Tagged: teesside evening gazette
FOI Friday: Bad living conditions, school repair backlogs, teen drug dealers and the return of schoolyard compo
Revealing the findings of ‘neighbourhood renewal assessments’ – Stoke Sentinel
Here’s one which could run and run across the country. The Stoke Sentinel reports on the findings of a council ‘neighbourhood renewal assessment’ – the likes of which are carried out by councils all over the place.
A NEW report has painted a sobering picture of just how bad living conditions have become in the Portland Street area.
The report, released under the Freedom of Information Act, shows how much conditions have deteriorated at some of the houses.
It is based on surveys carried out at 274 properties, a mixture of private rented and owner-occupied homes, as part of the council’s Neighbourhood Renewal Assessment.
Repairs backlogs at schools – Coventry Telegraph
WARWICKSHIRE schools have a staggering £83 million backlog of repairs.
Warwickshire County Council bosses estimated the cost of getting all the county’s schools up to a reasonable standard of repair.
The figures were uncovered by the Telegraph under the Freedom of Information Act.
The cost of clearing up after police warrants – South Wales Evening Post
I think there’s a better story in here other than the one the South Wales Evening Post has gone with. It reports on the £5k in compensation the police has paid out for repairs to properties which were damaged during ‘negative warrants’ – ie warrants which were executed but didn’t lead to an arrest or seizure of goods. That’s a good story – but looking at the breakdown of negative v positive warrants, almost half were negative. A better story?
120 ‘foreign objects’ removed from patients in Lincolnshire – Boston Standard
Here’s a curious story. FOI led to the Boston Standard to find out that 120 people had ‘foreign bodies’ removed from them in hospital, yet the hospital couldn’t say what those objects were. The Standard used information from elsewhere in the country to talk about the sorts of objects which could be involved.
Teenage drug dealers – Teesside Evening Gazette
SUSPECTED child drug dealers as young as 15 were among those arrested on Teesside, new figures have revealed.
Officers from Cleveland Police arrested 17 suspected child drug dealers last year.
Five were girls held over claims they were dealing cannabis, and six of the boys, including two 15-year-olds, were risking lengthy prison sentences after allegedly dealing in Class A drugs.
The findings were obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.
Escapes from mental health units – Wigan Evening Post
10% of people admitted to mental health units in Wigan escape, according to the Wigan Evening Post.
Cost of overseas patients not paying up – Scarborough Evening News
This story stands out more because of the level of detail released than anything else:
SCARBOROUGH’S NHS Trust is owed more than £30,000 in hospital bills, racked up by overseas patients not entitled to free treatment.
The figures, obtained via a Freedom of Information request to Scarborough and North East Yorkshire Healthcare NHS Trust, show that since February 2009, £33,229.41 has either been written off or is currently being chased by the Trust.
The numbers include £10,297 that the trust is still chasing from a Syrian patient who underwent treatment in May 2010.
The highest amount written off was for £5,701, owed to them from a Thai patient who underwent treatment in August and September of 2009.
The books and CDs you aren’t borrowing from the library – Sunday Sun
Tomes such as Old Scottish Clockmakers 1453-1850 and Agrarian History of England and Wales Volume 5 have lined library shelves untouched for decades.
But surprisingly some popular names were also on our list, compiled from Freedom of Information requests by the Sunday Sun.
When it comes to music, in Northumberland, four copies of Coldplay’s album X&Y were only borrowed once last year, the same number as The Beatles’ Yellow Submarine.
The return of an old favourite: Schoolyard payouts – Leicester Mercury
A schoolgirl who was burnt when baked beans were spilled on her could be in line for a council pay-out of up to £12,000.
The hot food was spilled on the youngster’s neck at a county council-run school. The authority has now set aside thousands of pounds to cover potential compensation and legal costs.
The incident is one of 63 compensation claims made for injuries sustained at county schools during the past four years, according to new figures. But, of the 29 cases dealt with to date, just five have resulted in a compensation pay-out.
