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

When marine roadkill becomes a picture story

Anyone who has worked on a newsdesk for any length of time knows the value of an animal picture story. The cuter the better, and even better if there is a bit of a sob story to go with it. I think the Lincolnshire Echo might have missed the point with this picture story though.

FOI FRIDAY: Fuel-lish mistakes, expensive art, mid-air near misses and making money out of schools

1. Silly Fuels Kicking off in the North East this week with a great example of multiple FOIs coming together for one story. The Sunday Sun put FOIs in to all sorts of authorities – police, council, ambulance service and so on – to find out how many cases of the wrong fuel being put

FOI Friday: 10 things we’ve learnt this week thanks to the Freedom of Information Act

1. Council trips abroad At a time when budgets are being slashed, spending at local authorities will come under greater scrutiny than ever. FOI is a powerful tool in this respect, as the Press and Journal in Aberdeen showed this week when it revealed how one council had spent £400,000 on more than 100 trips

FOI FRIDAY: 10 things we’ve learnt this week thanks to the Freedom of Information Act

1. Delayed or cancelled operations The Deadline News Agency in Scotland reports on an FOI request by Jackie Baillie, the shadow health minister north of the Border, which lifted the lift on the number of operations being called off each week in the country. 2. Spending on prison lessons Levels of spending on lessons for

FOI Friday: 10 things we’ve learnt this week thanks to the Freedom of Information Act

Khyra Ishaq inquiry When Birmingham City Council announced that six social workers involved in the case of Khyra Ishaq – the little girl who starved to death in her own home despite being known to social services – that several of the social workers involved had been sacked, it perhaps hoped it was the end

FOI Friday: 10 things we’ve learnt this week thanks to the Freedom of Information Act

1. Young drugs With drugs and young people back in the news with a  vengeance as a result of recent stories about ‘miaow miaow’, The Hackney Post timed its FOI about the number of young people – people under 17 – caught in possession of drugs in recent years in the borough. The number of

FOI Friday: 10 things we’ve learnt this week thanks to the Freedom of Information Act

1. Anti-social behaviour in the library There was a time when it was the contents of some books which caused most offence in libraries. Apparently that’s not the case now in Lincolnshire, when indecent exposure, public urination 2. Dog attacks The Southport Visiter reports on the number of dog attacks in Southport – based on

FOI Friday: 10 things we’ve learnt this week thanks to Freedom of Information

1. Snakes in a school I mentioned on here before Christmas about an FOI request made by the Dundee Courier for pest control reports involving local hospitals. A different take on that FOI comes from a local Labour councillor who, the BBC reports, asked for the pest control reports involving local schools. The council replied

FOI Friday: 10 things we’ve learnt this week thanks to the Freedom of Information Act

Art for arts sake? Forget cash in the attic – there’s stuff worth real money being tucked away by local councils in the North East. The Northern Echo reports that councils in the region own £75million worth of art – much of it tucked away in storage. At a time when costs are being cut,