Disclosure Log - March 2021

1. Total number of Council vehicles, divided into cars and other vehicle types (2018, 2019, 2020)

2. Number of Council electric vehicles, divided into cars and other vehicle types (2018, 2019, 2020)

3. Cost of fuel for Council vehicles, divided into cars and other vehicle types (2018, 2019, 2020)

4. Amount paid for the purchase of new vehicles, divided into cars and other vehicle types (2018, 2019, 2020)

Operational Services (Waste and Recycling)

1. 2018 = One 2019 = One 2020 = One
2. 2018 = Zero 2019 = Zero 2020 = Zero
3. 2017/18 = £444,749 2018/19 = £480,228 2019/20 = £448,714
4. 2017/18 = £621,391 2018/19 = £911,177 2019/20 = £211,015

Operational Services (Parking)

1. 2018 = Five 2019 = Five 2020 = Six (one used by Estates team)
2. 2018 = Zero 2019 = Zero 2020 = Zero
3. 2018 = £6,558.50 2019 = £7,686.81 2020 = £5,388.16
4. Leases 2018 = £14,326.28 2019 = £15,209.23 2020 = £15,572.49

All vehicles used by the team are vans and they have included the vehicle used by the Estates team (which falls under the remit of Resources service area, however the vehicle originated from the Parking team and the information is held by Parking they respond on their behalf

 Environmental Health and Housing (Environmental Protection)

1.2018 = Two  2019 = Two  2020 = Two

2.2018 = Zero  2019 = Zero  2020 = Zero

3.2018/19 = £3,281.59  2019/20 £1,773.80  2020/21 = £1,698.36

4.No vehicles purchased in 2018, 2019, or 2020

Environmental Health and Housing (Housing)

1.2018 = One  2019 = One  2020 = One

2.2018 = Zero  2019 = Zero  2020 = Zero

3.2018/19 = £1,098.97  2019/20 = £2,502.42  2020/21 = £482.53

4.No vehicles purchased in 2018, 2019 or 2020

Information for all internal and external correspondence (including internal e-mails) relevant to the Council’s decision making process to issue the temporary stop notice under ENF12568

Batsworthy Cross Review of HLA Supplementary Report:

Applicant requested the operator's response to that attached officers communication 5 January 2021 and any further communications between these two parties

Officers required the operator respond within 14 days ie 19 January so the Planning Officer should now have the response

Enforcement attendance and outcomes at Valle Vue, Burrington, EX37 9NF over the last 12 years

1. How many vehicles are in your council's fleet? Please include make, model, petrol/diesel/electric, owned/leased

2. If you do lease your council's vehicles, who do you lease from?

3. Do you have telematics across your fleet? If so, who is this provided by?

4. Do you run your own refuse collection? If not, who does on behalf of you and how many vehicles do they operate?

Operational Services (Waste and Recycling)

1. Please refer to the attached spreadsheet (available upon request)

2. Mostly owned, some are leased. Telehandler from Mason Kings, Forklifts from StacaTruck

3. Some of the fleet do. Bartec, Track it now and Navman

4. Yes, in-house

Operational Services (Parking)

1. Four diesel vehicles (vans): 

Three = Ford Transit Connect

One = VW Caddy

2. All leased:

Two = Leaseplan

One = Kinto

One = Alphabet

3. No

4. Not Applicable

Environmental Health and Housing (Environmental Protection)

1. Two Ford Transit Connect, both diesel, both owned by the Council

2. N/A

3. No

4. N/A

Environmental Health and Housing (Housing)

1. One Vauxhall Astra, petrol, owned by the Council

2. N/A

3. No

4. N/A

Applicant advised that the Council does not maintain one single list regarding empty properties and that The Council no longer has a social housing stock (council housing) of its own, this was transferred to North Devon Homes Ltd in February 2000

The Council’s Business Rates team publishes, in accordance with Section 21 of the Act, a dataset of all empty commercial/business premises that fall under the billing remit on a quarterly basis: https://www.northdevon.gov.uk/open-data/?ID=7ED2F924-B000-4771-B16B-181DB316F4E1&DS=4005

For council owned land/properties, in accordance with Section 21 of the Act, please also refer to the following link datasets which are maintained by the Council’s Estates team: https://www.northdevon.gov.uk/open-data/?ID=1AA8AD7A-A7E0-4922-99B3-5FE3E0E23D1A&DS=4005

