A lot of Freedom of Information requests are about local issues.
So this week that includes the cost of parking permits, vandalism to school signs, dead game birds and alternative names for train lines.
Many of these could have a new life slightly less locally (though the one about pheasants does need some local pheasants).
Got a tip-off on a local crime wave? Council trying to top-up the budget with rising charges for things like parking permits? What’s the background discussion to that rebrand?
Violence in schools
Violent crime in Britain’s classrooms has hit nearly 100,000 incidents in the last three years, a shocking new report reveals.
Police forces have recorded primary school pupils as young as seven bringing knives into lessons and teenagers plotting to poison or kidnap their peers.
According to a Freedom of Information (FOI) request, the worst hit areas were London where there were 11,156 reports of violent crime in schools, then the Greater Manchester area with 5,618, and West Yorkshire with 5,118, from 2021 to 2024.
Early release
A freedom of information response received by the Scottish Conservatives reveals that that only 10 victims were notified under the Scottish government’s Victim Notification Scheme about prisoners being released in recent weeks.
It was estimated that up to 390 prisoners could have been released under the latest tranche, meaning 2.5 per cent of victims appear to have been made aware of an offender being released.
E-bike fires
Fires sparked by “dangerous” e-bikes and e-scooters in London have doubled in just three years, an investigation by The Standard has found.
Injuries linked to the vehicles catching alight in the capital have also reached shockingly high levels, with 120 injuries and 3 fatalities recorded between 2022 and 2024 — more than anywhere in the country.
At least 12 people were killed in 1,048 fires — just under one a day — between 2022 and 2024, which also caused 336 injuries, data from 36 of 48 brigades in England and Wales revealed, 31 of which broke down the figures by each year.
In 2022, firefighters from 31 brigades attended at least 141 fires involving e-scooters and e-bikes, which injured 35 people. Last year that figure soared to at least 229 fires and 79 injuries.
The true numbers are expected to be higher still as eight fire services failed to respond to Freedom of Information requests. Another four refused to supply the data.
Parking permits
Not fines for once. But revenue from parking permits for residents have hit £1 million for the first time.
More than £4 million has been collected from residential parking permits in Bath and North East Somerset since 2020, a freedom of information request has revealed.
In 2020, the council collected £639,168 from the scheme. In 2021, this rose by 8% to £688,738. 2022 saw only a minor increase with £697,991 collected, but in 2023 revenues ballooned by 40% to £979,395.
Last year, revenues finally swelled to seven figures with £1,067,043 collected.
Vandalism
Road restrictions outside Hackney schools have suffered repeated attacks by vandals in recent months, leaving parents fearful for their children’s safety.
Following tip-offs from residents about “appalling criminal sabotage”, a Freedom of Information (FoI) request to Hackney Council revealed that since last June there have been 22 reported instances of criminal damage to school streets infrastructure.
Alternative train lines
London’s Overground lines got a rebrand last year, with the introduction of the Liberty, Lioness, Mildmay, Suffragette, Weaver, and Windrush lines. But what about the names that didn’t quite make the cut?
London Centric has been trying to find this out since last November after finding a note in meeting minutes that London mayor Sadiq Khan and his deputies had been presented with possible options. According to the minutes, he embraced three of them but asked TfL to “review the other half of the names and come back with more options”.
A Freedom of Information request was filed, but rejected on the unusual grounds that the information would be published imminently and needed to be presented in “context” to “ensure the information is provided accurately and in an accessible manner” (which may or may not be a legitimate use of a Section 22 exemption).
But now there’s a list of the ideas that were under consideration.
Dead pheasants
Dead pheasants were “dumped” in a bin in a Herefordshire children’s park, a freedom of information request has revealed.
The recently disclosed data revealed that between 2023 and 2025, Herefordshire Council had received six reports of “dumped” game birds during shooting seasons.
The most recent report was made on January 20, when a member of the public found the deceased animals in a children’s park bin in The Furlong, near Ross Road in the south of the city.
Filming locations
Filmmakers paid almost £62,000 to film in Watford in the last two years, a Freedom of Information request has revealed.
Watford Borough Council’s biggest filming pay day across 2023 and 2024 came with £15,000 from Jackson River Films in July 2023 when they filmed parts of Apple TV spy thriller Slow Horses around West Herts College.
Fees were also paid to the council in 2023 and 2024 for filming for a number of television series, including EastEnders (£3,874), Silent Witness (£2,935), Mr Bigstuff (£1,100) Vinnie Jones in the Country (£220) and 90 Day Fiance (£660). Companies to have filmed adverts in the borough include Samsung (£2,000) and Arriva (£1,724), while The Sidemen paid £720 in filming fees for their Food Truck Road Trip in October 2024.
Image by Nothing Ahead on Pexels
Want to send an FOI request but don’t know where to start? Or have made some requests but need help getting a response or challenging a refusal?
This guide will walk you through all you need to know.
