Tireless Exeter FOIA campaigner, Alan M Dransfield, has been thrown out of his next First Tier Tribunal hearing on Contempt of Court charges. He is undaunted by this latest charge from the FTT saying it is fairly obvious to him that the ICO/DCC/FTT and the UT are in clear breach of section 77 of the FOIA 2000.
Dransfield was due to attended a rescheduled FTT 3rd retrial in London in July relating to his FOI request dating back to May 2010 for the 6 PFI schools which he still claims are unfit for purpose. In the last FTT London hearing the FTT adjourned the hearing based on “evidential gaps” from the Devon County Council. The FTT Judge also put the DCC on a cost warning.
Dransfield also suffered a serious FOI setback earlier this year when the Upper Tribunal (UT) declared his Rugby Bridge FOI request was indeed VEXATIOUS, which overturned an earlier non-vexatious decision by the FTT judge. Its most unusual for the ICO to be the driving force behind any appeal to the UT.
The FOIA Campaigner from Exeter claims there is prima facie evidence available of a wider conspiracy involving the ICO/DCC and HM Judges, who have clearly breached section 77 of the FOIA 2000 which states it is unlawful for any individual to block or obstruct a FOIA request.
The foundation of his Rugby Bridge FOIA requests was related to the Lightning Protection Standards (LPS); throughout the FOIA cases the ICO and the DCC have claimed the Rugby Bridge has state of the art lightning protection. This is a patently untrue and can be confirmed by the recent publication of the Operation Maintenance Manual (OMM) for the bridge, which confirms the Rugby Bridge has been devoid of adequate LPS since it was built in 2005. He further explained that the publication of the OMM is adequate proof the Upper Tribunal Decision was reached by an apparently perverse mindset and, possibly, a wider conspiracy.
He now awaits his application to the Court of Appeal on the Rugby Bridge Case and an Appeal to the Upper Tribunal on the PFI schools is in place.
