Contract FOI Tribunal Ruling - GlosVAIN Press Release 14/3/17

Post date: Mar 15, 2017 10:45:04 PM

EA2015/0254-6. GCC appeal against the IC’s ruling in favour of Cos Ttofa.

Tribunal Judgement issued 10/03/2017.

Tribunal rejects council’s waste contract appeal

The Information Tribunal has overwhelmingly rejected the council’s appeal against the Information Commissioner’s decision. Indeed, in some instances, the Tribunal has ordered even more information be released than the Commissioner required.

The Tribunal confirms a few exceptions and those are predominantly to protect UBB’s genuine commercial interests or personnel details. The council’s press release takes the disingenuous to a new high. It is fake news.

This judgement challenges GCC’s exaggeration of its commercial role and rejects its shunning of transparency and public interest. Seen together with its failure to maintain the contract’s confidentiality, the Conservative cabinet has lost all credibility. It is exposed as an anti-democratic body, guided by expensive consultants and legal advice, all paid for by us.

The contract guarantees high profits and no savings in early years, presumably out of fear of an early cancellation, as is happening elsewhere. Savings are projected by comparison with the very thing they say can’t go on, i.e. landfill.

Gerald Hartley

Glosvain Chair

14/03/2017

Notes

1. The Tribunal's final decision is attached at the bottom of the page (PDF).

2. Stroud News and Journal article on the ruling can be read here.

3. Following the Tribunal ruling, GCC has published the revised contract on its website, but not in a particularly accessible way. For convenience, the links to the contract, its schedules and the business care released by GCC are below:

The document entitled "CAM_1B-_5384663-v1-Schedule_1" tells you what each schedule contains