Agenda item

To receive any questions from members of the public and replies thereto.

Note:   A maximum of 30 minutes is allowed for this item.

Barry Warren: Re: Agenda Item 7

Last week I forwarded a Briefing Note, with suggested questions for consideration, to all members of the Committee and copied in your Clerk. I also attached a spreadsheet for Quarter 4 which was on the public facing section of the website. I hope that you have had the opportunity to read and consider the content,because last Friday the publicly available quarterly reports had been renumbered and the Quarter 4 sheet I forwarded to you had been removed completely. I note that it is now back this afternoon.

Question 1.     Why is this please?

If one looks at the spreadsheet on line 109 Reference FOI09915 the Subject is given as ‘Willand modular housing’ and received a response within 3 days and it is shown as Full disclosure.  On line 127 is recorded a request for a Review Reference IFOR09915 the Subject is given as ‘Modular Housing’ and received a response in 20 days and is shown as a Full disclosure.

Question 2.     Why the change of Subject Heading?

Question 3.     Why is the first request shown as ‘Full’ when in fact it could not have been, as a Review was required which took 20 days to respond to?

Question 4.     Why is the review counted as a FOI request when in fact under the FOI Act 2000 it clearly states that review requests are complaints and procedures for dealing with them are laid down separately?

At your December meeting you were asked a question referring to the East Devon District Council site. On that site there is a short subject heading like that given on the MDDC site but, whenyou click on that you get a good summary of the request and the response given. MDDC still makes no such information available other than the brief Subject.

Paragraph 3.2 of the report states: “An amended disclosure log for publication via our website is being designed and will be published quarter 1 2025.”

Question 5.     In this stated era of openness and transparency, will the new Disclosure Log give information similar to that available in East Devon?

Question 6.     If the information were publicly available would it not save some information requests being made as people would be able to clearly see that the matter had already been addressed?

Question 7.     Will Scrutiny Committee please carry out a full review as originally requested on my submitted form?

The Chair explained that as the questions had not been provided in writing in the required period in advance of the meeting that a written response would be provided in 10 working days.

Paul Elstone: Re: Agenda Item 7

Question 1

Section 3.2 Future Changes says that Quote - an amended disclosure log on the website is being designed and will be published quarter 1 2025.

As a point of reference MDDC recently adopted the main body of the East Devon Council enforcement procedure in recognition of its quality. 

Similarly, the East Devon Freedom of Information reporting system is a high-quality process. It is informative. It is open. It is transparent. Something the current MDDC FOI reporting is most certainly not.

Will this Council similarly adopt the East Devon Council FOI reporting process and procedure?

Question 2 

If not, what precisely is preventing this Council from doing so?

Question 3

Re: Agenda Item 8

Last week I attended two different Parish Council Meetings.  At both meetings complaints were made about lack of enforcement in Mid Devon. In one instance there was deep frustration shown by a Council Member given the lack of enforcement action being taken against serial offenders. 

The Mid Devon public have been promised an increase in enforcement resources in order to help remedy this situation.

If I remember correctly that it even being said there were now 2 officers in the Enforcement Team

On examining the organisation charts it shows a Senior Planning Enforcement Officer reporting to the Development Manager

The Planning Enforcement Assistant is shown as reporting to the Director of Place. 

This could be seen as the Enforcement Assistant having multiple support roles and is not fully dedicated to enforcement work.  

Why does the Enforcement Assistant not report directly to the Senior Enforcement Officer?

Question 4

It is noted that the organisation charts only show role positions that they do not show numbers of personnel in each position.  As an example, just one Refuse Loader   position is shown.

This is believed to be a key omission.

What prevents this information being included in the organisation charts for the future? 

Question 5

It is noted that the organisation charts do not show positions which are vacant at the time of issue. Or is there any form of listing in the Establishment Report providing this information.

This is believed to be a key omission. 

What prevents this information being included in the organisation charts or establishment report for the future? 

The Chair explained that as the questions had not been provided in writing in the required period in advance of the meeting that a written response would be provided in 10 working days.