FOI Friday: Roadworks hell, hidden art, naughty nurses and bedblocking patients

Plagues of roadworks < Get Surrey Dismay has been expressed over a ‘plague’ of roadworks on a stretch between Bramley and Guildford in the past three years. Information obtained under the Freedom of Information Act revealed that more than 860 individual projects were carried out on the A281 from 2012 to 2014 – an average

FOI Friday: Nightmare roadwork roads, self service checkout crimes, cost of PFI and student disciplinary offences

The roads dug up more than 600 times in a year < Birmingham Mail Road repairs in Birmingham are causing traffic chaos with some routes being dug up almost every day for the past FIVE years, the Birmingham Mail can reveal. Workmen have had to carry out maintenance on Birmingham’s Broad Street three times a

FOI Friday: Suspects released by mistake, crimes in hospitals, careless coppers and big pay outs for teachers

Wrongly-released offenders < Manchester Evening News A sex offender, violent thugs and burglars are among a long list of charged suspects released without trial because of blunders by Greater Manchester Police. Dozens of charged suspects walked free over the last six years before they reached trial – with more this year than any of the

FOI FRIDAY: Council lunches, old drug mules, doctor spending and the smoking ban legacy

What’s on the menu for councillors? < < < Sunday Mail SCOTLAND’S biggest council have increased their spending on gourmet dinners – while hiking the price of meals for OAPs and the vulnerable. Glasgow City councillors slashed the subsidies for welfare meals in a bid to save £306,000. The Labour-controlled local authority hiked the cost

FOI FRIDAY: Lost property, tobacco investments, repeat offenders and long ambulance waits

10 good examples of FOI in action from the local, regional and national media: The longest ambulance delays – Huddersfield Examiner Tony Blair – and politicians in general – may not be made keen on the Freedom of Information Act, but it doesn’t stop them using it to dig out figures which suit their political

FOI Friday: Hospital parking, strange police phone calls, cheating students and criminals applying to work in schools

Toilet seats and compensation < < < Birmingham Mail A WORKER sued Birmingham City Council and won £1,750 after a toilet seat collapsed causing him injuries, it has emerged. The man was one of 274 successful claims in the last five years leaving taxpayers with a bill of almost £5 million. Trips, exposure to deadly asbestos

FOI Friday: Councils investing in tobacco, sheep worrying, posh cars and NHS exit packages

From the amount councils invest in tobacco firms through pension schemes to the rise in cases of sheep worrying – 10 stories made possible thanks to the Freedom of Information Act

FOI Friday: Overdue books, bedding plants, baby scans and trading standards

1. The most overdue books in town The devil, they say, is in the detail. And the Accrington Observer got plenty of detail back from its FOI request into overdue books at Accrington Library. Not only did they find out the number of books which are overdue, and the total amount owing in fines, but

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

FOI Friday: Bed blocking, council ad spending, smoke alarms and police accidents

Hygiene fears in hospitals Not one for those who find Casualty squeamish: The Cynon Valley Leader reports on the reaasons why hospitals call out pest control services. Rats, mice, flies and bugs have all been reported at a cost of £258k. Playing with fire? Here’s an interesting statistic found under FOI: the percentage of fire