Disclosure Log - January 2022

In the form of a PDF or Excel spreadsheet:

1. How many buildings owned/ run/managed by the local authority have asbestos on the premises? This can include any historical instances of asbestos which are currently managed

2. Please provide a list of all buildings owned/run/managed by the local authority that contain asbestos including but not limited to swimming pools, leisure centres, public libraries and council offices

1. and 2. The applicant was provided with this information in PDF format, which is available upon request. Some Personal Data redacted throughout

3. The Council has management plans in place for individual assets depending on their nature and the asbestos identified on formal inspection. Further inspections and reports are undertaken at intervals when works or demolition is carried out on individual assets

The applicant requested information specifically on how much funding the council received from the government’s extra £65million funding announced for vulnerable renters in October 2021

In reference to this funding, the applicant requested:

1. How much of this £65million pot of funding did the council receive?

2. How many households have received help from the funding you were given from the government’s £65million pot?

3. In total, how much of this funding you received has been given to households in £?

4. What is the single highest amount given to one household from the funding you received?

The Council’s Housing team confirmed that an additional £84,000 was awarded on top of the homeless prevent grant, this was marked out to help those in private rented that were in rental arrears and due to loss accommodation due to this

The Council has used this money to clear arrears but to also look to put in additional financial support workers to work with the customers to try and ensure that they do not find themselves struggling and not able to pay their rental going forward

1. How much money is there allocated to the discretionary housing payment fund in total per year?

2. How many people/applications have received discretionary housing payments over the last five years? a yearly total of each year will suffice

1. This varies each financial year. Funds are allocated by the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP):

2021 = £169,418

2020 = £246,097

2019 = £157,730

2018 = £145,060

2017 = £178,464

2016 = £124,505

2. 2020 = 389

    2019 = 532

    2018 = 510

    2017 = 557

    2016 = 226

3. Any unspent DHP allocation must be repaid to the DWP

CON29 information relating to a property at EX34 9NR

Applicant provided with the information, where held and also directed to the Council’s website for some of the information

How many homes it has allocated as part of its local plan to be built in medium and high-risk flood-zones?

The information relates to the council’s latest local plan. However, if the council’s local plan is out of date then please supply the number of homes that are currently allocated in its draft, examination or final adoption form clarifying this detail 

A high-risk flood zone is designated by the Environment Agency (EA) as a flood zone 3 whilst a medium flood-risk zone is designated as a flood zone 2. However, the local planning authority should provide this information based on its own designation of flood zone 3a or 3b

I would prefer to receive this information electronically, preferably as a data set in Excel and not as a PDF, to include the following information: 

• The name of the local plan eg. Wirral's Local Plan 2020 to 2035

• The number of homes allocated for flood zone 2 area e g 5,500 homes in a flood risk 2 area

• The number of homes allocated to be built in a flood zone 3a and 3b e g 3,000 homes in flood risk zone 3a and 500 homes in zone 3b

• Details of any planned infrastructure flood defences that accompany the local plan e g a new hard wall to be installed along the river X, reducing X many homes from a high risk to medium risk.

If the information is not possible to put into a spreadsheet, please provide the information in its existing format, rather than rejecting this FOI request

Information provided in Excel format, which is available upon request

1.  Please indicate whether your local authority has formally adopted the socio-economic duty (Section 1 of the Equality Act 2010). For this purpose, ‘adoption’ of the socio-economic duty, means that the authority must have either passed a motion at full council that adopts the duty, approved adoption via delegated decision or have agreed it via the council’s executive or cabinet. Please provide any relevant documentation to support your response

2. Does your local authority consider socio-economic status within all its Equality Impact Assessments and equality frameworks? Please provide any relevant documentation to support your response 

3. Has your local authority made a commitment to considering socio-economic status more broadly in strategic decision-making and policy development? Please provide any relevant documentation to support your response 

4. If your local authority has formally adopted the socio-economic duty (as described in question 1), please describe how the council has implemented the duty, or provide details relating to any future plans it has for implementation 

5. If your local authority has not formally adopted the socio-economic duty (as described in question 1), are there future plans to adopt it? If so, please indicate the timeline that this will happen within

North Devon Council’s Equality Strategy was adopted by Strategy and Resources Committee on 1 July 2019 (Minute 21), approved by Council on 24 July 2019 (Minute 39k)

Equality and Diversity information, including Equality Impact Assessments and policy, is in the public domain on the North Devon Council website and this can be found at; Equality and diversity (northdevon.gov.uk)

How North Devon Council is meeting its duties under the Equality Act can be found here; Delivering equality (northdevon.gov.uk)

In addition, the Council also provided North Devon Council’s Equality Impact Assessment form which is available upon request

CON29 information relating to a property at EX16 9JH

Applicant provided with the information, where held and also directed to the Council’s website for some of the information

1. Is the Council, or has the Council ever been, signed up to the Rough Sleeping Support Service?

2. Since January 1st 2018, how many non-British homeless people have been referred by the Council to the Home Office, under the Rough Sleeping Support Service?

