Quick wording help needed - want to find out where our local Council is spending the money...

[CuddlyNemesis]

Hope someone can help me quickly! My neighbours (who are mostly elderly) and I want to get a breakdown of where our local council is spending their money (the online annual report is very vague!) as they are refusing residents' requests for repairing potholes, etc... Is it something to do with the freedom of information act? If anyone can give me a couple of lines with the correct wording I'd really appreciate it as I'd like to send an email to them today...

[prh47bridge]

Have you tried looking around the council's website? You will almost certainly find a detailed budget there. If not, just say you are making a Freedom of Information request for the following information, then list exactly what you want.

[CuddlyNemesis]

Thank you... I've looked for the info online, and apart from the very vague annual report, there's nothing else...

I just want a breakdown on all money received and exactly where it's been spent, but I want to word that sentence in a better way!

Thanks again.

[sneezecakesmum]

Our council sends us a breakdown each year. Things like police, our local parrish council, services etc. tbh my eyes glaze over instantly and it goes in the recycling bin, but it says quite a few things. Not noticed potholes, but I think road maintainence [chmm]
Contact the council at the council offices and ask them for a breakdown, ours are usually quite helpful.

[ivykaty44]

Do you want pot holes repaired - as you can report potholes through the CTC website and then the council really need to act as if soemone then hits a pot hole with a front wheel for example after 7 days and the pot hole has been reported the council can be sued for damages. If so let me know and I will send you a link to the site

Or do you really want a whole expenditure of the councisl budget - really truely? You can do this by finding out how many directorits there are - usually around 4- 5 and then email the cheif of each one ask for a breakdown on the budget, just say you would liek the answer in 20 working days and if they are unsure of how to procceed just hand it to their own FOI officer

[ivykaty44]

fill that hole

[ivykaty44]

ipothole

[ivykaty44]

fixmystreet for lighting, pot holes overgrown bushes...

[MainlyMaynie]

You have a statutory right to inspect the Council's full accounts, though the 2010-11 ones may not be prepared yet. You'll need to go to the Council's offices to do that. Details of how will be on the Council website. If you just want to know about pothole spending you can submit an FOI request asking for it, the FOI officer email address will be on their website too. I'm not sure why you think this will be helpful though. Councils simply don't have enough money to fix all the potholes created over the last two winters.

[sneezecakesmum]

The govt said it would be releasing additional money to councils to help repair the millions of potholes so they should not wriggle out of their responsibility to repair them. Our roads are more cratered than the moon!

[MainlyMaynie]

£100 million across the country alongside a massive cut in overall budgets. Works out at not very many pot holes fixed per council area. Unfortunately local road networks across the country need serious amounts of investment and no-one has the money at the minute. Well, no-one's had it for years really which is why so much investment is needed now. A previous fund which was going to offer some opportunities to invest more was cut to fund the Olympics...

[LoopyLoopsNincompoop]

Usually, roads come under County council, some things road-wise will be parish council, rarely will roads be to do with your district council. Do you have the details for each?

[Acekicker]

"all the money received and exactly where it's been spent" will probably be too vague to get a decent answer - 'exactly' could mean down to the Ryman's invoices for printer paper, expenses for soap, the cost of the sani-bin rental for the ladies loos etc .

You should be able to see all the money received by looking at the council's accounts on line. The budget and/or accounts will also show you broadly where the money goes - if you want more specifics then tailor your request around those 'eg of the £650,000 for Highways, please specify specifically how much was spent on each of gritting, road repairs and verge trimming'. You could also ask how much they have received (and have budgeted to receive) under the additional pothole money the govt is supposed to be providing.

Any request for information covered by the FOI (which this sounds like) has to automatically be treated as an FOI request so don't worry about saying 'under the terms of the FOI etc...'.

Have you thought about contacting your local councillor directly? A good councillor should be willing to help and provide information...