The cost of council sick pay – Birmingham Post
Birmingham City Council spent £35 million on sick pay for staff last year.
And new figures have revealed employees in some departments are taking more than double the national average of days off ill.
The authority spent £34,856,713 on sick pay between January and December last year, according to figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.
The council did not reveal the bill for paying agency staff to cover absences, meaning the total cost will be even higher.
FOI Friday: Councils investing in tobacco, sheep worrying, posh cars and NHS exit packages
Councils investing millions in tobacco firms – Carlisle News and Star
Millions of pounds from pension funds held for local authority workers across Cumbria have been invested in major tobacco firms
Cumbria County Council, which also manages pension money for district councils such as Carlisle Copeland and Allerdale, has confirmed that more than £8m of the fund has been ploughed into the tobacco industry.
The information was released following a Freedom of Information request.
NHS redundancy packages soar – BBC
The cost of exit packages paid out by hospitals in the East of England in a bid to cut staff numbers has increased significantly, the BBC has learned.
Figures from 16 hospital trusts, which provided information for the current financial year, revealed the combined spending on staff exit packages had risen more than eight-fold since 2010.
More than £5m has been paid out by the trusts so far in 2011-12, compared with £1.65m the year before and £605,000 the year before that, according to figures obtained from a Freedom of Information request.
The luxury cars driven by council bosses – Liverpool Post
MERSEYSIDE taxpayers are funding top of the range cars for two Liverpool council executives.
City council chief executive Ged Fitzgerald and director of regeneration Nick Kavanagh, are already two of the highest paid officials with salaries of £197,000 and between £120,000 and £140,000 respectively.
But now it has been revealed they have been driving round the city in luxury vehicles paid for by the taxpayer – while the Labour-run council axed £140m from its budget over two years.
Like this:
FOI Friday: Prisoner complaints, pensions invested in cluster bombs and crime on rich streets
1. The complaints made by prisoners < < < Manchester Evening News
Inmates at Strangeways have bombarded jail bosses with thousands of often trivial official complaints in the last 12 months – including grumbles about heating, outstanding DVD orders and the quality of the food.
Records of formal inmate grievances at HMP Manchester have shown how officers are being tied up dealing with petty inconveniences. A total of almost 3,500 formal complaints were processed by Strangeways in 12 months – an average of almost 10 every day.
Details, obtained by the M.E.N. under Freedom of Information laws, show how staff had to chase up a newsagent after an inmate complained he had not received a TV listing magazine.
2. Crimes on rich streets < < < Surrey Comet
Criminals have been targeting millionaires on the exclusive St George’s Hill Estate.
In the past six months there have been eight crimes, according to a Freedom of Information request made to Surrey Police, including a suspected shotgun robbery.
The crimes include one incident of criminal damage, one non-domestic burglary, two robberies, two thefts or handling of stolen goods, one vehicle crime and one crime of violence without injury.
3. The council pension fund investing in cluster bomb firm < < < Sunderland Echo
FOI Friday: Brothel raids, B&B costs, farm thefts and cautions for violent crimes
1.Houses of multiple occupancy
Kicking off with a story which may not have been sourced under FOI, but which could be: The Liverpool ECHO reports on the number of properties which have been licensed for use as ‘houses of multiple occupancy’, of which just 25% had planning permission? Why is this an issue? Well, if it’s on your street, you’d want to be able protest about it, wouldn’t you?
2. What police seized in brothel raids
Staying with the Liverpool ECHO, this story combines FOI and the sex trade: Asking the police how many brothels they have raided and, tellingly, what they seized when they raided the places too.
3. The cost of housing homeless people in bed and breakfasts
Some interesting numbers from the Wigan Evening Post, which reports, thanks to FOI, that over the past four years, Wigan Council has spent £200,000 on B&B accommodation for homeless people. A problem that’s getting worse in recession times? Apparently not – but what’s the picture elsewhere?
