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Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

Women’s Place - cancelled Leeds meeting

110 replies

Goldenbuzzer · 01/11/2018 13:35

Came across this FOI request regarding the cancellation of the booking - it’s been updated today.

www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/womens_place_uk_booking?nocache=incoming-1257930#incoming-1257930

As well as publishing all their emails about cancelling the booking and redrafts of the press release, Leeds council today, accidentally published the name and phone number of the person who made the original booking - since been removed. I can’t believe they actually did that...

OP posts:
AverageAvenger · 02/11/2018 13:45

It gets better. WPUK were first contacted at about 13:30 by LCC to be told the meeting had to be cancelled because THE CEILING IN THE MEETING ROOM HAD COLLAPSED and it was for health and safety reasons!

You could not make this up.

Well, LCC have.

Ereshkigal · 02/11/2018 13:47

Really?! Where is this info from?

AverageAvenger · 02/11/2018 13:49

I can’t say publicly. But councillors have been made aware.

Ereshkigal · 02/11/2018 13:50

Very interesting. Glad this is being pursued.

Anlaf · 02/11/2018 13:50

The excellent fellow who submitted the FOI has today submitted another one. I'm posting most of it here cos it's a good un:

Dear Leeds City Council,

This is a follow up FOI based on the response received to a previous FOI request Ref 22150. This is not a request for an internal review, please do not treat it as such.

Background to request 1:

In response to FOI Ref 22150. LCC states regarding a summary of an investigation carried out:

"In light of this new information, officers had to quickly consider whether allowing the group to hold its meeting at the Civic Hall would represent a significant security risk and also impact the work to tackle prejudice and promote understanding in the city."

In the appendix 1 A of emails for FOI Ref 22150

Between 1202 which if the first email in the set from CLLR Jessica Lennox until 1305 email from Tom Riordan,.

"Just to be clear we are cancelling this booking as it was booked under false pretences.
Plse make sure we have a comms line and Civic colleagues are fully briefed in case people arrive for the meeting.
T
Tom Riordan"

There is no mention of a "significant security risk", nor any discussion, or risk assessment of the situation. Between these two time spans in the email release.

This commitment to cancel was further underscored by an email sent by Tom Riordan 11 minutes later at 13:16

"After consulting the Leader and Cllr Lewis, we are cancelling the booking. I understand the event was booked without the council being aware of the nature of it until today.
Richard can provide more details and I’ve asked him to consider any safeguards we can put in place to reduce the risk of it happening again.
Best wishes
Tom"

REQUEST 1.1: Please provide any and all recorded information where discussion that holding the event could represent a significant security risk.

REQUEST 1.1 Please provide any and all recorded information where consideration to cancel the event was made regarding the potential safety and security risks to the building, its staff and users.

He's also asked for details of all other events which Leeds held which were "high risk events", and if they were cancelled etc.

Bravo!

Datun · 02/11/2018 14:01

It gets better. WPUK were first contacted at about 13:30 by LCC to be told the meeting had to be cancelled because THE CEILING IN THE MEETING ROOM HAD COLLAPSED and it was for health and safety reasons!

Dear lord.

And presumably WPUK have that email.

I can't wait to see the FOI request emails suggesting a collapsed ceiling.

ProfessoressWoland · 02/11/2018 14:02

Good work.
All that handwringing about comms line, but not one of them asks or discusses what 'bigoted' views WPUK supposedly holds.
It doesn't reflect well on Leeds, to put it mildly.

AverageAvenger · 02/11/2018 14:08

Datun - the ceiling stuff was communicated via phone calls. But my understanding is that FOI has been requested anyway.

Datun · 02/11/2018 14:12

AverageAvenger

An FOI for the invoice from the builder who repaired it?

This FOI malarkey is brilliant!

littlbrowndog · 02/11/2018 14:15

Dog- ferret- rabbit

Good job Marcus

charlestonchaplin · 02/11/2018 14:36

They wouldn't put stuff about the ceiling collapsing in an email to WPUK if it wasn't true. Even they are not that stupid. Things said on the phone can easily be denied, unless there are subsequent emails between members of staff referencing them that they thought would never see the light of day.