- Vacant, unused or underused land in Council area

-Vacant land and properties owned by the Council

With regard to empty private/residential homes/properties within the Council’s billing area, this information is withheld as disclosure under Section 31 of the Act would or would likely to prejudice – (A) the prevention or detection of crime.  Further to this the information is also considered to be exempt under Section 40 of the Act (Personal Data)

1. In 2020 how many times was your council’s Monitoring Officer tasked with investigating the actions of a (i) councillor for your authority or (ii) a parish councillor in relation to an allegation/claim that they had breached any code or guidance into how they should conduct themselves

2. For each case where the Monitoring Officer ruled there was a breach please provide details of the case and specifically (i) what council the councillor was a member of and (ii) a brief summary of the conduct and (iii) any sanction that was recommended

1. There were 9 complaints received as to breaches of the Councillor Code of Conduct in 2020

2. Of the 9 cases, there has been no case where the Monitoring Officer has ruled that there was a breach

Of the 9, there are 3 ongoing, whilst in 5 cases no finding of a breach was found, and in the other case any investigation became unnecessary on the resignation of the councillor

1. The number of noise, nuisance or anti-social behaviour complaints made against neighbours between January 1 2016 – December 31 2020

I would only like domestic incidents, not commercial (pubs, clubs etc)

2. Details on the nature or reasoning behind each complaint

Please provide the information in an Excel spreadsheet, with the date of the complaint and the town where the complaint was made

1. By month (from March 2020 to January 2021 inclusive, or to the latest month for which data is available), how many individuals have been supported under the Everyone In scheme?

2. Since March 2020, what is the total number of individuals supported by the Everyone In scheme who have been:

a) placed in emergency accommodation

b) placed in temporary accommodation

c) placed in settled or supported accommodation

d) recorded as no longer being supported/have not been housed

3. How many of those in answer 2C have been placed in:

i)privately-rented accommodation

ii)council or housing association homes

iii)supported housing

4. By month (from April 2020 to January 2021 inclusive, or to the latest month for which data is available) how many households have been recorded as homeless (‘owed the relief duty’)?

5. Since April 2020, what is the total number of households recorded as ‘owed the relief duty’ who have been:

i)placed in emergency accommodation

ii)placed in temporary accommodation

iii)placed in settled or supported accommodation

iv)accepted under a main duty decision

v)recorded as no longer being supported/have not been housed

vi)also accommodated under the Everyone In scheme

6. How many of those in answer 5 were recorded as having slept rough at the time of application?

1. Total 56 between March 2020 and February 2021

Please note the below includes duplicate clients if remained in accommodation from one month to the next:

March 2020 3 evidenced rough sleepers in temporary accommodation

April 2020  10  evidenced rough sleepers in temporary accommodation

May 2020 13 rough sleepers / at risk of rough sleeping in temporary accommodation

June 2020 16 rough sleepers / at risk of rough sleeping in temporary accommodation

July 2020 8 rough sleepers / at risk of rough sleeping in temporary accommodation

August 2020 8 rough sleepers / at risk of rough sleeping in temporary accommodation

September 2020 9 rough sleepers / at risk of rough sleeping in temporary accommodation

October 2020 date 9 rough sleepers / at risk of rough sleeping in temporary accommodation

November 2020 9 rough sleepers / at risk of rough sleeping in temporary accommodation

December 2020 8 rough sleepers / at risk of rough sleeping in temporary accommodation

January 2021 8 rough sleepers / at risk of rough sleeping in temporary accommodation

February 2021 8 rough sleepers / at risk of rough sleeping in temporary accommodation

2. a) 9

    b) 32

    c) 43

    d) 4

3. i) 6

    ii) 3

    iii) 34

4. April = 48

    May = 36

    June = 57

    July = 34

    Aug = 42  

    Sept = 46

    Oct = 34

    Nov = 49

    Dec = 26

    Jan = 44

    Feb = 30

5. i) As below

    ii)  245

    iii) 178

    iv)160 

     v) 62 No Accommodation Outcome – 2 x   Custody 27 x NFA NOT rough sleeping – 12 x Rough Sleeping

    vi) 18

6. Approximately 10

The income (Pay and Display, RingGo payments) received from car parks with EX34 postcode as follows:

