RIVAL political parties in York have become embroiled in a row over the cost of using the Freedom Of Information Act.

City of York Council’s ruling Labour group claimed their Liberal Democrat opponents were using the Act “unnecessarily”, with three of the party’s requests costing a total of £1,000, and they could have asked for the information from officers or leading councillors.

But the Lib Dems accused council leader James Alexander of only being willing to be “transparent about things he wants people to find out” and questioned the cost of providing information the Labour group said would be freely available without making FOI requests.

Coun Alexander said the cost to the council of dealing with such requests in 2010/11, at an average of £300 a time, was almost £200,000. He said: “It appears some approach organisations with the view that the organisation is not going to co-operate from the outset, and a great deal of time of money can be saved by avoiding what is often a very costly and bureaucratic process.”

Lib Dem leader Coun Carol Runciman said: “If the information is freely available for councillors to ask for, why does it cost £300 to release the exact same information through an FOI request?

“If putting FOIs on the council website for everybody to view costs £300 a time, the council needs to take a serious look at the process.”