Ceredigion Council contravene the Freedom of Information Act and refuse to support a Wrexham to Aberystwyth bus

copies Ceredigion County Council , Aberystwyth Town Council

Ceredigion County Council contravene the Freedom of Information Act and refuse to support a Trawscymru Wrexham to Aberystwyth bus Service and Improved Trawscymru Connections in Aberystwyth

Dear Alun Williams,

You have provided 2 replies (31/07/2018 – FOI request) and (10/08/2018 – Customer Charter) dealing with my initial FOI request dated 23/03/2018..

Firstly I do not accept your sincere apologies . Your internal review has been received more than 4 months from the date of the original request (23/03/2018).. Splitting the request into FOI / non FOI is just a ruse, along with the delays in responding, which is the way Ceredigion County Council choose to avoid compliance with the FOI act.  You have been deliberately obstructive in your review of Questions 1, 5 and 6 in the same way that Gerwyn Jones was deliberately obstructive when he answered the request.   You have still not sent me a copy of the Councillor Alun Williams ( previously the Councillor for Transport) reply to the Ken Skates letter offering a “”high-level”” review of a Trawscymru T3 Wrexham to Aberystwyth route .  The statement that 2 emails regarding the T2 timetable changes from 8 months ago cannot be released because they are confidential is ridiculous .

Secondly I would point out that all the FOI requests I have made to Ceredigion County Council have been subject to similar delaying tactics, misleading statements.and refusal to supply information.  I find your apologies far from sincere.

Questions 2,3 4 7 8 9 10 11 were dealt with under the Ceredigion County Council Customer Charter.  I believe use of the  Customer Charter to be incorrect .  I note your comments (ie NO comment) in your separate Customer Charter letter to me dated 10/08/2018 regarding those questions  .  I also note that in that letter dated 10/08/2018 dealing with Ceredigion County Council Customer Charter questions, you have also included an internal review of a different request (790340) that had been dealt with under the FOI act and in relation to this different review you again use “NO comment” .  I also note that in your letter dated 10/08/2018 you also included irrelevant and completely inaccurate information regarding a letter to me said to be from the Trawscymru Strategic Management Board and you say all my future correspondence on Trawscymru matters should be addressed to that Board and should not be addressed to Ceredigion County Council . Your letter of  10/08/2018 is an attempt to close the door on all the issues that afflict the Trawscymru Network and that Ceredigion County Council do hold a level of responsibility for.    This however will not work since refusing to comply with the FOI act can result in punishment by the Information Commissioner .   The Information Commissioner will not be very happy with your friend who provided you with the irrelevant and inaccurate information regarding letters from the Trawscymru Strategic Management Board,  especially when the High Court Tribunal find that your friend has lied to the Information Commissioner on another matter.    The Information Commissioner and the High Court Tribunal will also be very unhappy when the letter you refer to is revealed to have come from the Trawscymru Network Manager and has not come from the Trawscymru Strategic Management Board . They will be doubly unhappy when the Welsh Government are revealed to have written a letter which states that responsibility for Trawscymru timetables lies with the County Council managing the particular Trawscymru service contract (Ceredigion Council manage the T1C service contract) and that this is the exact opposite of the stance Ceredigion County Council are taking in your letter dated 10/08/2018, ( ie Ceredigion County Council say changes to Trawscymru Services should be dealt with by the Trawscymru Strategic Management Board).     The Information Commissioner and the High Court Tribunal.look for evidence of  prompt , open, honest and accurate replies to FOI requests and Ceredigion County Council, like the Welsh Government, are sadly lacking in all these aspects.

As more information is revealed, which inevitably it will be, the honesty and accuracy of the replies provided in the past by Ceredigion County Council will be called into question.   As a result of recent information provided to me I shall be placing a further Freedom of Information request to Ceredigion County Council which I will cover under a separate letter.

I shall also deal with your so called review of the FOI request (Reference 790340)  titled “”Lack of Connectivity in Aberystwyth T2 from Dolgellau to T1C for Cardiff for passengers North of Aberystwyth (Reference (790340)””, which you introduced into your Customer Charter letter of 10/08/2018.   I shall deal with that review of FOI request (Reference 790340) in a separate letter since that request and your review of that request, will be dealt with as a separate issue by the Information Commissioner

In this letter I will deal solely with your review dated 31/07/2018 of the three questions that you decided you would reply to under FOIA from the 13 questions I requested on 23/03/2018…

Your review dated 31/07/2018 of the three questions

Question 1 “Could Ceredigion Council please supply me with all the emails from 01/12/2017 to 15/01/2018   between Ceredigion Council and Gwynedd, Powys, Denbighshire and Wrexham Local Authorities and the Welsh Government that relate to the discussions/consultations on the T2 timetable changes of 15/01/2018,  as described in your reply of 21/03/2018 (all consultations took place on 07/12/2017?).””

