Your Ref: Our Ref. Date: 19 June 2014

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1 Policy and Corporate Support Adrian Gowan Policy and Corporate Support Manager Please ask for: Adrian Gowan Direct Line: (01322) Direct Fax: Your Ref: Our Ref Date: 19 June 2014 Dear, Request for Information I am writing in response to your letter dated 13 June 2014 requesting information. Your enquiry is being dealt with under the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 ( the FOI Act ). The information that you have requested is shown below in italics and our response is given below each request in normal typeface. 1.1 Full copies of all Election Nomination papers received by Dartford Council from the English Democrats and the New England Party for ALL elections and all candidates 1 st January June I am currently researching what nomination papers may have been retained beyond the Electoral Commission s recommended retention period of 12 months from the date of the relevant election and will be able to confirm what information is held when I have completed my investigation. I will respond as soon as possible, and in any event within 20 working days of the receipt of your request, as provided for under section 10 of the Freedom of Information Act. 1.2 Also Correspondence with and to Dartford Council since 2003 (all departments Files or electronic archives relating to: Spring Vale North, Dartford Teresa Cannon High Road, Wilmington Mr & Mrs Cooper and Ms Settle Copies of Postal Voting records for Teresa Cannon Copies of Postal Voting records for Mr & Mrs Cooper and Ms Settle With regard to and it would not be possible to provide this information without undertaking considerable research. My initial assessment of responding to this part of your enquiry is that the costs of searching, retrieval and collation of the

2 information requested would be above the costs threshold of 450 (refer to attached guidance notes for further details). Under section 12(1) of the FOI Act, the Council is not obliged to respond to your enquiry if it estimates that the costs of responding will exceed the costs threshold. I invite you to consider modifying/reformulating your request to reduce the costs. It may reduce the costs if you are able to be more specific in identifying the information that you are seeking. I do not understand precisely what you mean when you are referring to postal voting records in and If you are referring to the personal identifiers required when somebody successfully applies for a postal vote then these are held by the Returning Officer, as distinct from the Council, who is not subject to the provisions of the FOI Act. Even if this information is held by the Council rather than the Returning Officer, the Council withholds this information on the grounds that it is exempt from disclosure by virtue of section 40(2) and section 40(3)(a)(i) of the FOI Act. Release of the exempted information is refused on the grounds: that the disclosure of the information to a member of the public otherwise than under the FOI Act would contravene the first data protection principle that personal data should be processed fairly and lawfully. 1.3 The Civil Service Salary Scale with interpretation into actual annual salary for the employee Mr Alan Twyman. Mr Twyman is not a Civil Servant and therefore not paid in accordance with the Civil Service Salary Scale. However to assist, Mr Twyman is paid on the Dartford Council Salary Scale at grade K which ranges from 41, to 43, The Civil Service Salary Scale with interpretation into actual annual salary for the employee Mr Ant Genduso. Mr Genduso is not a Civil Servant and therefore not paid in accordance with the Civil Service Salary Scale. However to assist, Mr Genduso is paid on the Dartford Council Salary Scale at grade E which ranges from 22, to 24, All s and correspondence between Dartford Council and representatives of the English Democrats (including Mr Steven Uncles & Mr Michael Walters) between 1 January 2013 and 30 June It would not be possible to provide this information without undertaking considerable research. My initial assessment of responding to this part of your enquiry is that the costs of searching, retrieval and collation of the information requested would be above the costs threshold of 450 referred to in my response to 1.2 above. Under section 12(1) of the FOI Act, the Council is not obliged to respond to your enquiry if it estimates that the costs of responding will exceed the costs threshold. I invite you to consider modifying/reformulating your request to reduce the costs. It may reduce the costs if you are able to be more specific in identifying the information that you are seeking.