1. No

2. Zero

1. Does the Council use the power under s206(2) Housing Act 1996 to charge homeless people for temporary accommodation? 

2. Does the Council hold any policies or internal guidance documents relating to charges for temporary accommodation, including on what constitutes a ‘reasonable’ charge in relation to s206(2) Housing Act 1996. If so, what is the content of the policies of guidance? 

3. If the Council has charged homeless people for temporary accommodation, please provide information on the following for the past calendar year: 

• The number of people charged

• The total income received by the Council from any charges

• How many people paid such charges directly to the Council, rather than via charges taken directly from Universal Credit or other social security entitlements

1. The Council will charge a contribution to those going into B&B type accommodation, this is cover shortfalls in Housing Benefit (HB) application (i e heating, hot water, breakfast) for those going into self-contained. The Council will apply for the HB costs to be paid directly to the authority, if however there is a shortfall due to income the Council will then look to re-charge this amount to the client

2. Each client will have a Temporary Accommodation (TA) pack completed, included in this will be the breakdown of costs, the reasons for the changes etc

3. Bullet 1 = 281

Bullet 2 = £28,296.34 (2020/21)

Bullet 3 = Each placement a HB form is completed and all payments are made direct to the Council, as it is a TA placement the authority does not take from Universal Credit housing costs

1. The expiry date of the Council’s existing contract with the electric scooter rental provider in its local authority

2. Confirm whether this contract would need to be re-procured under the Council’s existing procurement rules if the Council wishes to extend the trial

1.The expiry date for our existing contract with the electric scooter rental provider in North Devon is March 31st 2022

2. We would not re-procure the contract as the extension is to the existing trial/contract, there are no new terms and conditions as part of this. The extension is part of a change to the national trial conditions that the Department of Transport are setting and we are extending our local trial in accordance with that

For the financial years 2019, 2020 and 2021 to date the costs incurred to the local authority to reprocess applications for housing and council benefit support caused by details of persons in receipt of a military pension under the Armed Forces Pension Scheme not being available in April at the start of the tax year caused by Equinity Paymaster?

The Council does not hold the requested information in a way that it can be easily provided.  The only way in which it can be would require an officer within the Benefits team to manually go through 543 customer accounts with a private pension on their claim. It would take at least 5 minutes to check if the pension was paid by Equinity Paymaster. The officer would have to use the teams filing system as well as a calculation to determine how much of an assessors time it would take to update these claims with the updated Equinity Paymaster pension.  This process would take in excess of 45 hours to check all 543 customer accounts and therefore this would far exceed the 18 hours cost limit under Section 12 of the Act

The following information on the Household Support Scheme as of 31st December: 

1. The total amount of funding allocated to the Council from the Household Support Fund 

2. The total amount of this funding that the Council allocated to be spent on vulnerable households with children 

3. If any funding was given directly to local charities, services or community groups, the total of this amount and the names of the organisations it was given to 

4. The criteria determined for eligibility to the scheme (e g must be in receipt of certain benefits, have less than a certain amount of savings) 

5. The format in which support from the Fund is provided (e g voucher, bank transfer, buying items directly for individuals) and any stipulations on what it must be spent on (e g vouchers for food or for fuel bills) 

6. If those determined as eligible for the scheme were automatically provided with support from the Fund or if they were required to apply 

7. The date at which applications opened for support from the Fund 

8. The total number of applications received for support from the Fund 

9. The total number of applications that were approved 

10. If applications are now closed, the date at which they closed

1. £192,000

2. N/A – allocation is based on applications

3. £0, all directly administered by North Devon Council

4. No set criteria, each case is determined on individual circumstances

5. Mix of BACS payment for fuel and vouchers specifically for food or white goods

6. All on application

7. 6 October 2021

8. 690

9. 310

10. N/A – still open as at 14 January 2022

A list of motor vehicles registered for public hire i e Taxi/Private Hire/Hackney Carriage that were either issued a new or renewal licence in the period 1st October 2021 to 31st December 2021 