2017/18 = £615,712.30

2018/19 = £619,790.90

2019/20 = £619,790.90

2020/21 = £431,123.05 (up to January 2021)

The money received from car park income is not directly reinvested back into the specific geographical area. All income received from Council car parks goes towards the running of Council car parks service and maintaining the car parks themselves, with any surplus going towards delivering everyday services such as rubbish and recycling collections, cleaning and maintaining public toilets, providing parks and play areas and keeping streets clean to name but a few

If the Council did not raise any income from parks and other council fees and charges, it would be faced with providing fewer services or raising Council Tax levels in order to achieve a balanced budget and provide these much needed services to our communities

Separate decisions are made around larger capital investment projects that the Council deliver which are funded either directly from the above revenue budget; funded through external loan borrowing costs or through external grant funding that has been applied for and successfully received

1. What were the total number of planning applications in the 2018, 2019 and 2020 calendar years?

2. Of these applications, how many were retrospective applications rather than applications in advance of development?

3. What were the total number of applications for certificates of lawfulness of existing use or development (CLEUD), where use or development already existed in the 2018, 2019 and 2020 calendar years? These are sometimes known as lawful development certificates or certificates of lawful use. Applicant does not want any details on CLOPUD applications

1.2018 = 1,486

   2019 = 1,490

   2020 = 1,479

2. 2018 = 74

    2019 = 57

    2020 = 69

3. 2018 = 32

   2019 = 25

1. How many fines have you issued for the illegal use of wood burning stoves between January 2015 - February 2021? Please can you provide me with a breakdown of the number of fines for each year

2. Are there any smoke Controlled Areas in the region, and if so where are they?

1. No fines have been issued during the requested period

2. No, the there are none within the Council’s area

Please provide anonymised raw data for the protected characteristics of age-group, gender and ethnicity for successful and unsuccessful job applicants to all roles at Local Government Officer level (or equivalent) at your council over the period ranging from 01/01/2016 - 31/12/2020

1. If unsuccessful applicant data is only retained for a shorter period, please provide whatever historical amount is retained. If no data on unsuccessful applicants is retained, please fulfil the part of the request for data pertaining to successful applicants in any case

2. Also, if it is quicker to simply provide all demographic data (i e covering more characteristics than those identified above) feel free

What percentage of successful applicants to all jobs at your council were white males over 50-years-old in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020?

What percentage of all applicants to all jobs at your council were white males over 50-years-old in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020?

Due to the way the information is recorded by Human Resources, they are unable to provide it broken down by calendar year. Instead, they are able to provide for the whole period: 

138 total recruitments between 2016 – 2020

40 successful candidates white male, over 50 = 28 %

91 all candidates white male, over 50 = 65 %

The above response is based upon the Information is based that is held as follows:

- Information relating to unsuccessful candidates is only kept for six months after the recruitment, so HR can only provide information from 1st October 2020

 - Information relating to successful candidates – current staff - can provide

- Information relating to successful candidates, but ex staff –  can provide because the time frame is less than six years

1. How many people in total has your authority accommodated (for at least one night) under the ‘Everyone In’, ‘Protect’ or ‘Protect Plus’ initiatives since March 2020?

2. Of the total number set out in (1) above, how many people are:

(a) in emergency accommodation

(b) in settled accommodation

(c) in supported accommodation

(d) reconnected with family or friends

(e) no longer accommodated, having left accommodation without move on accommodation

(f) no longer accommodated, (no destination recorded)?

3. Of the total number set out in (1) above, how many people have also been recorded by the authority on the H-CLIC recording system as being owed a prevention or relief duty under the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017?

4. Regarding those not eligible for housing support under the Housing Act 1996, Part 7:

(a) Following the announcement of Everyone In on 26 March 2020, did your authority accommodate people who were ineligible for housing support under that initiative? If so, how many?

(b) Does your authority continue to accommodate people who are ineligible for housing support? If so, how many?

c) How many people judged to be, or at risk of, sleeping rough have been turned down for housing support since 26th March 2020 because they were judged to be ineligible for housing support?

