independent review by a senior council officer doesn’t really cut the mustard does it?
I look forward to your comments.
Kind regards
Sheila
—– Original Message —–
From: FOI Officer
To: sheilaoliver
Cc: FOI Officer
Sent: Wednesday, December 10, 2008 5:23 PM
Subject: RE: Banned council taxpayers – Ref 1379 – Additional response
Dear Mrs Oliver,
I am writing further to your additional request for information below.
Please find attached the Council’s ‘Policy on unacceptable actions by complainants’. You may also find the information at the following link helpful:
http://www.everychildmatters.gov.uk/_files/09CC656B2B98A12A9905CAADA055ACAA
This takes you to ‘Getting the Best from Complaints – Social Care Complaints for Children, Young People and Others’. This is guidance which supports the Regulations governing children’s complaints and in Annexes 4 and 5, pages 45/49 it outlines actions that may be considered by Councils in dealing with persistent, unreasonably persistent complainants and on unacceptable behaviour.
Yours sincerely,
Claire Naven
Claire Naven
Data Protection & Freedom of Information Officer
Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council
From: sheilaoliver [mailto:sheilaoliver@ntlworld.com]
Sent: 09 December 2008 21:40
To: FOI Officer
Cc: Peter Devine
Subject: Re: Banned council taxpayers – Ref 1379 – Response
Dear Ms Naven
Thanks for your reply. We will ignore the housing people, but I appreciate they too might be simply trying to get through the brick wall of the Council’s complaints procedure.
I am a bit mystified as to how SMBC can have banned people from communicating with the Council and from entering all Council properties (excluding schools) if you don’t know who they are, or am I missing something here?
What I suspect is that over the decades SMBC has banned possibly hundreds of people with legitimate concerns and has never troubled to un-ban them. Where this leaves SMBC with its current vexatious complaints protocol is anyone’s guess. Could you send me a copy? Many thanks if you can.
I need to have a big think about all this.
Kind regards
Sheila
—– Original Message —–
From: FOI Officer
To: sheilaoliver
Cc: FOI Officer
Sent: Tuesday, December 09, 2008 4:43 PM
Subject: RE: Banned council taxpayers – Ref 1379 – Response
Dear Mrs Oliver,
I am writing in response to your request for information below (ref 1379). I apologise for the delay.
You have not defined ‘…currently banned council taxpayers…’ in a way which enables us to respond fully to your request. We cannot comment on or make reference to any individual cases in our response. Information which relates to and identifies living individuals is personal data as defined by the Data Protection Act 1998. The disclosure of personal data under these circumstances would be unfair and would contravene the first data protection principle; therefore it is exempt under section 40 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOI Act).
Your subjective statement could clearly incorporate a large number of different circumstances for different people; therefore when considering your request, we have defined this as relating to instances where the Council:
o has barred all forms of communication from an individual and banned them from all Council premises (excluding schools); or
o has taken other action that might, for instance, allow conditional access to premises e.g. with prior arrangements/agreement with appropriate personnel but still continue to allow communication.
With the above in mind, our response is below:
There is no central Council ‘register’ of people who fall into the above categories. If we were to attempt to provide this information, it would involve substantial amounts of work and investigation to compile information in a format not currently held. If restrictions such as those above are in place, these are likely to be done on a case-by-case basis, the details of which will be contained within individual correspondence and/or complaint files. To provide this information would require every individual team and service to read through all files which may be relevant to see if any individual falls within the above category. This also means that any figure provided has the potential to be inaccurate. Such a substantial exercise is likely to exceed the ‘appropriate limit’ of £450 i.e. 18 hours’ work (s.12 FOI Act).
In addition to the above, the Council currently has six injunctions in force which ban people from Council buildings. These are all Housing injunctions where the conduct of an individual:
a. is capable of causing nuisance or annoyance to a specified person (resident of a housing estate/member of staff); and
b. directly or indirectly relates to or affects the housing management functions of a relevant landlord.
We are unable to provide any further information in relation to your request in its current form.
If you are unhappy with the way we have handled your request you are entitled to ask for an internal review. Any internal review will be carried out by a senior member of staff who was not involved with your original request. To ask for an internal review, contact foi.officer@stockport.gov.uk in the first instance.
If you are unhappy with the outcome of any internal review, you are entitled to complain to the Information Commissioner. To do so, contact:
Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
01625 545 745
Yours sincerely,
Claire Naven
Claire Naven
Data Protection & Freedom of Information Officer
Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council
From: sheilaoliver [mailto:sheilaoliver@ntlworld.com]
Sent: 04 November 2008 18:35
To: FOI Officer
Subject: Re: Banned council taxpayers – Ref 1379
Dear Ms Naven
Thanks for your reply. I am happy to discuss how we deal with this one – I am always willing to oblige.
For example, I presume people are banned because they present a real danger to council employees and maybe the fabric of buildings, and not simply because they are asking questions that might embarrass the Council. So, there must be a list somewhere of currently banned people, in case they turn up so the security staff can be vigilant. There should be some system, in such a well-run council, of rescinding these bans – or do they always last a lifetime? I know, please let me see the written protocol for this.
Shall we say all currently banned council taxpayers who are prevented from entering council buildings in the way it was employed against – plucking a name at random – Mr. Parnell? I am not interested in schools or colleges, as I can see there might be genuine reasons for banning people from them.
If we are talking about huge numbers here, I am happy to re-define my request. If we are talking about huge numbers here, there is something very wrong.
Lots of love
Sheila
—– Original Message —–
From: FOI Officer
To: sheilaoliver
Cc: FOI Officer
Sent: Tuesday, November 04, 2008 4:43 PM
Subject: RE: Banned council taxpayers – Ref 1379
Dear Mrs Oliver,
I am writing in response to your request for information below (ref 1379).
We are unable to respond to your request in its current form; however if you are able to refine your request we may be able to provide some relevant information. For example: How do you define ‘banned’? This could include those where the Council has withdrawn its permission for them to enter certain buildings; it could also include those who are excluded by the terms of an injunction or those who have entered into an undertaking not to enter Council buildings. Similarly, how do you define ‘Council building’? This could include civic buildings, Council offices, schools, housing offices etc. You have also not specified a time-period to which your request relates. Consequently, your request could incorporate a vast amount of records and circumstances which means we cannot answer it as it currently stands.
If you are able to refine your request, please do so. If we do not receive this clarification within 20 working days we will assume you no longer wish to proceed and will close your case.
Yours sincerely,
Claire Naven
Claire Naven
Data Protection & Freedom of Information Officer
Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council
From: sheilaoliver [mailto:sheilaoliver@ntlworld.com]
Sent: 08 October 2008 20:35
To: FOI Officer
Subject: Banned council taxpayers
Dear Ms Naven
Please may I know under the FOIA how many council taxpayers have now been banned from council buildings by this Kafkaesque council? I believe the lovely grandma with the autistic grandchild has been banned as well as Mr. Parnell. Are there any more?
Lots of love
Sheila
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