Datun · 02/11/2018 14:41

I'm not confident that they wouldn't put the biggest load of bollocks imaginable in an email.

Because I think that ship has already sailed.

Binglebong · 02/11/2018 15:07

Doesn't make clearwhodescribed the pictures as portraying female immigrants - WPUK or booking assistant. My money's on the booking assistant.

This could simply be a picture of women in a headscarf and talking about how some religions require seperation of males and females in certain situations. If the booking clerk then decides all women in headscarves must be immigrants it's on them, not the Booker.*

  • this is an example of what MAY have happened - not saying it did.
Ereshkigal · 02/11/2018 16:08

this is an example of what MAY have happened - not saying it did.

That's kind of what I thought might be the case too. As you say, speculation.

ProfessoressWoland · 02/11/2018 16:52

“the meeting was about women’s rights and peace and that some women can feel nervous and intimidated as a result of violence and showed her pictures which were described as portraying female immigrants.”

So LCC don't have a problem with an event discussing female immigrants' rights, but an event for all women is a no-no?
Strange.

Juells · 02/11/2018 17:52

So LCC don't have a problem with an event discussing female immigrants' rights, but an event for all women is a no-no?

Oooh good spot!

Verify2Terrify · 02/11/2018 18:37

the ceiling stuff was communicated via phone calls. But my understanding is that FOI has been requested anyway.

Are calls recorded? Cos if so, I'm fairly sure you can request copies or a transcript of the calls as part of a FOI request.

As long as whoever took the call has the date/time/number logged on their phone, along with the name of the person who called, it should be straight forward to pull the call & copy it to disc etc.

Ereshkigal · 02/11/2018 19:27

It looks like LCC do record their calls

www.sabio.co.uk/doc-downloads/371-ter-case-study-leeds-city-council.pdf

arranfan · 04/11/2018 15:54

If anyone knows the booker whose details were released, has she been contacted by LCC in line with the recommendations here? Given the concern expressed about violence and protests, I'd think this would constitute a "high risk" to the individual - if it doesn't, I'd like to know what does.

Notifications apply when there is a high risk to the private life of the affected individual. It can be assumed that if the personal data breach affects financial data, sensitive data, or data that could result in identity theft, stigmatization, or exclusion, it is considered a personal data breach that should be notified to the affected individuals.

All communications to individuals should be clear and comprehensive. This means that individuals should understand what it says and what they can do themselves to mitigate the consequences. In some countries, a copy of the communications must be provided to the data protection authority, and therefore it is very important to align the facts you provide to the individual with the facts you provide to the data protection authority. It’s also important to think about the way you want to communicate the breach, as the communication could attract unwanted media or other attention.

www.hoganlovells.com/en/publications/the-gdpr-introduces-new-notification-rules-for-personal-data-breaches

KenDoddsDadsDogsDead18 · 20/11/2018 08:57

Article on the whole fiasco. Contains a poll. Dunno if I should start a thread for this or not? Anyway here it is:

<a class="break-all" href="https://www.leeds-live.co.uk/news/leeds-news/womans-place-uk-leeds-debate-15434988.amp#click=t.co/NwcwlgyXP8" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.leeds-live.co.uk/news/leeds-news/womans-place-uk-leeds-debate-15434988.amp#click=t.co/NwcwlgyXP8

Needmoresleep · 20/11/2018 09:06

Could not see poll.

However some poor journalism, with the issue around changrs to the GRA described as:

"Changes to the Act make it easier for people to change the gender on their birth certificate"

Which makes the Womans Place Letter, which talks about womens safety, quite hard to understand.

TwistedStitch · 20/11/2018 09:12

The poll is currently 76% in WPUK's favour.

BeUpStanding · 20/11/2018 09:35

Poll is now 88% in WPUK's favour