City of York Council ‘has no information’ about botched road repairs in Tranby Avenue, Osbaldwick

9:37am Thursday 4th October 2012 in News

Residents of Tranby Avenue and the botched repairs Residents of Tranby Avenue and the botched repairs

YORK council chiefs say they no longer have any correspondence about a botched roadworks project that will cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of pounds to put right.

City of York Council says it holds no information about the 2006 resurfacing scheme in Tranby Avenue, Osbaldwick, which went badly wrong.

Local councillor Mark Warters, who says he submitted Freedom of Information requests after asking in vain for a report into the matter, yesterday claimed the lack of information was “incredible” and pledged not to let things rest.

Coun Warters requested all correspondence relating to the project, including internal officers’ communication and correspondence with contractors, but was met with the response: “No information held.”

He says he got the same reply with a request for an officers’ report on the trial and a report signing off the works, and also with a request for correspondence “specifically to ascertain who authorised the 2006 scheme”.

He said yesterday: “I want this information so I can help ensure such a botched scheme doesn’t happen again in York, as I believe the total cost to taxpayers of putting this right could come to three quarters of a million pounds.”

Asked why the authority held no information, Roger Ranson, assistant director of highways, said: “We can confirm that a Freedom of Information response was sent to Coun Warters regarding Tranby Avenue and that this was in accordance with FOI policies and procedures.”

Coun Warters said residents were also very unhappy about how long it was taking to repair the road, following the failed project, which involved cracking the underlying concrete bays and recoating with tarmac.

One resident, Chris Caulfield, said: “The sinking road and potholes are getting worse and worse.

“After rain, water sits in the dips and potholes, and elderly residents are being soaked by traffic going past. This is an absolute disgrace.”

Mr Ranson said £100,000 had been allocated in February’s budget to resurface Tranby Avenue, and in addition to this, a further £75,000 had been bought forward from the 2013/14 budget for works to be carried out this year.

A further £100,000 had also been provisionally earmarked in next year’s budget.

“City of York Council will carry out resurfacing works in the new year after the gas board have completed their utilities works on Tranby Avenue at end of this year,” he said.

Comments(16)

again says...
10:09am Thu 4 Oct 12

Surely they must have the correspondence in such a case?

Not to do so must at best be inept?

Who is the Director of Highways?

What does he/she have to say?

The Council website seems very coy about their senior staff but shouldn't they have a higher public profile?

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peterstreet says...
10:12am Thu 4 Oct 12

"Asked why the authority held no information, Roger Ranson, assistant director of highways, said: “We can confirm that a Freedom of Information response was sent to Coun Warters regarding Tranby Avenue and that this was in accordance with FOI policies and procedures.”
What an absolutely arrogant reply from a senior council officer! assistant director eh! I hope councillors tke special note and mr assistant director gets no further. Now then Mr Ranson, may we have a proper answer!

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Pete the Brickie says...
10:19am Thu 4 Oct 12

This will be an uphill struggle for Councillor Waters, Councils and their partner organisations know every dodge in the book to avoid these requests.

I'd re-word the request to ask for copies of orders placed, invoices, site and progress meeting minutes and quotations. They are avoiding the previous request on the grounds that ongoing communication while the contract was ongoing was verbal or from individual's email accounts which can be deleted. The above documents must be held and will provide some answers although they will still protect individuals by blacking out any reference to their name on "privacy grounds".

If you want a real laugh though send one to North Yorkshire Police, some of their answers could be used for a quality stand up routine.

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peterstreet says...
12:15pm Thu 4 Oct 12

sweet! pete! no not you personally!

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meme says...
3:56pm Thu 4 Oct 12

When I have used FOI requests from Council where they don't want to answer they either say they don't have it or its priviliged information...They know all the avoidance tricks and are possibly the worst bunch of officers etc that i have ever dealt with anywhere in the country

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greenmonkey says...
5:12pm Thu 4 Oct 12

Sound advice from Pete the brickie. Financial records have to be retained for auditors etc My experience with FoI is that they try to fob you off with minimal numbers of irrelevant documents - you have to be very specific eg emails,letters contracts etc between x and y during the period month and year to month and year.

