East Devon District Council has today lost its Appeal to withhold certain documents relating to the Knowle office relocation project. The case stemmed from a Freedom of Information request (FOI) made by Jeremy Woodward, a member of Save Our Sidmouth, in February 2013.
Extraordinarily, the judge’s report contains a final paragraph that is highly critical of the public authority involved.
Under the heading Other Matters, it concludes, ‘We believe this appeal could and should have been dealt with completely at the hearing in August 2014 and the decision promulgated six months ago had the Council discharged its responsibilities properly.’
Links to the report here: 031 040515 Decision and here: 032 050515 Judge Open Directions
For main body of the report, go to: http://www.informationtribunal.gov.uk/DBFiles/Decision/i1540/East%20Devon%20District%20Council%20EA.2014.0072%20%2805.05.2015%29.pdf
A press release by SOS will be issued shortly.
Save Our Sidmouth 
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May 5, 2015 at 10:09 pm
Does this constitute malfeasance in public office by the Chief Executive? With both the Local Plan Inspector and the FOI judge being very critical of the actions of the Council, it must come pretty close to this serious offence. Time to pusue a case against him?
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