How a refused Freedom of Information request could lead to residents being shut out of local parks next year.
Two residents used FOI to ask Witherley Parish Council for meeting notes, documents and emails about the neighbourhood plan – one in February 2021 and the second in May 2021.
The parish council said most of the information requested wasn’t held and provided some information. It then relied on Section 14 vexatious in internal reviews for one request and to refuse part of one request.
The Information Commissioner said the FOI requests were actually requests under the Environmental Information Regulations. But it agreed in March 2022 that the parish council could refuse them as manifestly unreasonable.
However, a First Tier Tribunal (FTT) disagreed. In March 2023, it ordered the parish council to make fresh responses to the requests, within 20 working days. These needed to make clear whether information was held and, if it was, disclose it or apply relevant exemptions.
The requesters ended up back at the FTT complaining the parish council’s new responses at the end of March 2023 didn’t comply with the order. The new response didn’t say whether information was held or not (just talked about documents), information held wasn’t disclosed, and no exemptions were applied for information not disclosed.
The FTT ruled in May 2024 that the parish council’s responses amounted to contempt of court. It said the failure to comply with the order wasn’t intentional. However, the response showed “a casual disregard for the duties of a public authority” in relation to information rights law.
But the FTT decided not to certify the contempt to the Upper Tier Tribunal as an acceptable fresh response had since been sent.
While this was going on, all the councillors quit, except one (who was one of the requesters) in July 2023. That left the council inquorate (not enough people to make official decisions).
Despite several by-elections, the parish council ended up inquorate again in October 2024. Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council was forced to appoint three replacement councillors under emergency powers.
The tribunal judgement and the return of some councillors who had previously quit seems to be contributing to local ill-feeling.
Councillors were accused on the Witherley Facebook group of using the precept to buy stab vests. A chairperson’s statement described the claim as false. The Deputy Mayor has refused to come to council meetings due to abuse.
Now the parish council is struggling to get insurance. It’s current insurer, Zurich, won’t cover it after March 31 next year, and other insurers have declined to provide quotes.
Zurich has said the parish council is a ‘moral hazard’ due to its current councillors and the May 2024 tribunal judgement. No employers liability insurance means the parish council can’t employ anyone. No public liability insurance means the risk of big costs if someone injures themself on park equipment.
While there’s clearly a lot going on locally (predating the FOI requests), a lack of understanding about FOI and EIR seems to have made the situation worse and contributed to the insurer refusing further cover.
Homeschooling
Dozens of councils do not hold data on how many home-educated children are subject to child protection enquiries – after a damning review into the death of 10-year-old Sara Sharif warned of a lack of information sharing between services
Of 70 councils that responded to Schools Week’s freedom of information request, all were able to provide the number of home-educated children with a child protection plan in place.
But just 33 could provide data on children in home education who were subject to a protection enquiry – which is where there is an investigation into a child’s welfare. Another 33 stated that the data was not collected or held.
Not so secret
The Ministry of Defence has apologised after it accidentally leaked secret documents to The Ferret revealing it was considering Grangemouth and other sites across the UK for new arms factories.
Twelve potential locations for making explosives were mistakenly identified in emails released to The Ferret under freedom of information (FoI) law. Blacked out text which was meant to remain hidden could be uncovered simply by copying and pasting it into another document.
Sites under consideration include parts of the Grangemouth industrial complex, the Finnart oil terminal on Loch Long, and locations in Cumbria, Teesside, Northumberland, Southampton and Wales.
Tutoring
For a price that rivals tuition fees, a small but lucrative group of private consultancies promise expert guidance for students applying to Oxford and Cambridge.
The real draw for many, however, is the promise of insider access, with some firms openly advertising direct connections to current tutors who sit on the universities’ admissions panels.
Freedom of Information (FOI) requests to all Oxford undergraduate colleges revealed only two tutors declared paid work with admissions consultancies over the past three academic years.
