Email Sent: Friday, August 01, 2014 6:23 AM
Dear Mr Bradshaw
The Devon County Council has recently released cost information for my
FOI cases since 2010. They claim they have spent £22,200 on legal costs and travel
expenses, but do not include man-hours for dealing with my complaints.
Firstly, I do not believe these recently-released figures and would
envisage their costs to be much higher. Secondly, I don’t accept the DCC should
have incurred a single penny costs because the information I sought from them on
the PFI schools and the Exeter Chiefs Bridge could and should have been
released without cost under the FOIA 2000.
As you are aware, both case continue – the Rugby Bridge is due for a Court
of Appeal retrial later this year and the PFI schools is still before the Upper
Tribunal; hence further cost impact on the public purse. The £20k costs could
double before the end of the year
Moreover and more importantly, these costs do not appear in the DCC audit
report records – hence they are fudging legal cost records.
I call upon my MP to write to the CEO of the DCC seeking clarification as to why
they have incurred such costs in the first place and why they continue to accrue such
costs, and please ask them why such costs are not included in their annual audit
reports?
With thanks
Yours sincerely
Alan M Dransfield
