Information Commissioner's Office

Gloucestershire County Council

8 October 2007, Local government (County council)

The complainant requested minutes of meetings between the National Trust (“the Trust”) and Gloucestershire County Council (“the Council”) regarding the extent of highway rights over land which had been traditionally managed or owned by the Trust. The Council refused the requests under regulation 12(5)(f) of the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (EIR). The Information Commissioner (“the Commissioner”) considered the arguments proposed by the Council for the application of the exception and is of the view that disclosure of information relating to issues which had not been resolved by the Joint Liaison Committee (“the JLC”) between the Trust and the Council when the requests were made would have adversely affected the interests of the Trust and the public interest favoured withholding that information. The Commissioner also found however that there was other information which could have been disclosed to the complainant at the time of the requests without adversely affecting the Trust’s interests because the information related to issues which had by then been resolved. The Commissioner’s decision is that this information should be disclosed to the complainant within 35 days.

EIR 5: Upheld