School closures
A council has approved three school mergers after closing two schools in recent years, a Freedom of Information (FOI) request has revealed.
Documents obtained by the Local Democracy Reporting Service showed Hampshire County Council is set to merge the infant and junior campuses of schools in Gosport, Lymington and Fareham.
The council closed Hatherden Church of England Primary School, near Andover, in 2022 and Ampfield Church of England Primary School, near Romsey, in 2024, citing low pupil numbers and concerns around educational outcomes.
Street arrests
So-called ‘vagrancy’ offences are the subject of new legislation in Stormont by Justice Minister Naomi Long, who has said she is in support of repealing the laws.
Figures obtained under Freedom of Information by the Irish News show less action being taken by the police over those on the streets. The figures show that in 2024, just 7 arrests were made by the PSNI for begging offences. That figure was down from 15 in 2023, while in 2022 there were 39 arrests made.
Bailiffs
Haringey Council’s use of bailiffs has gone up for a fourth year in a row.
The data obtained by campaign group Acorn via a Freedom of Information request revealed the council referred 9,145 households to bailiff companies in 2024/25 over missed council tax payments.
The number of households referred to enforcement agencies has been steadily rising every year since 2021/22, when there were 8,048 referrals.
This is despite the council introducing an ethical debt policy in February 2021.
Malnutrition
Data obtained by FOI request from East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust showed the number of people being admitted to hospital with either malnutrition or nutritional deficiencies increased from 2,051 in the year 2020/21 to 3,879 in 2024/25.
That’s an increase of just under 90% in four years.
Rent reviews
This is a good FOI story where information not held is the story.
The Government has no means of assessing the potential impact of the Renters’ Rights Act on the rent appeals system, after confirming it does not hold data on how long the Tribunal currently takes to process and rule on rent increase challenges.
The information was disclosed in a Freedom of Information (FOI) response to David Smith, a property lawyer and partner at Spector, Constant and Williams.
Suspensions
Caerphilly County Borough Council suspended 37 employees during 2024 – 2025.
A Freedom of Information (FOI) request by Plaid Cymru also revealed that the longest suspension to the date of the request ran to 346 calendar days.
However, in its response, council officials refused to provide details of the financial impact that the suspensions had on the local authority, saying the time needed to search through records for the information would breach the cost limit.
Cleaning
A Freedom of Information request has shown the scale of gully-cleansing work carried out over the past three years by West Northamptonshire Council’s contractors, Kier.
As winter approaches this year, Chronicle and Echo submitted the request to understand how the council is keeping drains clear – which helps prevent surface flooding during heavy rain.
In practice, 9,300 gullies were cleaned in 2023 (out of 13,400 scheduled, 69 per cent), 18,000 in 2024 (out of 19,400, 93per cent), and 23,600 by 5 November 2025 – more than the 20,400 scheduled – because crews also cleared gullies that had been missed in previous years.
Energy bills
An Oxfordshire council has been accused of “overspending” on energy bills after new analysis found that it pays among the highest rates compared to other councils.
A Freedom of Information request found out of more than 400 councils, Oxfordshire County Council is paying the second highest rates for electricity at 44.1p per kWh.
Oxfordshire County Council say they heavily dispute the findings and that clear comparisons cannot be made between themselves and other councils.
Stolen tyres
Gwent Police have disputed recent reports that tyre thefts in the area have surged by 55.6 per cent between 2023 and 2024.
Tyre specialists Blackcircles submitted Freedom of Information (FOI) requests and analysed Office for National Statistics (ONS) crime data to provide a clearer picture of tyre theft hotspots and vehicle offences. The data, which outlined that Gwent saw tyre theft offences jump from 18 in 2023 to 28 in 2024, indicates the area as having one of the UK’s sharpest increases—ranking fifth among escalating regions.