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Andy1675 says...
5:48pm Thu 4 Oct 12

Usual CYC BS!

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carl19692 says...
5:51pm Thu 4 Oct 12

I too have been fobbed off by the council with regard to FOI requests... same excuse no information held!

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Even AndyD says...
6:49pm Thu 4 Oct 12

All these FOIA requests must cost the taxpayer a fortune. York Press alone must cost us a few grand a month. Mind you, without them, we'd not know that 'the police spent money on uniforms' or that council employees sometimes used Facebook. Goodness me, how did we ever survive before 2003?

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Pete the Brickie says...
7:27pm Thu 4 Oct 12

Even AndyD wrote:
All these FOIA requests must cost the taxpayer a fortune. York Press alone must cost us a few grand a month. Mind you, without them, we'd not know that 'the police spent money on uniforms' or that council employees sometimes used Facebook. Goodness me, how did we ever survive before 2003?
I'd disagree, it doesn't cost us any extra, the council, police etc wouldn't employ a single person less if FOI requests were to be stopped tomorrow, they would simply have less to do. I also like you however think that we, the Press included seldom discover anything useful from them.

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Even AndyD says...
7:53pm Thu 4 Oct 12

I don't think you can say that. They take man hours (woman hours) to reply to. Okay - you can say those people are employed anyway, but you can apply that to anything. It is still employees on taxpayer time and for local govt requests of less than £450 (value time) - it is free to the person requesting.

I've no problem with the Council being accountable. I have a problem with a valid piece of legislation being abused by trivialities, point scoring and Press reporters wanting an easy life.

I suspect there is a good article to be had on FOI requests in York and how they are used. Blair is quoted as saying that FOI was one of the biggest mistakes he made. Sounds good material to me.

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welf_man says...
8:16pm Thu 4 Oct 12

The first question I would ask is whether the Council keeps records for longer than the standard 6 years.

Second question is whether Mr. Ranson actually said more than that, but the Press chose to use only part of the quote. This has happened to me several times (not by this paper, admittedly) and it's extremely annoying!

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bob the builder says...
8:18pm Thu 4 Oct 12

It's time this country was run by the people not by the minority looking after their own interests. We should take a leaf out of the Arab world book and take to the streets, well, we could if they were safe to walk on!

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Even AndyD says...
8:40pm Thu 4 Oct 12

Power corrupts, Bob. One of the few consistent messages history sends us. Study the French Revolution and you will see that today's revolutionary mob, were tomorrow's pampered ruling class.
As we 'speak' the pope is prosecuting his butler! His butler for heaven's sake? The man of God has a butler. Meanwhile we have Cameron's crocodile tears for cerebral palsy children when he is cutting DLA to the bone. But on the other hand we have Labour's champagne socialists and whatever the Lib Dems decide they want to be this week.
The older I get, the more disgusted I get with politics, the whole lot of them.

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piaggio1 says...
10:58pm Thu 4 Oct 12

AHHH ,the same council who have employee,s?? who are connected to a certain church/religion.....
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........no,no no no stop it . ,can,t say owt else,but it will all come out in the end

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oldgoat says...
11:08am Fri 5 Oct 12

Pete the Brickie wrote:
Even AndyD wrote:
All these FOIA requests must cost the taxpayer a fortune. York Press alone must cost us a few grand a month. Mind you, without them, we'd not know that 'the police spent money on uniforms' or that council employees sometimes used Facebook. Goodness me, how did we ever survive before 2003?
I'd disagree, it doesn't cost us any extra, the council, police etc wouldn't employ a single person less if FOI requests were to be stopped tomorrow, they would simply have less to do. I also like you however think that we, the Press included seldom discover anything useful from them.
Isn't that the point though?
Say a request is going to take a few hours to assemble. That's a day's work lost on other things for someone.

There is nothing wrong with FOI requests where there is valid concern, like this, but as AndyD says, rubbish about how much time is spent on Facebook, without any context or (frankly) technical understanding by the Press, is a waste of people's time, both preparing and reading the thing.

FOI was a well intentioned tool, but give some people the excuse to misuse something, and they will!

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