Sir Stuart Bell finds a friend at the BBC
Ding Dong ... Sir Stuart Bell has some questions to answer
Sir Stuart Bell, the MP who the Teesside Evening Gazette tried to contact 100 times without success, surfaced on the national stage today to put his side of the story across.
In the process, I can’t help but think he actually made himself look even more ridiculous – and made Jeremy Vine, the former Newsnight presenter turned Radio 2 lunchtime host, look quite daft too.
Tony Blair used to be scorned for opting for the breakfast TV sofa over Newsnight for his interviews. Whether Sir Stuart knew he’d get such an easy ride on Vine’s show is anyone’s guess, but that’s what he got.
FOI FRIDAY: Bail hearing notes, mystery foreign trips, smoking bans and relocation costs
Oooh.. a secret
1. Using FOI to get transcripts of bail hearings (Lancashire Telegraph)
Here’s a case for all reporters to keep in mind when dealing with stories which involve a question mark over whether the right decision was made at a bail hearing.
The murder of Lancashire nurse Jane Clough by her ex-boyfriend Jonathan Vass has been widely reported. He was on bail at the time for other offences, despite advice from the CPS and police to a judge not to allow such a situation.
The case has gone to Parliament this week with an MP calling for prosecutors to be given the right to appeal a bail hearing decision. The Lancashire Telegraph has covered the story carefully, and crime reporter Sam Chadderton used FOI to get hold of the transcripts of the bail hearings which led to Vass being released on bail:
Now, for the first time, the Lancashire Telegraph has gained access to a full written account of the two bail hearings, under the Freedom of Information Act.
Despite a formal application to the courts service being refused, the judge personally agreed to release the transcripts.
2. Police breaking data protection rules (Liverpool ECHO)
The Liverpool ECHO used FOI to find out how many times police officers at Merseyside Police had been caught breaking data protection laws. The answer: 208 times in three years:
Breaches include officers accessing police computer systems to access classified data about family and friends, spying on ongoing cases and researching for “non-policing” purposes.
Merseyside Police blamed a year-on-year rise down to the fact 130 officers looked at the file involving an allegation against Steven Gerrard.
2. Complaints about the smoking ban (Reading Post)
In the week MPs began looking at revoking part of the smoking ban, the Reading Post revealed the findings of its FOI probe into how well used anti-smoking legislation was in Reading. The answer: Not very. Reading Council has never tried to enforce the ban, with just 60 complaints made about alleged breaches. So what was all the fuss about?
3. The five-year-old accused of criminal damage (Bradford Telegraph and Argus)
Ok, so the FOI about the number of under tens who have been accused of committing offences has been done many times before – so why mention it now? Simple – the response from West Yorkshire Police was very detailed, and gave the age of the youngest person accused by a crime, thus making it possible for the T&A to report on the five year old accused of criminal damage.
4. Relocation costs (Stoke Sentinel)
A whole bunch of councils have merged in the last few years – but at what cost? The Stoke Sentinel pushed for answers on this when it submitted FOI requests to the new Cheshire East Council to find out how much had been paid in relocation cost to staff when it had been formed. The answer: £850,000 for people who had to move offices.
5. Suspended police officers (Sunday Sun)
The number of police officers suspended from police forces in the north doubled last year, according to the Sunday Sun – with some spending more than a year on gardening leave.
6. Redundancy costs for health chiefs (Teesside Gazette)
The costs of making staff redundant from authorities has been in the headlines for a while and in Teesside, the Evening Gazette has been steadily revealing the costs at various bodies in its areas. Primary Care Trusts are among those making big redundancies ahead of being scrapped, and the Gazette has made a point of asking for details of the biggest single payout – including 3223k at one health trust.