3 1.6 Confirmation as to what date Spring Vale in Dartford, was divided into Spring Vale North and Spring Vale South. Spring Vale has never officially been split into North and South. There are however street signs dividing Spring Vale into North and South but this is a historic street signage anomaly which appears to date to sometime between 1932 and Electoral Register covering all houses in Oakfield Lane, Dartford, Kent providing a list of Houses and occupants with House names and number. This information is exempt from disclosure by virtue of Section 21 of the FOI Act. This is because the information is reasonably accessible and available to you by other means. If you wish to purchase a copy of the open electoral register for this area please contact the Electoral Services Team at the Civic Centre. If you wish to inspect the full copy of the electoral register you may do so by appointment and under supervision by contacting the Electoral Services Team. 1.8 Confirmation of the area in Dartford Borough defined as Wilmington I attach a map which shows the area of the parish of Wilmington and Wilmington ward. 1.9 Annual Allowances for the Dartford Borough Councillors and the Annual Allowances for the Kent County Councillors representing Dartford, together with the various supplements for the additional committees. The Dartford Borough Council Members Allowances Scheme is available on the Dartford Borough Council Web site The Council does not hold details of the allowances paid to Kent County Councillors. These may be available on the Kent County Council s web site ( or you may re-apply to Kent County Council for this information using the following contact details By freedomofinformation@kent.gov.uk By post: Information Resilience & Transparency Team, Kent County Council, Room 2.71, Sessions House, County Hall, Maidstone. ME14 1XQ. By fax: If you wish to object to my decision in the first instance, or if you are unhappy with the way in which your enquiry has been dealt with, you may ask for an internal review by initiating the Council s Corporate Complaints Procedure, details of which may be obtained by logging onto the Council s website or telephoning or ing me. Should you remain dissatisfied with the decision on internal review, you may appeal to the Information Commissioner, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow SK9 5AF.

4 I would be grateful if you would address any future correspondence you may have in relation to this matter to me quoting the reference number FOI No Yours sincerely, Policy and Corporate Support Manager

5 INFORMATIVE PSI OPEN LICENCE ON RE-USE (through Non-Commercial Government Licence) Terms and Conditions and Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (as amended) and Re-Use of Public Sector Information Regulations 2005 Documents where the intellectual property rights are held by The Dartford Borough Council For documents where the intellectual property rights (including but not limited to copyright) are held by The Dartford Borough Council, you are free to re-use any of the documents supplied in any format or medium for the following purposes: for personal use including non-commercial research purposes, private study, internal circulation within your organisation or for the purposes of news reporting. However this is subject to the information contained within the documents being used accurately and not in a misleading context. You should also identify The Dartford Borough Council as the source of the information. If you would like to re-use our documents for other purposes e.g. publishing them or using them commercially, then you will need to ask for our consent. You can make a formal application for re-use by writing to or ing: The Freedom of Information Officer Dartford Borough Council Civic Centre Home Gardens Dartford Kent DA1 1DR DX: DARTFORD 7 foi@dartford.gov.uk Full guidance on how to make an application to re-use our information can be found in our Re-Use Policy at Field Code Changed Field Code Changed Documents where the intellectual property rights are held by a Third Party For documents where an organisation or person other than The Dartford Borough Council holds the intellectual property rights, you will need to apply direct to the intellectual right property holder for consent to reuse the documents. Where possible, we can help you identify the intellectual property right holder and their contact details. Compliance with intellectual property right legislation is solely your responsibility and Dartford Borough Council accepts no liability for infringement of any intellectual property rights, including but not limited to copyright. Equality and Diversity Dartford Borough Council aims to eliminate discrimination in respect of age, disability, gender assignment, marriage and civil partnership, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation and will ensure that its services are free from bias or

6 discrimination and that all those involved in the licence application process are treated fairly and with respect and the process will be conducted in a manner appropriate to the individual, whatever their background. Additional Help If you need additional support, please let us know as soon as possible. If you have difficulty reading this Licence, we can make reasonable adjustments to assist you, in line with the requirements of the Equality Act We can also help if English is not your first language. Please contact our Customer Services on or customer.services@dartford.gov.uk. We welcome calls via Typetalk Field Code Changed 8.