Suffolk County Council

The complainant has requested information held by Suffolk County Council (“the Council”) on a potential bypass for Sudbury. The complainant requested correspondence between various parties including the consultants charged with proposing the bypass route. The Council provided some information to the complainant and initially stated the majority of information was being withheld under regulations 12(4)(d) and (e) of the EIR; later amending its response to refuse the request as manifestly unreasonable under regulation 12(4)(b). The Commissioner’s decision is that the Council has failed to demonstrate that complying with the request would be manifestly unreasonable in all the circumstances of the case.  The Commissioner requires the public authority to identify the information it holds within the scope of the request and issue a fresh response that does not rely on regulation 12(4)(b).