On 17/06/2011 21:15, Matt Wardman wrote:
I did a piece today about Councils obstructing local news bloggers,
and a couple of people have pointed out instances of the "Vexatious
FOI" request card being played where it was not really appropriate.
Is this a widespread problem?
I don't know if it's a widespread problem. I have mixed feelings on some
of the things you mention in your blog.
I have to declare an interest here: I am an elected councillor,
representing Bengeworth Ward on Evesham Town Council. I have also been
involved in open data and open government advocacy for a while,
predating my election to the council. So I have at least some ability to
see things from both sides, and I'll freely admit that some of my
opinions have changed since being elected - there are some things that
really are difficult to appreciate unless you understand the context.
Having said that, my (entirely subjective) perception is that there are
some council staff who resent any external scrutiny of their actions -
and they often consider councillors to be part of the "outside" in this
context. (I also have a bit of experience of this from the other side;
some years ago I worked for a county council, and some of the things
that we did in sheer defiance of the elected members was pretty
breathtaking - and yet absolutely necessary, as they really didn't have
a clue about the relevent issues). But, equally, there are some
councillors who think that coming top (or, at least, not bottom) of a
poll of a fairly small subset of the populace means that their opinions,
no matter how ridiculous those opinions may be, should be considered vox
populi and thus vox dei.
However, I do think that both of those groups (arrogant councillors and
self-serving staff) are in the minority, and I think it's unfair to tar
all staff and councillors with the same brush. And, of couse, some
members of the public really are vexatious and/or just plain daft[1].
One problem, of course, is that sometimes such people end up being
employed to deal with FOI requests, which can have really stupid
outcomes[2], but I think those are very much the minority. More often,
it's a case of over-worked and over-stressed staff who are fed up with
dealing with stupid or repetitive requests becoming over-sensitive to
anything which appears to have an ulterior motive. I think people in
that position are wrong, but they are not maliciously wrong, and it
doesn't help to characterise them as such. In any case, where cock-up
and conspiracy are both possible explanations, the cock-up is always by
far the more likely. I don't think it's helpful when bloggers and
activists develop an "us v them" mentality when, in reality, it's more a
case of a few individuals making an understandable mistake.
[1] If I was responsible for dealing with this kind of OI request, I
think I'd be far less restrained than the DVLA staffer who actually
responded:
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/deregistration_of_oneself_and_on
[2] eg,
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/new_policy_on_whatdotheyknowcom
Mark
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