Amber Valley Borough Council

The complainant requested information from Amber Valley Borough council (“the council”) relating to financial or in kind contributions made by Chevin Homes to the council and/or its councillors, including section 106 agreements and Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) payments linked to a specified planning application. The Commissioner has decided that, on the balance of probabilities, the council does not hold further recorded environmental information within scope in respect of most of the request, and that Regulation 12(4)(a) was correctly applied to those elements. However, the Commissioner finds that the council’s searches were incorrectly limited in respect of one element of the request. Where relevant information is publicly available, the council was entitled to rely on Regulation 6(1)(b). The Commissioner also finds that the council failed to comply with Regulation 11(4) of the EIR, as it did not complete its internal review within 40 working days. The Commissioner requires the council to take the following steps to ensure compliance with the legislation: To carry out further searches for relevant recorded information relating to the gifts and hospitality register element of the request, or to explain clearly why no such information could reasonably be held outside the period already searched, and to issue the complainant with a fresh response in accordance with Regulation 5(1) of the EIR.