Cheshire East Council has been instructed to make the independent report into the £1m Lyme Green fiasco available to the public, albeit an edited version.
Despite numerous requests, the Council has refused to release the report of the Designated Independent Person (DIP) into the ill-fated project to build a waste transfer facility on the Lyme Green site in Macclesfield for a number of reasons.
These included the fact the report contained personal data and would lead to a breach of the Data Protection Act 1998, it would be in breach of legal agreements they had with a number of individuals and it was never intended for wider public release.
However, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), following an appeal by the Macclesfield Express, has ordered Cheshire East Council to release a redacted copy of the report, which cost taxpayers £225,000, by January 14th 2014.
Whilst the Commissioner accepted that the report contained a lot of personal information and disclosure could be detrimental to those criticised in it this was weighed against the very strong public interest in disclosing the information.
The ICO stated: "Increased transparency of these events would help the public understand what went on and perhaps reassure them that the Council is now in a position to learn from the lessons of Lyme Green. It is certainly arguable that greater transparency offers the best way for the Council to put the events of Lyme Green behind it and rebuild the trust of the people it serves.
"The arguments that the disclosure would be unfair, ie the expectations of, and detriment to, the individuals concerned is very finely balanced against the legitimate interests in disclosure. However because the information relates to the performance of senior officers and because of the damage the Lyme Green project has done to the reputation of the Council, the Commissioner finds that disclosing the information in these exceptional circumstances would be fair."
A Cheshire East Council spokesman said: "We have received a decision notice from the Information Commissioner's Office. We are pleased the Commissioner has accepted that a number of redactions need to be made to the report for a variety of reasons.
"At this early stage, we are minded to accept the findings of the Commissioner and the Leader of the Council has given a strong commitment to openness and transparency on this issue.
"Due to the fact the full report is 100-pages long, the Council previously published a version of the report to aide public understanding.
"However it is likely a full version of the report will be made available once the recommended redactions have been agreed and a full and clear understanding of all the suggestions made."
Referring to the Internal Audit report into the Lyme Green scandal which was previously published by Cheshire East Council, the Commissioner said it does not provide as full a picture as the DIP's report and deals mainly with the procedures whereas the DIP report allocates blame for those failings.
Click here to read the full Decision Notice of the Information Commissioner's Office.
Updated: 5.35pm Friday 20th December. The redacted DIP report has now been published by Cheshire East Council and can be viewed here on the CEC website.
Comments
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Strange, I thought the Great Leader had promised transparency for all of CECs governance?
At least the ICO knows what transparency infers for C Tax payers.
I mean, how much work does it take to ask a few people what went on and to write it up?
Who was the author, J K Rowling?
I think we can cope with 100 pages. After all CEC expect us to wade through 3,000 or so pages of draft Core Strategy and associated documents - just one copy in the library and a ridiculous on line response system, designed to make you give up!