Blogs entitled ‘Wuthering Moors’ form a series of articles about the Walshaw Moor Estate and its relationship with Natural England and Defra.
Dear Defra
I understand that you have sent your response to the EU Commission following the complaint by the RSPB about the way that matters at Walshaw Moor were handled by Natural England and Defra.
Please send me a copy of your response as this is a matter of public interest and cannot be regarded as confidential.
This request is made under the terms of the Environmental Information Regulations and under the Freedom of Information Act. Please send your response to my email address within 7 working days there is no excuse for any delay.
[registration_form]
Is it possible for DEFRA to email smoke and mirrors to you Mark? This is going to have to be a great response to get them out of this hole.
I’m waiting with bated breath – but definately not held breath, as I fear I’d be dead before we knew the outcome. The experieince from the forest sales fiasco is that Defra have given up on FOI – they refused to release almost any information on their liasons with conservation bodies over what forests they wanted to take over and nothing whatsoever emerged about their rumoured fishing trips to sell our forests to North Amercican logging companies.
Assuming you won’t get the information you’re seeking Mark and also assuming (as it doesn’t say either way in the blog post) you made the request yourself can I recommend another approach to getting the information….
I had to gain access under the data protection act some years ago, this was being done in conjunstion with an animal charity, so it was blatantly an above board request, however we kept/I getting denied the info/stats etc until someone pointed out that within the act was a “quirk” that meant the people holding onto the data could refuse access unless that request was made formally from a solictor/barrister (who could vouch to your ID etc) and in extreme cases a judge, after 6 denials then finally £60 solicitors fees we got the data….I was wonering if a similar quirk is written into the FOI act…
I’m not sure you will get what you want Mark but as Defra/NE are spending a considerable amount of tax payers money on this moor that they are allowing to be ruined for so called sport by a very rich man who owns Boundary Mills( I’ve forgotten his name) I think we all have a perfect right to see this information.
Richard Bannister – he even has a chipy and restaurant named after him at his stores (not that I visit them on principle). I’m sure if all this comes out in the wider public arena, what would M&S think about their association with his stores? Maybe worth asking them Mark?
You could ask the Commission to release it if Defra won’t.
There is no requirement for an FOI request to be made by a lawyer. However there are various exemptions which might apply or be claimed. I’m not sure what those might be, but perhaps they might try s31 on legal proceedings? And more narrowly, FOI defers to EIR so it is sort of either/or. I’m no expert but I know some who are, so keep us briefed.
Any news Mark on this request? Did you even get an acknowledgement?