COUNCIL "DRAGS-FEET" ON INCINERATOR INFORMATION

4.00.00pm GMT Wed 28th Oct 2009

Steve Gilbert says Cornwall Council dragging feet on incinerator information

Steve Gilbert, the Prospective MP for St Austell & Newquay, has slammed Cornwall Council for dragging its feet in answering a Freedom of Information request on the incinerator saying "the Council's failure to be open and transparent with residents is a cause of serious concern".

On the 1st September Steve Gilbert asked Cornwall Council for copies of the all the correspondence and emails between SITA and Cornwall Council officers in the period between the application being turned-down in March and the appeal being lodged in August.

The Council is supposed to answer all requests within 20 working days but Cornwall Council has so far spent a total of 42 working days without providing the information and has, today, notified the Lib Dem candidate that it will need another 20 days to get the information.

Steve Gilbert said: "It is totally unacceptable that a request which should take a month to answer looks like it could take more than 3 months. It raises serious concerns that the Council is dragging its feet to prevent some information getting into the public domain and will lead people to ask what they are trying to hide."

"What I want to know, and what I think a lot of other people want to know, is what was said between the Council and SITA after the application was refused by the planning committee and before the appeal was lodged."