However, Gwent Police have stated that their numbers are closer to seven in 2023 and 11 in 2024. They also say that the original data request from Blackcircles asked for statistics on anything with a motor, which can include e-bikes, but highlight that the figures released only refer to car tyre thefts so the data requested and released figures do not match.
Seized dogs
Hundreds of dangerous dogs have been seized by Wiltshire Police in the last five years – and that number keeps rising.
Results from a Freedom of Information request submitted to the county force show the number of dogs seized under Sections 1 or 3 of the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991 was 15 in 2020, 26 in 2021, 23 in 2022, 29 in 2023, 72 in 2024, and 97 as of November 11, 2025.
They included 89 American Pitbull Terriers, 65 XL Bully’s, 39 Crossbreeds, 38 Staffordshire Bull Terriers, 25 Staffordshire Bull Terrier Crosses, nine German Shepherds, nine Greyhounds/Lurchers/Whippets, six Rottweilers, six Pocket Bully’s, four American Bulldogs, four Border Collies, three Mastiffs, three Mastiff Crosses, three English Bull Terriers, three Akias, two AM Bully’s, one Jack Russell, and 84 other breeds.
Parking tickets
A Burnham-On-Sea street has been ranked among the worst in Somerset for drivers misusing disabled parking bays, new figures show.
Data released through a Freedom of Information request reveals that Abingdon Street in Burnham-On-Sea recorded 348 fines between 2019 and 2024, placing it third in the county for the offence.
Across Somerset, more than 10,800 fines were issued over the six-year period to drivers parking illegally in Blue Badge bays.
Parking in EV bays
A total of 161,000 fines have been slapped on drivers for misusing electric vehicle (EV) charging bays since 2020, according to new research from car retailer cinch.
The company submitted Freedom of Information (FOI) requests to all 218 upper-tier local authorities in the UK to reveal the extent of EV charging bay misuse.
Potholes (again)
Yes, there’s still loads of them. But this FOI-based press release does at least involve a few getting fixed.
Citroen obtained data about the state of the UK roads through a Freedom of Information (FOI) request issued to 424 councils across the country, enquiring about how many reported potholes in their jurisdictions were awaiting repair and found that 1-in-20 roads require immediate repair from pothole damage.
It also asked how long councils estimate it would take them to clear their entire backlog of pothole repairs. Pembrokeshire Council and Clackmannanshire Council both said they’d need a full year to get the job done, while Shropshire Council said it would take three years to clear its current backlog.
After learning all this, Citroen pledged financial support to Gateshead Council in the North East to cover one week of pothole repairs, which allowed 250 square metres of damaged carriageway to be fixed.
This is an interesting one, because there aren’t 424 councils across the UK. And there’s definitely not 424 councils responsible for roads!
I think what they may have done is use the council tax statistics to try to identify councils in England (as well as the unitary authorities in Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales).
So for a start they’ve included districts, which don’t have responsibility for highways as that one is the responsibility of county councils.
Then to get 424, I think they’ve also included combined authorities (sort of makes sense, they can be responsible for transport, but not usually directly responsible for road condition). Then they seem to have included fire authorities (but not police, obviously).
So I’m guessing this request got a lot of refusals and wasted quite a few people’s time a bit (especially whoever was collating all of these non-responses).
Money left over
Bolton had more than £1.4M left over from its budget for road repairs, a freedom of information request has shown.
The money was left over from the total of more than £7.6M that Bolton Council had allocated for road repairs over 2024/25.
But Bolton Council says that the money yet to be spent can be carried over to the next financial year.
Decorations
It’s never too early for an FOI about Christmas lights.
A Freedom of Information request has revealed how much Ipswich Borough Council spent to make the town look festive over the last four years.
The amount includes the purchasing, hiring, installation, removal, storage and maintenance of Christmas decorations.
In 2024, the amount was £77,192, which is higher than any previous year, with the council spending £61,000 in 2023, £61,066 in 2022 and £47,561 in 2021.
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