Royal Borough of Greenwich

The complainant submitted a request to the Royal Borough of Greenwich (the Council) seeking information about a consultation it had undertaken in relation to proposed traffic management measures in the borough. The Council provided the complainant with some of the information falling within the scope of the request but relied on section 12(1) (cost limit) of FOIA to withhold the remaining information. The complainant disputed the Council’s reliance on section 12(1) and also questioned whether it held further information falling within certain parts of his request.

The Commissioner decided that the Council should have considered this request under the EIR rather than FOIA given the subject matter of the request. However, she is satisfied that the Council can rely on regulation 12(4)(b) (manifestly unreasonable) of the EIR to refuse the parts of the request to which it had previously refused on the basis of section 12(1) of FOIA. Furthermore, the Commissioner is satisfied that the Council does not hold any further information falling within the scope of the request other than that disclosed or withheld on the basis of regulation 12(4)(b).