Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council

The complainant has requested information regarding the redevelopment of Basingstoke Leisure Park. The Commissioner’s decision is that Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council correctly relied upon regulations 12(5)(b) and 12(5)(e) to withhold some of the requested information. The Commissioner finds that the council have breached regulation 5 of the EIR in relation to one item of information however she finds, on the balance of probabilities, that it does not hold any further recorded information in scope of the request. The council changed its response at the internal review stage and in response to the Commissioner’s investigations, therefore the Commissioner finds that the council failed to issue an adequate refusal notice and thus breached Regulation 14 of the EIR. The Commissioner requires the public authority to take the following steps to ensure compliance with the legislation: disclose the stage 1 evaluation matrices.