Specifically:

Vehicle registration number      

Manufacturer (Make)            

Model                               

Licence issue date                        

Licence expiry date                      

Information provided to applicant in Excel format, which is available upon request

1. The Role Description/Job Specification of the Monitoring Officer

2. The Appeal Procedures in respect of the Monitoring Officer’s decisions/judgements

1. Applicant provided with this information in Word format, which is available upon request

2. No information is held because there is no internal appeals process for the decision for the decision of the Monitoring Officer

Once the Monitoring Officer has made a decision this is final and, as with any other decision made by a local authority, can only be challenged by way of a judicial review. If it is felt that the Monitoring Officer acted inappropriately in an administrative capacity then a customer can complain via the Council’s internal complaints procedures as referred to in the Council’s acknowledgement to the applicant

For the avoidance of doubt, this process cannot lead to the decision of the Monitoring Officer being overruled

1. The number of properties notified to the council as being holiday lets as of 1st November 2021, 1st November 2020, 1st November 2019 and 1st November 2018

2. The number of properties notified to the council as being a 'second home' as of 1st November 2021, 1st November 2020, 1st November 2019 and 1st November 2018

3. The total number of residential properties in the council area as of 1st November 2021, 1st November 2020, 1st November 2019 and 1st November 2018. Please advise if this figure does or does not include holiday lets

1.The number of non-domestic properties classed as self-catering units at:

01.11.2021 = 1758

01.11.2020 = 1558

01.11.2019 = 1447

01.11.2018 = 1319

2.The number of council tax properties classed as second homes at:

01.11.2021 = 1730

01.11.2020 = 1805

01.11.2019 = 1667

01.11.2018 = 1632

3.The total number of council tax properties at:

01.11.2021 = 47834

01.11.2020 = 47345

01.11.2019 = 46733

01.11.2018 = 46050

1. Does the council take any of its energy from on-site renewable energy installations? If so, which ones?

2. Are there any eco-friendly initiatives for staff members to partake in? e g green transport solutions, recycling initiatives. If so, please state them

3. Who is the main energy supplier for local council buildings, and are you on a green/renewable energy tariff with them?

1. No

2. We offer staff a loan for an annual season ticket for travel (including Park and Ride)

We also support a salary sacrifice payment cycle scheme. We are currently looking into whether this could be extended to cover Electric Vehicles

Our main office is out of town and pre-Covid we offered a shuttle bus service for staff. We were forced to suspend this service due to Covid restrictions and will consider whether to reinstate it if we have sufficient employees working from this office in the future

Office recycling for paper, card, cans, glass and food waste as well as separate toner cartridge collection

The number of deaths from 1 January 2021 to 31 December 2021 (inclusive) in each of the following housing situations in the Council’s area:

1. Accommodation for homeless people commissioned by the Council, including hostels and support accommodation for people identified as rough sleeping or with a history of rough sleeping

2. Temporary Accommodation commissioned by the Council

3. Supported accommodation for homeless young people commissioned by the Council Rough sleeping or with No Fixed Abode

1. Zero
2. Zero
3. Zero
4. Zero, No Fixed Abode = Information not recorded

1. How many properties (second/holiday homes) in the area are not paying Council Tax (and have opted to register as small businesses and pay Business Tax). Specific numbers if possible please and the ratio of paying to non-paying i e total numbers of properties in the area

2. If possible we would like to know separate numbers for Croyde and Georgeham North Buckland and Putsborough

3. Is there access to information on individual properties?

4. Can we access this data and extract the information ourselves?

In accordance with Section 21 of the Act the Council publishes quarterly business rates datasets which include the information requested by the applicant.  Applicant provided with a link to  all business rate datasets

In particular, applicant referred to the dataset called ‘All NDR Properties Occupied as at 31.12.2021’

This dataset can be downloaded and sorted in order to be able to extract the information required. It does provide the details of the individual properties; however in accordance with Section 40 of the Act (Data Protection) all personal data is redacted from the datasets prior to them being uploaded onto the website

CON29 information relating to a property a EX31 4SY

Applicant provided with the information, where held and also directed to the Council’s website for some of the information

For the financial year 2020-21, and from the start of financial year 2021 to 31 December 2021, for the following:

1. The number and cost of first class flights taken by council employees?

2. The number and cost of business class flights taken by council employees?

3. The number and cost of all flights taken by council employees?

4. Individual details of all the above flights including the price, the names of those who took the flights (if in line with GDPR etc), the destination and the purpose of the trip?

