Battling for council information

12:37pm Monday 31st December 2007

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A FRUSTRATED St Albans man has been battling the district council for months to get information on a controversial mobile phone mast scheme.

Frank Hore, one of a group of residents who have been campaigning for the council to agree a large mast in Clarence Park to avoid the need for several smaller ones near their homes, made a request under the Freedom of Information Act in June.

Six months later and after a three-stage complaint process, he has still not seen the documents he requested, and the authority has only just agreed to reconsider its initial decision that they were covered by legal exemptions.

Mr Hore says the authority has missed its own deadlines for dealing with all three stages of his complaint, and the final response came nearly a month after a written apology for the ongoing delays.

He said: "The complaints procedure is overloaded 'due to high workload' and the council is unable to meet its own deadlines for investigating complaints.

"I'd certainly like to know why this is - too many complaints?

"In their letter to me they have even mis-stated the request I made.

"They have totally messed up."

Asked about the delays, a council spokesman said she could not comment as the matter was confidential, but a final response had been sent to Mr Hore on December 18.