Wednesday 15 February 2012

A tale of two Barnets - Freedom of Information requests - ASBO's in Barnet Part 1

In this Dickensian anniversary year, we have a tale of two Barnets. We have the world of Barnet Council, in their Halcyon towers of North London Business Park and we have the rest of Barnet.I am currently researching an article on ASBO's in Barnet.

I sent two FOI requets off on the 31st January. One to Barnet Council

----- Original Message -----
From: Roger Tichborne
Sent: Tuesday, January 31, 2012 9:29 AM
Subject: Freedom of information request

Dear Freedom of Information at Barnet Council,
 
Please can you provide me with the following information for the years 2007-2011 (ie last five years)
 
a) The number of Asbos applied for on a year by year basis by Barnet Council
b) The number of Asbos granted on a year by year basis by Barnet Council
c) The number of complaints of persistent anti social behaviour complaints referred to Barnet Council
 
I would appreciate an answer ASAP.
 
Regards
Roger Tichborne
-----------------------------------------------
 
 And one to the Metropolitan Police. 

The Metropolitan Police in Barnet have responded. Here is what they said :-

TICHBORNE 2 Final Reply Borough Commander

Barnet Council also replied. This is what they said :-

From: L******, C****
To: Roger.Tichborne@btinternet.com
Sent: Monday, February 06, 2012 4:53 PM
Subject: Freedom of Information Act 2000

Dear Mr Tichborne,
 
Thank you for your request received on 31st January 2012. We are processing this request in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

I am writing to ask you to clarify the third point of your request. This is because we need further details from you in order to identify what information you are seeking.
 
Therefore I should be grateful if you would be able to further explain what you intend by 'c) The number of complaints of persistent anti social behaviour complaints referred to Barnet Council', specifically how you are defining 'persistent'.

Please note the 20 working day response period will only begin once we have received your further clarification. Please contact me if you need assistance with this.

Regards,
C***** L*******
Administration Assistant
Environment, Planning and Regeneration
London Borough of Barnet, North London Business Park, Oakleigh Road South, London N11 1NP

From: Roger Tichborne
Sent: 31 January 2012 09:30
To: Freedom of Information Act
Subject: Freedom of information request

Dear Freedom of Information at Barnet Council,

Please can you provide me with the following information for the years 2007-2011 (ie last five years)

a) The number of Asbos applied for on a year by year basis by Barnet Council
b) The number of Asbos granted on a year by year basis by Barnet Council
c) The number of complaints of persistent anti social behaviour complaints referred to Barnet Council

I would appreciate an answer ASAP.

Regards
Roger Tichborne
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Now I have redacted the name of the poor unfortunate who sent me the email as I'm sure she was "just following orders" from her bosses.  I would like to draw their attention to the answer to section D from the Metropolitan Police and particularly this sentence  - However, Section 16 of the Freedomof Information Act 2000 (the Act) places a duty on us to assist where we can   -  a section which has clearly escaped the attention of Barnet Council.

I will keep you informed of this. I would like to commend the Metropolitan Police for their prompt and helpful response. I will let you know how my complaint to the ICO against the "obstructiveness and delaying tactics" used by Barnet gets on.
Dickens wrote A Tale of Two Cities. Any price on A Tale of Two Barnets? Surely there is a book and a film in that?
 

3 comments:

Mr Mustard said...

Roger I am going to have to file a complaint with Barnet Council. Your non-answers are arriving before my non-answers about which I asked on prior dates. It's discrimination, that's what it is.

That poor junior officer. They just get put upon.

Mrs Angry said...

Ha: I can help you out with the answer to point c to LBBarnet: there will be a spike in the figures for 2009-10, mostly from me - a year and a half of hell, and literally hundreds of logged incidents. And yes, the police did their best to sort it out, while Barnet Council, who created the situation in the first place, did absolutely f*ck all until I started blogging about it - and then did their best to hide what a cock up of the whole thing they had made of it.

My life has never been the same since: and oh dear, Mrs Angry is still here ...

Morris Hickey said...

Barnet are not alone. Here in Redbridge they bury any information that they don't want to disclose - possibly because it's too embarrassing for them. And they sometimes even refuse FOI requests because of "data protection". It goes hand in hand with declining to do something on grounds of "elf ern saiftee". And by "they" and "them" I mean officers.

They have another habit too. You can ask them for information and they acknowledge your request saying that they are treating it as an FOI request. Why? Because they normally have up to 20 working days to respond to an FOI request; but the QSIs (quality of service indicators) normally require a reply within TEN working days. So by treating any request as FOI they double the time that they can take to reply. Bloody outrageous.