7. A numbers game (Brighton Argus)
Covering benefits stories can be tricky as it normally involves being accused of picking on the vulnerable. But this story from the Brighton Argus is worth digging into. It reports on figures, obtained under FOI, which show that an average of 10% of people trying to claim for Employment Support Allowance get it – but in Sussex 15% of all applicants are approved for it. In other words, you’re 50% more likely to get it in Sussex than anywhere else.
8. Council tax reminders for councillors (Maidenhead Advertiser)
The Maidenhead Advertiser is the latest newspaper to do the FOI about the councillors who have been sent reminders for not paying their council tax. Maidenhead Council refused to name the councillors, as have others, but did say five councillors were sent reminders. I quite like the defence of one councillor who said they were so busy it could easily slip a councillor’s mind!
9. An unusual take on foreign trips by a council (Lancashire Evening Post)
I thought I’d include this story not because it’s an FOI we’ve not heard of before – but because it’s proof that FOI is only ever part of a story. The Lancashire Evening Post reported on the number of foreign trips made by councillors at the expense of taxpayers. What made the story was the response from the council about one trip to Bologna: The council couldn’t remember why councillors went or what was achieved.
10. Second home council tax (Ivybridge and South Brent Gazette)
And finally one which could run and run, especially in these cash-tight times. The Gazette used FOI to ask how many houses were subject to second-home council tax relief – therefore reducing council tax by 10 per cent. For South Hams, around £700,000 is lost in this relief, and the figures were broken down by area.
FOI Friday: Custard spills, charity finances, twocking – and an important breakthrough
Regional Development Agency assets
An important precedent has hopefully been set this week by the Birmingham Post when it comes to FOI. Regional Development Agencies were a relatively late addition to FOI coverage, and since their demise was announced, some have been reluctant to reveal how much they are selling their assets for.
The Birmingham Post this week revealed that Birmingham’s Stock Exchange, set up by Advantage West Midlands in 2007, has been sold for £1. In three years, it has swallowed £3million of public cash.
AWM at first refused to say how much it had been sold for, arguing it was commercially sensitive. The Post has managed to argue otherwie, and AWM changed its mind.
The front page of the Birmingham Post
According to the Warrington Guardian, a third of charities in the town are in the red after grants have been cut and recession hit donations. Reporter Hannah Bargery used FOI to ask the Charities Commission for details about charities in the Warrington borough. The figures she got back revealed that of the 389 registered charities in Warrington, 123 spent more than they received last year.
You may well have seen this story in the nationals this week but it began life as Monday’s splash in the Liverpool ECHO. FOI was used to ask councils for details of cases where pupils had brought compensation claims against schools. One pupil received £750 for being splashed with custard (presumably at lunchtime) while another got £6k for falling off a chair.
Continue reading
FOI Friday: Nightstalker, OAP abuse, crime in villages and shredded letters
The conviction of Delroy Grant, the Nightstalker sex attacker who police failed to catch despite being given a golden opportunity to do so, has been headline news this week. The News Shopper in London took the opportunity to republish an invesitgation it conducted into the hunt for the Nightstalker prior to Grant’s arrest.
Reporter Linda Grant used FOI to ask how many suspects had been arrested or interviewed (none at the time), and had cost £102,000 to process 2,054 DNA samples. The Met, however, refused to tell the paper how many additional crimes they were attributing to the Night Stalker at the time. A good example of FOI to shed light on an active case.
We see a lot of FOIs relating to abuse of children, but the Evening Gazette in Teesside reports on cases of abuse to elderly people by council-employed carers. Abuse reports included financial abuse, verbal abuse and a case of medication error.
The village where no crimes are solved
The village of Hagley, near Bromsgrove, was scene of 30 vehicle crimes and 29 burglaries last year. None were solved. The figures were obtained using FOI and published by the Bromsgrove Advertiser – a clever use of FOI to get two sets of data which paint a very interesting picture.
