Bramber Parish Council

The complainant has requested information relating to the development of a draft Neighbourhood District Plan (NDP) by Steyning, Wiston, Ashurst and Bramber Parish Councils (SWAB), a cluster of four parish councils which worked together to produce the plan. The cluster eventually broke up with the NDP partially completed. The complainant asked the council for information relating to the development of the SWAB Plan. The council argues that it holds no further information beyond that which it has already disclosed or which is publicly available from the SWAB website. The Commissioner’s decision is that on a balance of probabilities the council was correct to state that no further information is held. She has however decided that the council did not comply with Regulation 5(2) in that it did not provide a copy of the SWAB NDP to the complainant within 20 working days, for the reasons outlined later within this decision notice.  The Commissioner does not require the council to take any steps.