Thanet District Council

The complainant has requested copies of agreements between Thanet District Council (‘TDC’) and Brett Aggregates (‘BA’), and other information, relating to BA’s operations at the council-owned Port of Ramsgate. TDC disclosed a facilities agreement and accompanying deeds of variation, with redactions made under regulation 12(5)(e) (Confidentiality of commercial or industrial information). It said that at the time of the request it did not hold the other information specified in the request. During the Commissioner’s investigation TDC reconsidered the withheld information and it identified information in the facilities agreement which had previously been withheld under regulation 12(5)(e), which it agreed could be disclosed. The Commissioner’s decision is that regulation 12(5)(e) was applied correctly to withhold commercially confidential information in the deeds of variation and in the facilities agreement. The Commissioner is also satisfied that at the time of the request, TDC did not hold the other information specified in the request and that it was entitled to rely on regulation 12(4)(a) (Information not held) to refuse that part of the request. However, by failing to conduct an internal review of its decision within the required timescale, TDC breached regulation 11(4) of the EIR. The Commissioner requires TDC to disclose the information in the facilities agreement which it has identified to the Commissioner as not being covered by the exception at regulation 12(5)(e) of the EIR.