Amber Valley Borough Council

The complainant has requested information relating to planning approvals, enforcement and compliance monitoring from Amber Valley Borough Council (“the council”). The council refused the request on the basis that Regulations 12(4)(a), (information not held), 12(4)(b) (manifestly unreasonable request), and Regulation 13 (personal data) applied. The Commissioner’s decision is that the council was not correct to rely upon Regulation 12(4)(a) to refuse the request, however, it was entitled to refuse the entire request under Regulation 12(4)(b). As such, he has not found it necessary to consider the application of Regulation 13. He has, however, decided that the council’s response failed to comply with the requirements of Regulation 5(2) in that it did not provide its response to the request within 20 working days of the receipt of the request.  The Commissioner does not require further steps.