Political blog, July 15: Schools' FOI confusion and more on allowances
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I blogged earlier this
week about KCC's record on dealing with Freedom of
Information requests, suggesting its record is, in many respects, pretty reasonable,
with a few well-publicised exceptions,
very often involving the media.
However, the council has managed to sow some confusion among its
schools in relation to a request several have received from a
national newspaper.
Finding out that certain schools had been requested details of
overseas trips taken by staff, KCC sent out a note to all
its schools advising them how to respond - and to be fair,
indicating that they should provide the information sought as there
was no legitimate reason why it could be withheld.
The confusion began because the the email went to schools,
regardless of whether they had received the request, prompting
several to begin drawing up and collating the information they
mistakenly thought they had to provide.
Realising that the newspaper might inadvertently end up with
rather more information than they had expected, KCC was forced to
send out another stating that "if you DID NOT receive a
request..you DO NOT need to respond."
Shame!
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The Kent Highways Advisory Board is no more - long live the
Environment,
Highways and Waste Policy Overview Committee.
Yes, tomorrow will witness the first meeting of this new
backbench scrutiny committee, whose job is to examine anything to
do with, well, the environment, highways and waste. That's a pretty
large brief by any standards and those who may have doubts that a
single committee is capable of keeping a watching eye on these
areas will not be terribly reassured by the agenda for the meeting.
Weighing in at a massive 377 pages - (that's a
good summer holiday novel), there are 27 items
listed for deliberation.
It will be interesting to see how long some of these items get
debated for.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
After the row over the allowances hike for county councillors
comes reports that members of the Kent and Medway Fire Authority
are to have their own level of allowances reviewed.
Last year, the 25 members - 21 from KCC and 4 from Medway
Council - received a basic allowance of £1,145, with the chairman
getting £18,003 and the vice-chairman receiving £7,200.44.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Ann
Widdecombe will be taking to the airwaves over the summer but
sadly her trenchant views and presentational skills will not be
heard across Kent.
The Maidstone and Weald MP has signed up for a brief stint with
the London-based LBC station for
two weeks in August for the live phone-in slot between 10am and
1pm.
Wednesday, July 15 2009
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