Cheshire East Council

The complainant has requested information relating to plans to develop a theme park, ‘BeWILDerwood’ on part of Tatton Park in Cheshire. The council provided some information but withheld other information on the basis that the exception in Regulation 12(5)(b) (course of justice) and 12(5)(e) (commercial confidentiality) and Regulation 12(4)(a) (information not held) applied. The Commissioner’s decision is that the council has correctly applied Regulations 12(5)(b) and 12(5)(e) to the information in this case, and that the balance of the public interest rests in favour of the exceptions being maintained. As regards the council’s application of Regulation 12(4)(a), he considers that the request to which this was applied was ambiguous. The council considered that it referred to information which it did not hold, whereas the Commissioner considers that in reality it does encompass information which is held by the authority. However, although Regulation 12(4)(a) was not therefore applied correctly the Commissioner considers that this information is exempt from disclosure by virtue of Regulation 12(5)(e).