In Response to Question 1 Ceredigion County Council said they will not release 2 emails as the information on T2 timetable changes made 8 months ago was provided in confidence.  In the review of the reply you uphold that decision.  It would be helpful if you could explain to me, as the FOIA expects you to do,   why emails about bus timetable changes are confidential.     You will have to explain it to someone else if not to me.

Question 5  “”Could Ceredigion Council please supply me with a copy of the letter written by Alun Williams to Ken Skates on 24/10/2017, which I asked him to send , and which resulted in a reply from Ken Skates ,the Minister for Transport , commissioning a “high level” review of the Wrexham to Aberystwyth route.””

Gerwyn Jones said in the reply to Question 5 that Ceredigion County Council did not hold a copy of the letter.   In your review you changed the Ceredigion County Council stance and said that Ceredigion County Council did hold the letter and the letter had already been sent to me.  This was obviously not true and this should have been perfectly obvious to the reviewer, when Gerwyn Jones in his response to the request had said Ceredigion County Council did not hold a copy of the letter.   Therefore the response by Gerwyn Jones was incorrect and the review by Alun Williams is incorrect in saying that Ceredigion County Council have already sent a copy to me.  The only letter I received from Alun Williams ( AW1  Councillor for Transport)  was the Ken Skates letter dated 14/11/2017 which was received on 19/11/2017,    Your review is incorrect in stating the AW1 letter of 24/10/2017 has already been issued to me and I find your comments at the end of your review that “”we would therefore encourage you to retain documents issued to you by the Council”” to be offensive.   Ceredigion County Council should stop being obstructive in their replies to FOI requests.. However the reviewer followed up his incorrect comments by then providing a copy of the letter that I had requested.

Question 6  “”Could Ceredigion Council please supply me with a copy of the reply from Councillor Alun Williams to Ken Skates, the Transport Minister  regarding  the commissioning of a “”high level”” review to route the T3 from Wrexham to Aberystwyth instead of Barmouth,  which was promised by the Minister for Transport, Ken Skates,  to Councillor Alun Williams  on 14/11/2017 and which Ceredigion Council are now refusing to pursue “”.

Gerwyn Jones in his response to Question 6 said that I already had a copy of the reply from Councillor Alun Williams to Ken Skates.  It is perfectly obvious by reviewing the correspondence that:-

1. a) Gerwyn Jones was incorrect and I did not have a copy . I also did not say that I had a copy of AW1’s reply to Ken Skates.
2. b) I still have not received a copy of the reply from Councillor Alun Williams to Ken Skates.

As the reviewer you have just accepted Gerwyn Jones reply as the truth, which it was not, and you have then sent me a copy of the wrong letter (ie the Ken Skates letter which was the only letter that I received before the FOI request) .

Could you please, as a matter of urgency,  complete your review and supply me with a copy of the reply from Councillor Alun Williams to Ken Skates, the Transport Minister  regarding  the commissioning of a “”high level”” review to route the T3 from Wrexham to Aberystwyth instead of Barmouth,

I also suggest that you ask Gerwyn Jones to provide the evidence that Ceredigion County Council sent all 3 of these letters to me, as the Information Commissioner will no doubt ask you to provide that evidence.  .

In relation to the responses and the review of questions 1,5 and 6 Ceredigion County Council should have dealt honestly and openly with the FOI request and I am sure that the Information Commissioner will explain this to you when the Information Commissioner examines this case.    The responses and the review of questions 1,5 and 6 by Ceredigion County Council have been deliberately obstructive and inept .  The sincere apologies and comments in the review that “”we would therefore encourage you to retain documents issued to you by the Council”” are offensive.

Yours sincerely,

Dr John Mctighe

—-Original message—-
From : complaints@ceredigion.gov.uk
Date : 10/08/2018 – 16:53 (GMTST)
To : john.mct@
Subject : Response from Mr A Williams, Corporate Lead Officer for Policy and Performance

Dear Dr McTighe,

Please see the attached letter from Mr Alun Williams, Corporate Lead Officer for Policy and Performance, which is self-explanatory.

Kind regards

Complaints and FOI Team

Gwasanaeth Polisi a Pherfformiad / Policy and Performance Service

Cyngor Sir Ceredigion County Council

Canolfan Rheidol
Rhodfa Padarn
Llanbadarn Fawr
Aberystwyth
Ceredigion
SY23 3UE

01545 574151

Cwynion / Complaints

cwynion@ceredigion.llyw.cymru  / complaints@ceredigion.gov.uk

Rhyddid Gwybodaeth / Freedom of Information

rhg@ceredigion.llyw.cymru  /  foi@ceredigion.gov.uk