Westmorland and Furness Council

The complainant requested information relating to a planning application for a proposed Gasification plant submitted to Cumberland Council, but they believed to be hosted by Westmorland and Furness Council (the Council).
The Council provided guidance as to where publicly available information could be accessed and stated that regulation 13 and 12(4)(e) of the EIR applied to information withheld from the requester. However, after the Commissioners intervention, the Council overturned its reliance on regulation 12(4)(e) at internal review disclosing information in scope of the request.
The complainant raised further concerns about the Councils response, and after several months of correspondence between the requester and the Council, during the Commissioners investigation, the Council eventually relied on regulation 3(2) of the EIR as its final response.
The Commissioner’s decision is that the Council did not hold information falling within the scope of the request at the time the request was received. However, the Council breached regulation 5(2) of the EIR as it failed to provide its substantive response within 20 working days, and breached regulation 11 of the EIR by failing to conduct an internal review within 40 working days.
The Commissioner does not require any steps as a result of this decision.