Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council

Between 25 September and 30 November 2005 the complainant made four requests for information to Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council relating to aircraft noise resulting from aircraft movements at Robin Hood Airport Doncaster Sheffield (“RHADS”) recorded by the fixed Noise Monitoring Terminal (“NMT”) at Bawtry. DMBC refused the complainant’s requests, stating that it did not hold the requested information, because it could “only be accessed by a phone line to a third party’s computer”. The Information Commissioner’s decision is that at the time the requests were made, DMBC “held” the requested information under regulation 3(2)(a) of the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 and that DMBC failed to comply with regulation 5(1) and (2), regulation 9 and regulation 14. The Commissioner requires the council to disclose to the complainant the relevant sections of a detailed noise report relating to November 2005.