Freedom of Information request - failure to produce documents

[ColdNeverBotheredMeAnyway]

I am involved in a planning issue with a neighbour, and wish to understand the history of the application, what may have been discussed in the past, and need to see some documentation that has been referred to by the applicant.

I submitted a request for information to our local council under the Freedom of Information Act requesting all documents pertaining to the property, including anything to do with past planning applications, anything to do with the specific planning application that I was interested in (and here I quoted the application number for the recent application), and any documents pertaining to the specific agreement that I had been told existed.

In response.. I received 4 documents.

One document was an email that appeared to be part of an email chain, the content of which was simply "Please see attached documents". There were no attached documents.

Another document was an email saying "Please give me a potted history of this site". There was no response to this request.

The other two documents pertained to an old planning application.

I complained to the council, saying that I had not received the documents i had requested. That I hadn't received anything from the department of interest for a particular matter I had requested, and nothing for the recent planning application (stated number again) that I know exists.

I received an email saying they apologised but some documents had been missed off their original response, and were attached there. The new documents (a handful of them), were again pertaining to the old planning application, and included emails discussing the specific matter that I had mentioned, but did not contain any official documents relating to it.

I still have not received any documents relating to the recent planning application. I know documents exist - there will be the application for one, and several emails that were sent to myself, as well as minutes of a recent planning hearing. So I know they exist... and presume others exist relating to the application... but I have received none of them.

Are the council breaking the law in failing to provide these after 2 requests under FOI? I intend to complain, but I'd like to know my rights...

I'm pretty sure when I needed to see planning stuff that wasn't available on the online portal I could go in and ask to see them as they are public record. FOI seems a bit sledgehammer to crack a nut.

Yep, just looked it up, if records aren't online just need to make an appointment to view. I had copies made while I was there.

Everything other than the emails would be available to download in seconds from my own council's website actually - have you tried doing that?

And yes it probably is a breach unless it is disproportionate to find the docs for them not to have supplied everything.

Yes I could have seen the live planning application.. but I'm interested in past applications, and correspondence between the applicant and the authority.

2 reasons. The permission was granted on the assertion that a particular plan was in place to manage a particular issue. We have never seen that plan and have not been offered access to it. I want to see it.

Second reason - I'm pretty sure our neighbour has lied about their intentions for the property. I want to see whether they have discussed these intentions with the council.

And now a third reason - the permission was granted, and certain conditions were set with the applicant, which they have supposedly met by sending in some monitoring details. We haven't been told what the conditions were, and I'd like to see the monitoring results to decide for myself whether they breached the condition or not.

In a nutshell - I dont' trust our neighbour. And after this appallingly sparse response failing to provide documents which I know exist - I dont trust the council either.

I can download planning applications and decisions. That's all. Nothing else is available.

If you go in they should show you the file. It's made clear when making or objecting to planning applications that all correspondence is on the public record.

Or they should just send it to me as per my request?

I can't really go in, I work full time. So I'd prefer the just email it to me. But honestly, if that's a lot of hassle they could offer to show me the file if I wanted to view it. They haven't.

Yes I could have seen the live planning application.. but I'm interested in past applications, and correspondence between the applicant and the authority.

You’re very unlikely to get those under the personal information exemption.

You’re very unlikely to get those under the personal information exemption

Ah ok, i'd like to understand what is exempt and what isn't. They have redacted names from the emails that they have sent me (which include some from the applicant), but they're all from the old application. Nothing from the recent one.

They won’t release those as they are part of a current application, I think. Can’t remember which exemption it comes under. They should have referenced their existence but stated the exemption under which they were withholding them.