Two people who made scores of Freedom of Information requests to Brighton and Hove City Council have had them turned down for being vexatious.
Both inquisitors made dozens of requests about two homes – the first about a flat which the tenant maintained was inadequately soundproofed, and the second about a damp privately-rented flat in Hove.
In the most recent case, a Ms Clapham wrote to Brighton and Hove City Council 34 times on a range of topics, all seemingly related to a basement flat in Lansdowne Place which she says is riddled with damp and mould.
She started on January 15 this year by asking if the council’s policy of giving housing priority to people with a two-year local connection is social cleansing. The council’s answer was no.
A further 33 requests then followed in the next eight weeks, on a variety of topics related to the privately-rented flat including effects of damp on asthma, housing and environmental staff training and holidays, and even asking “Is Brighton and Hove City Council above the law?”
Her requests were eventually labelled vexatious by the council, which gave as its reason: “Disproportionate or unjustified level of disruption, irritation or distress. Answering the FOI creates burden on authority due to unreasonable persistence, intransigence due to, frequent and overlapping requests.
“This request was received after over 20 previously similar requests were received in an 8 week period from the same requester on the same subject.”
The other person whose requests have been deemed vexatious wrote to the council about 20 times between October 2012 and April 2014 on a mission to find out details of to works carried out at his home in 2002, details of contractor’s qualifications and insurance policies associated with contractor’s work.
His requests continued after his case to have more work carried out was turned down by the Local Government Ombudsman.
And his appeal against his requests being turned down was also upheld by the Information Commissioner, which said: “In making his requests, the complainant is clearly endeavouring to pursue a dispute with the council on a single and essentially personal issue.
“The council has spent a significant amount of time, effort and resources in dealing with the complainant’s requests and the cumulative effects of these requests has been to require the council to go over ‘old ground’ and to spend even more time and resources on an issue which has been dealt with.”
The cases were highlighted as part of another FOI request published on the council website here.
Meanwhile, more people are using the Freedom of Information Act to find out what Brighton and Hove City Council is up to than before.
The number of requests made by members of the public, councillors and MPs to the city council has risen by 23% since 2012/13 to 1601 requests a year.
Media requests make up a sizeable chunk of these, with 109 made in 2012/13, 168 in 2013/14 and 155 in 2014/15.
But perhaps surprisingly, a small number of requests have been made by councillors themselves, three in the last financial year, one the previous year and four in 2012/13.
And MPs are also taking advantage of the legislation, using it nine times in 2014/15, 21 times in 2013/14 and 16 times in 2012/13.
However, under the Freedom of Information Act, the authority is meant to treat each request in exactly the same way, whoever made the request.
The figures – of course – were themselves revealed as a result of a Freedom of Information request which you can read on the What Do They Know website here.
