South Somerset District Council

The complainant has requested information from South Somerset District Council (“the Council”) about a specified area of land.
The Commissioner’s decision is that the Council should have considered the request in this case under the EIR rather than FOIA and accordingly it has failed to carry out a reconsideration (internal review) within 40 working days of the complainant making a complaint to it about the initial response provided. The Council has therefore breached regulation 11 of the EIR.
The Commissioner requires the Council to take the following steps to ensure compliance with the legislation.
Reconsider how it responded to the original request and inform the complainant of the outcome of that reconsideration in accordance with regulation 11 of the EIR.
The Council must take these steps within 35 calendar days of the date of this decision notice. Failure to comply may result in the Commissioner making written certification of this fact to the High Court pursuant to section 54 of the Freedom of Information Act and may be dealt with as a contempt of court.