Freedom of Information Request to Bolton Council - No 6

Local Elections – Postal Votes

From: Paul Richardson   6th January 2014

Dear Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council,

Could you provide me with the following information relating to the
Local Elections for Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council
held on 3rd May 2012.

1) The number of Postal Votes requested and issued for each of the
20 wards of the Borough.

2) The number of Postal Votes completed and returned for each of
the 20 wards of the borough.

3) The number of returned Postal Votes across the Borough subsequently
judged to be invalid

Yours faithfully,

Paul Richardson

Freedom of Information Request to Bolton Council - No 5

Area Forum Budgets

From: Paul Richardson   6 January 2014

Dear Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council,

In June 2013, the Little Lever & Darcy Lever Area Forum was advised
that the following budgets had been allocated to it covering the
years 2013 - 2015

Area Forum Flat Rate Budget - (AFB) £13,750.00
Highways Maintenance Budget - (HMB) £19,200.00
Deprivation Budget - (DB) £6,798.00

Would you please provide me with the equivalant figures for the
Area Forums of the other 19 Wards in the Borough for the same
period.

(If the AFB and HMB are identical for each ward, then just the DB
figures will suffice)

Would you please indicate on what basis the Deprivation Budgets are
calculated and identify the source data used for such calculations.

Yours faithfully,

Paul Richardson

Freedom of Information Request to Bolton Council - No 4

Grants to Main Faith Groups

From: Paul Richardson   13 December 2013

Dear Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council,

A response to a recent FOI request to yourselves informed us that
Bolton Council of Mosques received the sum of £1,142,138 in grants
from Bolton Council between 2005 and 2013 to (quote) “promote
community cohesion, neighbourhood and youth activities".

Could you please inform me of how much each of the other faith
groups (Christian, Hindu etc) received in similar grants over the
same period.

Yours faithfully,

Paul Richardson

Freedom of Information Request to Bolton Council - No 3

Adult Care Packages

From: Paul Richardson  13 December 2013

Dear Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council,

Would you please provide me with the following information in the
most up to date figures available to you.

1) The number of adults in the Borough who are in receipt of Care
Packages financed by the Council.

2) The number of Private Providers contracted by the Council to
deliver this Care.

3) The number of people who receive this care in their own homes
(excluding retirement complexes where care is provided by on-site
staff)

Yours faithfully,

Paul Richardson

Reply Received

 Dear Mr Richardson

Request for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000
 
In response to your request for information received at this office on 13
December 2013, Bolton Council is happy to supply the following
information.
 
You requested:
 
Would you please provide me with the following information in the most up
to date figures available to you.
 
1)The number of adults in the Borough who are in receipt of Care Packages
financed by the Council.

Answer: 4339 community based service users at 23/12/2013
 

2)The number of Private Providers contracted by the Council to deliver
this Care.

Answer: Bolton Council currently contracts with 252 private providers
 

3)The number of people who receive this care in their own homes (excluding
retirement complexes where care is provided by on-site staff)

Answer: 1669 service users at 23/12/2013

Freedom of Information Request to Bolton Council - No 2

Council Tax – Little Lever & Darcy Lever

From: Paul Richardson  13 December 2013

Dear Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council,

Would you please provide me with figures for the gross amount of
Council Tax due for the Ward Little Lever & Darcy lever in each of
the years 2010, 2011, 2012 & 2013.

Yours faithfully,

Paul Richardson

Reply Received

Dear Mr. Richardson,
 
Request for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000
 
In response to your request for information we have contacted the relevant
department and Bolton Council are happy to supply the following
information.
 
You requested:
 
Would you please provide me with figures for the gross amount of Council
Tax due for the Ward Little Lever & Darcy lever in each of the years 2010,
2011, 2012 & 2013.
 
Year Gross Ctax Raised
2010 £           5,512,244.33
2011 £           5,552,539.94
2012 £           5,582,350.26
2013 £           5,839,124.97
 
NB. ‘gross amount’ has been interpreted as the amount of council tax less
any discounts or exemptions – i.e.  what the total payable would be
without council tax benefit (2010, 2011 & 2012) or council tax support
(2013) applied. Council tax years run from April to March, therefore
figures provided for 2010 are those from Apr 2010 to March 2011 etc.

Freedom of Information Request to Bolton Council - No 1

 

 

Tree Preservation Order Crossley St Little Lever

From Paul Richardson   13th December 2013

Dear Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council,

Would you please provide me with a complete copy (in whatever form) of Tree Preservation Order TPO 2009 DC 23.882.

This relates to land at Crossley Street Little Lever.

Yours faithfully,

Paul Richardson

Reply Received

 Dear Mr. Richardson,

Notice of refusal issued under section 17, Freedom of Information Act 2000

  I am writing further to your request for information received at this
office on 13th December to advise you that the information you requested
is being withheld under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (“the Act”).
Under the Act, Bolton Council has a duty to supply any information it
holds on request, unless there is an exemption. It is the Council’s policy
only to apply the exemptions where there is a genuine risk of harm or
prejudice.
 
Section 17 of the Act provides that when refusing a request, Bolton
Council must provide a notice which (a) states that fact, (b) specifies
the exemption in question, and (c) states (if that would not otherwise be
apparent) why the exemption applies.
 
You requested:

Would you please provide me with a complete copy (in whatever form)of Tree
Preservation Order TPO 2009 DC 23.882. This relates to land at Crossley
Street Little Lever.
 
In this case, we consider that the exemption under section 21 of the Act
applies to this information because the information you requested is
accessible to you by other means.
 
This information is available for our planning section and is chargeable
at a fee of £26.56.  If you would like to request a copy of this TPO from
them please contact 

Bolton Council - New Homes Bonus

Letter to Bolton News (Not published)

Dear Sir,

May I be amongst the first to congratulate Bolton Council on its receipt of the latest tranche of the New Homes Bonus.

This is of course the money paid for each new property built in the Borough or each home brought back into use. For each property, it is equivelant to the national average Council Tax for that property band and is paid for each of the six years following the construction or renovation.

The purpose of this grant is to encourage the building of new homes and will help the Council achieve the necessary target of building 700 plus homes for each of the years up to 2025.

Bearing this in mind, it was puzzling that more effort was not put into achieving the building of the 88 dwellings on a plot of land in Little Lever for which planning permission had been given.

This would have produced over six years a bonus of some £600,000 plus Section 106 monies of £238,000 for that development let alone the ongoing Council Tax receipts.

Instead, in their wisdom, the Council chose to promote the more controversial £5m supermarket scheme which on completion will produce Sec 106 monies of £30,000.

Which would you have chosen?

Notwithstanding all this, I hope I am not stating the obvious by recommending that the £8.4m received so far should not be absorbed into the black hole of general Council expenditure, but be used to construct further affordable homes thus attracting even more bonuses.

At a rough estimate, using land already owned by the Council, £8.2m would build another 136 homes.

Paul Richardson

Ripon Close

Little Lever