Crimes committed in police stations
Police stations are proving to be fascinating places for FOI requests. Following on from break ins at police stations and thefts from police stations comes this one from the Bristol Evening Police: The 226 crimes committed inside police stations – over half of which were for criminal damage. A few arsons too. You can see a similar request from GetReading here.
The other things seized at court
Remember the FOI about the number of knives seized at court? The Gloucester Citizen follows a similar line, but chose to ask for a list of everything seized at court from visitors. As well as knives and blades, screwdrivers, CS sprays and darts were also seized, along with cameras and recorders
If ever there was one job which was likely to provoke abuse, it’s the role of traffic warden. And so it seems in Swansea, where the South Wales Evening Post reports on 73 reported attacks on traffic wardens, the worst of which involved knocking down a traffic warden and driving off.
Kidnapping is a crime which is quite rare, and therefore tends to make the headlines when it happens. In Cambridgeshire, the Evening News used FOI to find out how often kidnaps were reported, and what the motives were, and how long people were held for. The resulting article is a fascinating insight into some unusual crimes.
THE number of cyclists in Wales fined for riding on the pavements has more than quadrupled since 2008. A total of 318 people were given £30 fixed penalty notices in 2010, compared to just 54 in 2008, according to figures released under the Freedom of Information Act.
Royal Mail’s love of the shredder
The Royal Mail initially refused to reveal how many letters it destroys a year, on the grounds it would cause negative publicity, but later relented and revealed it shreds 25 million letters year.
And here’s one to keep an eye on. Tory MP Robert Halfon has FOI’d 100 top universities to see how many of them have received donations from ‘Middle East sources’. First to be revealed this way is Durham University, which took £11,000 from Iran, and a total of £700,000 from the region.
FOI FRIDAY: Murder warnings, data protection, hospital art – and asking for documents
Getting the background on cuts
A good example of why it always pays to ask for the documents related to important spending decisions. An organisation called the Friends of Sonning Common Library is fighting to keep its library, one of three Oxfordshire County Council wants to close. It used FOI to ask for the documents the council had prepared related to the closure, and when these arrived, they revealed that the council felt closing them would “not fully address socio-economic need” and “not fully address rural isolation”. In other words – people will be left more isolated. (Source: Henley Standard)
Police data protection breaches
Data protection breaches revelations were all the rage a couple of years ago, but here’s proof that they are still happening. The Sunday Sun in the North East reports on 100 cases of data protection breaches in the region, including one case where a community support officer is accused of passing on details to criminals. (Source: Sunday Sun)
Wales on Sunday used FOI well to get hold of the amount of money paid out in grants to football, rugby union and cricket from the Welsh government. While it probably came as no surprise that rugby union received £1.5million, it did cause shock that welsh cricket received even more – while football in Wales got just £7,735. Given the scrutiny of public money at the moment, asking councils how much they have given in grants to different sports could generate good stories. (Source: Wales on Sunday)
FOI Friday: Rammed trains, enforced redundancies at councils and a gun licence for a 12-year-old
1. Reasons why teachers are disciplined
The Bradford Telegraph and Argus reports on the number of teachers who faced disciplinary action last year, 69 in total. The local council also reported that the allegations included theft, child protection issues, gross misconduct and drugs misuse. (Source: Bradford Telegraph and Argus)
2. Restorative justice for children
Remember the restorative justice schemed launched by the government a while back? The Derby Telegraph reports on the results, or rather the numbers involved, and the ages of those involved. A boy of 4 was among 166 under 10s – and it was used to sort out more than 7,000 crimes. (Source: Derby Telegraph)
I blogged the other week about the farcical situation at the Department for Transport, which won’t release details on overcrowded trains in case they upset (!) the train operating companies, who then wouldn’t give the department the numbers it needs to work out the new franchises. Really. Anyway, the data they would release – the most overcrowded services into London from two years ago, has been put to good use by the Reading Post, which also put a reporter on one of the trains to see what life was like two years on. A public interest case waiting to happen, I think. (Source: Reading Post)