(d) If your authority no longer, as a matter of policy, accommodates people who are ineligible for housing support, when was that policy decision made and for what reason? Please provide a copy of the decision

5. Please provide a copy of your authority’s most recent rough sleeping ‘move on’ plan. This is the plan that was requested to be updated by the end of 2020 by the Secretary of State for Housing and Communities in his announcement of 5 November 2020.1 Please share your authority’s information excluding any information which could be considered personal information under the Data Protection Act 2018

1. 56 rough sleepers

2.a) Nine

   b) Nine

   c) 34

   d) One

    e) Three

    f) Zero

3. One

4.a) At the beginning of April, 20 were in Temporary Accommodation

b) Yes, at present eight are in Temporary Accommodation

c) None

d) Not Applicable

5. Copy of plan provided, which is available upon request

1. Do you have any specific age friendly practices to support the recruitment of older workers aged over 50? Yes or no. If yes, please outline your policy briefly

2. Are job descriptions for posts advertised externally assessed for ageist language that could exclude older workers? Yes or no. If yes, please state which online word checkers you have used

3. How many any age discrimination claims by workers aged over 50 have been made against your organisation in courts or tribunals in the last 5 years? For each case, please supply court/tribunal reference

1. No

2. No

3. None

1.All communications since 31st January 2021 between North Devon Council and RES, the operator of the wind turbines at Batsworthy Cross

2. All communications since 6th November 2020 between North Devon Council and Environmental Health's noise consultant, Mr Davis (regardless of whether he is operating under his name, under Robert Davis Associates or under 24 Acoustics)

Please can you provide me the details of any meetings/discussions held since the year 2000 regarding possible development opportunities on Foote Farm, Church Street, Georgeham EX33 1JL

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

1. As of 26th February 2021 (or the most recently available date), please could you tell me how many private and council homes have been vacant in your authority for the following numbers of financial years*:

a.        Less than one year (ie current financial year)

b.        One year

c.        Two years

d.        Three years

e.        Four years

f.         Five years

g.        Six years

h.        Seven years

i.         Eight years

j.         Nine years

k.        Ten years

l.         11 - 19 years

m.       20 or more years

 *Please treat ‘years’ as financial years. If a home has been listed as empty within the current financial year, I would expect this to be listed as ‘less than one year’

Please could you break this information down by:

Column a) The ‘number of years’

Column b) ‘Private’ or ‘council’ home - a separate count for private, and council, if available

Column c) The number of vacant homes

2. For the last five financial years (2016/2017 - 2020/2021), please can you tell me how many homes that had been vacant for two or more years were demolished in your authority?

Please could you break this information down by:

Column a) The financial year

Column b) The number of homes demolished

3. For the last five financial years (2016/2017 - 2020/2021), please can you tell me how many reports related to squatting in a council-owned vacant property you have received?

Please could you break this information down by:

Column a) The financial year

Column b) The number of reports related to squatting

4. For the last five financial years (2016/2017 - 2020/2021) how much money has your council raised from charging extra council tax on homes that have been vacant for two or more years?

Please could you break this information down by:

Column a) The year

Column b) The amount raised via council tax paid on vacant dwellings

If time or cost restraints are an issue with this request, please can you prioritise the questions in this order: 1, 2, 3, 4

Q1 Year – for all properties this is held in the following dataset for 2016 – 2019:

https://www.northdevon.gov.uk/open-data/?ID=C3DE6456-01E7-45A6-BC92-99A4332B65FE&DS=4005   

As at 28.02.21:

Empty properties - unoccupied and unfurnished for up to 3 months = 271

Empty properties - unoccupied and unfurnished for more than 3 months but less than 24 months = 681

Empty properties - unoccupied and unfurnished for - more

than 24 months but less than 60 months = 86

Empty properties - unoccupied and unfurnished for - more than 60 months = 45

For the number of years (a to m), this information is not recorded in a way that it can be provided (other than the above) and so the only way it could be gathered would require a manual process.  The system report used identifies properties that are empty as show above. It does not report on the actual number of years.  An officer would need to manually look up each property to identify the length of time it has been empty and then collate the information into a spreadsheet

Section 12 of the Act makes provision for public authorities to refuse requests for information where the cost of dealing with them would exceed the appropriate limit, which for Local Authorities is set at £450 by the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004. This represents the estimated cost of one person spending 18 hours at £25 per hour in determining whether the Council holds the information, locating, retrieving and collating the information

