Andrew Dismore

PRESS RELEASE: IMMEDIATE: 7^th July 2011

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REVEALS GLA MEMBER COLEMAN NOT INTERESTED IN CAMDEN

Andrew Dismore, Labour London assembly candidate for Barnet and Camden has just received the  response to a Freedom of Information Act request he submitted to Camden Council, enquiring about the activity (or lack of it ) of the sitting London Assembly member, Brian Coleman. (Full response set out below).

Mr Dismore asked the Council to provide copies of all correspondence sent to and received from Brian Coleman (AM for Barnet and Camden) by the following Camden Council officers: the Chief Executive, Directorate Directors and Assistant Directors.

Mr Dismore said:

“ Apart from a couple of rather abusive emails which seem to be primarily directed to someone in Islington and copied to a Camden officer about a proposed waste site in Haringey , the request has drawn a blank. Mr Coleman has not raised a single issue in correspondence with the Council in the three years since he was last elected.

He has raised no questions, comments or representations about, for example, housing, HS2, policing, the council budget, the impact of the Conservative imposed cuts, housing benefit changes, any of the many planning issues, education and schools, public transport or anything else for that matter.

Coming on top of last week’s FoI response from the police which revealed that he has raised no issues in correspondence with them about Safer Neighbourhood policing over the last 3 years, we have to question what use Mr Coleman is to residents of Camden, for the salary he receives.

If he is only working in Barnet, perhaps he should be retitled “Assembly member for Barnet and not Camden”,  and have his pay cut in half as he is only doing half the job- though residents in Barnet are not too happy about what little he does there either.

If I am elected next year to replace him and his sorry record, I will serve the residents of both Boroughs to the best of my ability.”

Note to editors:

Text of FoI request and response from Camden Council:

Dear Mr. Dismore,

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000

Thank you for your recent Freedom of Information request received on 27^th May and then clarified on 2^nd June 2011.

In your clarification you requested the following information:

For the last 3 years please provide copies of all correspondence sent to and received from Brian Coleman (AM for Barnet and Camden) by the following Camden Council officers; Chief Executive, Directorate Directors and Assistant Directors.

Your request has now been considered and we have attached what information is held. We are however unable to provide you with all of the information you have requested.

We have redacted some names and contents of emails under the following exemption:

Section 40 (2) of the Freedom of Information Act (FOI).
We have withheld information in accordance with Section 40(2) by virtue of s 40 (3) a (i) of the FOI Act which allows a public authority to withhold information from a response to a request when the information requested is personal data relating to someone other than the requestor, and its disclosure would contravene one of the Data Protection principles.
In this instance we consider that such a disclosure would be unfair to the third party individuals and in breach of the first Data Protection
principle which states that – “Personal data shall be processed fairly and lawfully”.

This is an absolute exemption.

Yours sincerely

Michael Warby

Access to Information Officer – FOI & DPA
Email: Michael.Warby@Camden.gov.uk
Phone: 020 7974 7857