1. 2020/21 = Zero flights taken, £0 cost

2021/22 to 31.12.21 = Zero flights taken, £0 cost

2. 2020/21 = Zero flights taken, £0 cost

2021/22 to 31.12.21 = Zero flights taken, £0 cost

3. 2020/21 = Zero flights taken, £0 cost

2021/22 to 31.12.21 = Zero flights taken, £0 cost

4. Not Applicable

Applicant directed to a dataset published on its website

Vacant land and properties owned by the Council

Information for the financial year 2020-21, and from the start of financial year 2021 to 31 December 2021, for the following:

1. The total number (absolute number and full time equivalent) of local authority staff who are trade union representatives

2. The total number (absolute number and full time equivalent) of trade union representatives who spend at least 50% of their time on union duties

3. The number of days spent on union duties by authority staff

Applicant referred to the Council’s website where the information is published:

For the financial year 2020-21, and from the start of financial year 2021 to 31 December 2021, for the following:

1. How many trees have you planted?

2. How many trees have you removed/cut down/destroyed?

2020/2021 

1. Trees/whips planted 2020/2021 - 128

2. Trees removed 2020/2021 - 39 

2021/2022 to 31 December 2021 

1. Trees planted April 2021 - December 2021 - Three

2. Trees removed April – December 2021 - 16 

The council usually plant trees January - March and have 331 trees/whips planting for January -March 2022

Applicant advised that no Council workers have been on strike in the past 12 months

1. At waste/recycling tips within the council area, which waste and recycling is free to dispose of and for which waste/recycling are residents charged fees for?

2. Of these chargeable services, what is the cost of disposing of each waste / recycling item?

3. What is the average size of domestic recycling bins provided to residents by the council?

1. Applicant referred to Devon County Council
2. Applicant referred to Devon County Council
3. Recycling boxes are 55 litres for plastics and cans. Blue box for glass is 40 litres
4. 240 litre bins

1. The total number of council workers who went on strike, for whatever length of time, for the financial year 2020-2021

1. Nil

1. The total number of council workers who went on strike, for whatever length of time, for the financial year 2020-2021

1. Zero
2. Zero

1. Money spent on external public relations for the financial year 2020-2021, and from the start of financial year 2021 to 31 December 2021

2. Money spent on advertising for the financial year 2020-2021, and from the start of the financial year 2021 to 31 December 2021

3. Money spent on communications strategy for the financial year 2020-2021, and from the start of financial year 2021 to 31 December 2021

1. 2020/21 = £0

    2021/22 to 31.12.21 = £0

2. 2020/21 = £40,148

    2021/22 to 31.12.21 = £26,482

3. 2020/21 = £0

The council funding of public artwork: 

Please include the information for each of the following periods; 2019-20, 2020-21, 2021-22: 

• A full breakdown of any public artwork commissioned and funded by the council, including details on location and all costs including the cost of installation, commissioning and any incidentals. Please also include where relevant the difference, if any, between the expected cost and actual cost. Where a piece of public artwork has not yet been completed, please include the expected cost and the cost so far 

• Images of the public artwork, or an artist’s rendering if that’s not possible 

By public artwork I mean any artwork within the council’s remits which is publicly displayed and includes, but is not limited to, sculptures, mosaics, paintings, murals whether standalone or on bridges, walls or any other structures

2019/20 

Museum extension, which was part of the Long Bridge Wing.  The artwork was a late addition to the scheme and was necessary due to a planning condition “to incorporate artisan crafts details as recommended by Historic England” 

This was largely funded through a grant of £14,800 from Arts Council England, with installation incorporated within the existing build budget for the extension 

Spending 2019/20: 

£9,641 of which cost to Council was 28% = £2,671 

Expected spending based on Council’s share of budget for this year = £2,419 

Difference between expected and actual cost 2019/20 =  £252 

The artwork is installed on the outside of the Museum of Barnstaple and North Devon, EX32 8LN and comprises a frieze around the top of the building and two panels of tiles either side of the museum entrance, designed and made by a local artists together with local schoolchildren and volunteers. Three Images were provided to the applicant, which are available upon request 

