A member of our township sent, what Ferret believes is a simple request to Mr Alan Draper – Clerk Independent Hemsworth Town Council:
Hi,
Could you please supply me with financial information regarding the controversial gate at the Waterpark please? Who supplied it and how much, who fitted it and again how much could you please supply this info asap?
The Clerk replied with:
Can you please clarify as to which gate you refer?
Thanks,
Alan.
The member of the township responded with:
Really Mr Draper? Can you please clarify just how many gates have you recently paid for?
The Clerk replied with:
Can you please clarify as to which gate you refer?
Thanks,
Alan.
The member of the township responded with:
Mr Draper, are you really going to continue with this? You are blatantly refusing to give an answer, so now I will request it under the freedom of information act. Also, could you please forward all my unanswered emails to all the councillors please? As I believe you are being quite evasive if not obtuse.
The Clerk replied with:
Thank you for your email.
Your request will be (anonymously) reported at the next council meeting, after which a substantive response will be issued.
Regards,
Alan.
Now unless there is another gate which Ferret is unaware of, I feel the Clerk is being very obstructive in his reply.
A simple request turns into a much larger job for him due to him being uncooperative.
This is the man who has responded to another Parishioner this week and stated that the Office is 50% understaffed so don’t expect a speed reply.
Anybody would think The Clerk and The Chair – Mr Kenyon had something to hide….
Makes one wonder if that’s why very little is being posted at all by Mr Draper, is he too busy rewriting history and miraculously all the missing pieces will appear to fill the gaping holes in the accounts and agendas not forgetting the minutes and receipts and tenders and quotes and ………….give the man a break he must be exhausted, no wonder he’s always got a sweat on and a cold one at that. Good on you whoever you are, they don’t like it up em!
I seem to remember that HTC posted on their Facebook page for all complaints / criticism to be sent straight to Mr Draper, the clerk, not posted on Facebook. So I can imagine he’s pretty busy answering lots of the same questions (or avoiding them) from many of us, me included. I’m now onto day 10 of waiting for my FOI request to come through. I highly doubt it’ll be in my inbox on day 20, as they are legally obliged to ensure. Perhaps HTC and Mr Draper ought to have thought of that before trying to censor the public who elected (and can get rid of) them
It seems like any request for information is being now treated as a formal Freedom of Information request.
But, I think this is reasonable, given that the office is short staffed at the moment.
On the plus side, obtaining information via an FoI request is currently quicker than waiting for the minutes of meetings or the monthly financial report to be published!
The Council are legally required to publish certain documents and information, according to the Scheme of Publication (without the need for an FoI request). It is the primary responsibility of our HTC Clerk to carry out these legal duties by the required deadlines.
If our HTC Clerk fails to comply with these legal duties, it is the Council (especially the Council Leader) who is held accountable.
It falls under the requirements (as specified both legally and in the Code of Conduct) of “Transparency”.
So, most councils provide all this information as a matter of course.
Our Council is a rare exception. You could say it’s exceptional, ridiculously so.
Why didn’t they just stipulate the gate? Both playing games.
We still haven’t had one of the outstanding questions answered yet, I’d settle for the one about his qualifications lol
There is only one contentious gate!
Didn’t they just put a new gate way in to the waterpark off Wakefield road. Where they also removed the trees.
Perhaps Kevin needs to stipulate the gate off hoylemill road, then he may get the answer. If he puts what he did before they will come back with the same answer which gate.
If they have, they hadn’t when the request was sent. I’m sure the F.O.I will give us all the full information.
theres a gate out side coucilors house ..which i take thats what the question is …theres also a gate at top near nursing home been erected to shut park entry off both ways theres also gate on main road near bottom of hill near vale head which they started to dig but dont know why ,where they are wanting to lower the curb so that gate will be replaced no doubt ..there was a gate between the two ponds padlocked but after many complaints from the public about disabled access not to sure but think it was taken out .but yer being shifty we know what gate as been asked about they do to but play the game back …
no way am i playing games, how many controversial gates are they the answer please clarify leads me to think maybe there are many so i have stipulated which one as well as all info financially of all gates at the water park i believe mr draper is fully aware of which controversial gate i was referring to as a few members of the public have recently requested info regarding the said gate not sure if any questions have been asked of any other gate or any controversies regarding any other water park gate but hey i accept i could be wrong if so i apologize
i finally got a response after converting my simple question to a f.o.i. request i then said could you please stipulate what gate this is his response we have only purchased the one gate in the last several years i hope this clears up for scott that i was not playing games read my initial email i clearly state the controversial gate well if they have only purchased the 1 and he as received other requests as to the fitting on wakefield land n why mr eccles is keyholder i would assume this was indeed the controversial gate in question
Hi Kevin, I expect Alan knew exactly which gate you were referring as various issues relating to this were discussed recently in a Council Meeting.
However, in order to ensure he answers specific FoI questions correctly, he needs absolute clarity to ensure he doesn’t make any wrong assumptions or mistakes.
However, as there is only the one gate which you could have been referring to, I would have though, on this occasion, that it was obvious. So I agree with you that it was quite an unhelpful and frustrating initial response from Mr Draper.
The lesson I learned from your experience is to be extremely precise in the actual subject matter and your required information. Leave nothing to chance or wrong interpretation.
Unfortunately, even with this advice in mind, you still don’t always receive the information requested. It can take a few requests to uncover the hidden stuff, in my experience!
But at least it costs nothing – except time, energy and mental frustration.
Exactly. A FOI needs to be specific and exact. Enter games and it will slow you down stubbornness will slow you down. HTC Will only give what you ask for. I’ve been bitten by them many times.
I’m not getting at you Mr Conway. But you need to be specific or expect poo response in return.
Trust you now learn this lesson. I’m on your team. Go team!!
The important point that this highlights to me is that for a public servant, Draper, the senior employee at Hemsworth Town Council, to act in such an ignorant and cavalier manner he must be fully complicit with all that is going on. His role is to be impartial and deliver services and run the council following all legal requirements. Even from staffing issues and ICO complaints this is clearly not happening. And that is without going into the very questionable and serious financial workings of this council.
scott drapers just admitted he knew which gate i was referring to in an email i didn’t play games but when he said which one i thought ok if theres more than one give me a price on all of them he was /is not able to do that anyway i finally got the costings went round block to get to next door