Sunderland City Council

The complainant has requested breakdown of costs and a total figure of money spent to produce Sunderland Seafront Regeneration Strategy and Marine Walk Masterplan. Sunderland City Council (the “Council”) initially considered the information to be caught by the Environmental Information Regulations (“EIR”) and refused to provide the information on the grounds that the request was manifestly unreasonable (EIR Regulation 12(4)(b). During the course of the Commissioner’s investigation, it argued that the information was not environmental but that it could rely on section 12 (Cost of compliance) of the FOIA as its basis for refusal. The Commissioner’s decision is that the Council can rely on section 12 as its basis for refusing the request. No steps are required.