2020/21 and 2021/22 = No information held that falls within the remit of the request

Under the freedom of information I require NDC to provide me with details for the last 5 years how much they have refused to refund over errors at the car parking machines in North Devon and how much money they have received at the machines for ungiven change

With regard to the first part of the request, the Council’s Parking Office confirms that they do not record the amounts of overpayments where the Council has refuse to refund over errors at car parking machines, therefore this information is considered to be not held for the purposes of the Act 

In response to the second part of the request, the Council publishes a dataset on its website which provides the annual over spend in the parking machines throughout North Devon from 2010/11 through to 2020/21 

The dataset was last updated in August 2021; therefore in accordance with Section 22 of the Act, the dataset will be updated with the 2021/22 data in August 2022

Concerning Local Authority Housing Stock: 

For the following questions, please provide data that was correct as of 31 March 2021. If this is not possible however please provide the most recent available data and specify the date of extraction (i e what date the data is correct as of): 

1. How many council-owned dwellings failed the decent home criteria by virtue of suffering from a category 1 hazard of ‘excess cold’? Please only include Class 1 hazard dwellings, and not those that fail because they do not have a reasonable degree of thermal comfort 

2. Of the council-owned dwellings with a class 1 excess cold hazard, how many are occupied? 

3. Of the council-owned homes with a class 1 excess cold hazard which are occupied, how many have not had work to address the cold hazard because the tenant refused to allow the work to be carried out? 

For the next question, I would like your most up to date snapshot. Please tell me: 

4. How many council-owned dwellings fail the decent homes standard by virtue of a) category 1 excess cold and b) not having a reasonable degree of thermal comfort. Please provide figures for a) and b) separately and specify how many any dwellings fall into both categories. Please tell me what date the data provided was extracted

 Finally, please provide answers to the next questions for the last five full financial years (2016/17, 2017/18, 2018/19, 2019/20, 2020/21), broken down by year: 

5. In the last five financial years, how much has the council spent to remove class 1 excess cold hazards from council owned dwellings? 

6. In the last five financial years, how much has the council spent to make council-owned dwellings ‘without a reasonable degree of thermal comfort’ decent? Please only include the money spent on improving the thermal comfort - for instance if a home was non-decent because it both had an unreasonable degree of thermal comfort and was not in a reasonable state of repair, please count only the money spent improving the thermal comfort 

7. In the last five financial years, how much has the council spent to prevent dwellings becoming non decent due to non-reasonable thermal comfort or due to having an excess cold category 1 hazard? 

8. In the last five financial years how much has the council paid out in grants to a) private renters and b) owner-occupiers to make improvements to a dwelling’s thermal comfort? Please break this data down by year, and provide separate data for renters and owner occupiers 

If the council has undergone a merger/structural change in the last five years, please provide the data for the predecessor councils where possible

Applicant advised that the Council does not have a Housing Stock; this was transferred to North Devon Homes Ltd, 21 February 2000

In which you requested for the years: 2018/19, 2019/20, 2020/21, 2021/22:

- The number of graffiti swastikas removed by the council for each year

- The cost of removing the swastikas for each year

Applicant advised that the Council does not record/hold this specific information

However, it does publish a dataset setting out the number reports of all graffiti to the Council broken down by reporting method (email, phone, website, in person) for the calendar years 2011 to and including 2020. The 2021 data is due for publication during February 2022

The Council does not record the cleaning costs associated with the removal of graffiti separately, they come under street sweeping

As of January 2022:

1. How many allotment sites are there in your jurisdiction for which the Council has access to waiting list data?

2. What is the total number of plots on these sites?

3. What is the total number of people on waiting lists for these sites?

4. Are any of these waiting lists closed to further applications?

5. How many people left the council ran allotments in 2021?

1. One
2. Seven
3. One
4. No
5. One

1. How many publicly-owned buildings and spaces were sold off in

1. a) 2017-18
2. b) 2018-19
3. c) 2019-20
4. d) 2020-21

Please provide a figure against each year

2. Do you have a strategy or policy in place for community ownership?

3. Please can you provide a link to said policy or strategy, if applicable?

1. A dataset listing Council Freehold Disposals and Acquisitions is in the public domain on the Council’s website. This dataset can be found within the linked Open Data, Council Assets webpage

2 and 3. Community right to bid information is in the public domain on the North Devon Council website