Lambeth London Borough Council

The complainant has requested copies of correspondence relating to the development of a particular property, Keybridge House, as well as information regarding plans proposed by Transport for London (TfL) for the Kennington Green and Kennington Park sites. The London Borough of Lambeth (the Council) considered that the task of complying with the requests meant they were manifestly unreasonable and therefore engaged the regulation 12(4)(b) exception in the EIR. With regard to the public interest test, the Council found that the balance of the public interest favoured maintaining the exception because of the resources that would need to be expended on complying with the requests. The Commissioner’s decision is that the Council has failed to support the application of regulation 12(4)(b) of the EIR. He therefore requires the Council to issue a fresh response to the requests in accordance with the EIR that does not make reference to this exception. The public authority must take these steps within 35 calendar days of the date of this decision notice. Failure to comply may result in the Commissioner making written certification of this fact to the High Court pursuant to section 54 of the Act and may be dealt with as a contempt of court.