It has been estimated that it would take approximately 37 hours to provide the requested information. The procedure would cause serious disruption to the day to day working of the Revenues team and therefore we are unable to process your request/this part of your request any further. As set out in the previous paragraph, the Council has the right to refuse to provide the information in accordance with Section 12 of the Act

2. This information is not recorded by the Council

3. This information is not recorded by the Council

4. As follows:

2016/2017 = £76,023.90

2017/2018 = £86,480.72

2018/2019 = £83,950.97

2019/2020 = £181,143.25

2020/2021 as 28.02.2021 = £247,279.11

Between the dates of 16th March 2020 and 1st March 2021:

1. How many people, or concerns, contacted the council to advise of an illegal eviction by a landlord in the area you cover?

2. How many of these cases have been investigated and by whom?

3. How many of these cases have resulted in a court order?

4. How many of these cases of illegal evictions were because tenants fell into rent arrears due to the pandemic?

5. How many tenants whom have been illegally evicted are now in hostels and other temporary accommodation?

6. How many of these cases involve children?

7. How many have been offered alternative housing outside of the borough and how far away? (Please answer in miles)

1.       One

2.       Housing Officer

3.       Zero

4.       Zero

5.       Zero

6.       Zero

7.       Zero

a) By what percentage does the Council plan to increase council tax by in 2021-22?

b) Providing that the Council are increasing council tax, much does the Council estimate the rise will raise in 2021-22?

I assume in setting the Budget the council will know how much additional funding it will raise

c) if the funding generated via council tax increases has been earmarked for specific services, please list what services they include

a) 65%

b) £139,672

The FOI is relevant to how many unaccompanied asylum seeking children (UASC) has your council volunteered to support since 2018-2020. Please could I have the following information broken down separately for each question by individual year

 1. Please could I have the total of UASC your council has cared for in 2018, 2019, 2020

 With a further breakdown of that total:

2. Total number of UASC accepted and cared for through the National Transfer Scheme during 2018, 2019, 2020 (breakdown separate for each year please)

3. Total number of UASC accepted and cared for through the DUBS transfer scheme during 2018, 2019, 2020 (breakdown separate for each year please)

4. Total number of UASC accepted and cared for through the pan-London rota referral scheme during 2018, 2019, 2020 (breakdown separate for each year please)

5. Total number of UASC accepted and cared for through the VCRS (the Vulnerable Children Resettlement Scheme) during 2018, 2019, 2020 (breakdown separate for each year please)

6. Total number of UASC accepted and cared for after spontaneous arrival during 2018, 2019, 2020 (breakdown separate for each year please)

7. Total number of UASC accepted and cared for via any other scheme/means of arrival during 2018, 2019, 2020 (breakdown separate for each year please)

No noise complaints are recorded against The Mariners Arms, South Street, Braunton 

A complaint was received in June 2019 reporting odour from cannabis in the beer garden

Local Restrictions Support Grants (LRSG), Additional Restrictions Grant (ARG)

Please advise if any Covid-related benefit payment or grant has been disbursed by your authority to any of the following:

Albrighton and Woodland Hunt

Ashford Valley Tickham Hunt

Atherstone Hunt

Avon Vale Foxhounds

Axe Vale Hunt

Badsworth and Bramham Moor Foxhounds

Barlow Hunt

Bedale Hunt

Belvoir Hunt

Berkeley Hunt

Bewcastle Hunt

Bicester with Whaddon Chase Hunt

Bilsdale Hunt

Blackmore and Sparkford Vale Hunt

Blankney Hunt

Blencathra Foxhounds

Border Counties Mink Hounds

Border Hunt

Braes of Derwent Hunt

Brocklesby Foxhounds

Burton Hunt

Cambridgeshire Hunt with Enfield Chace

Cattistock Hunt

Cheriton Hunt

Cheshire Forest Hunt

Cheshire Hunt

Chiddingfold, Leconfield and Cowdray Hunt

Cleveland Hunt

Clifton-on-Teme Hunt

College Valley and North Northumberland Hunt

Coniston Foxhounds

Cotley Hunt

Cotswold Hunt

Cotswold Vale Farmers Foxhounds

Cottesmore Hunt

Courtenay Tracy Hounds

Crawley and Horsham Hunt

Croome and West Warwickshire Foxhounds

Culmstock Hunt

Cumberland Farmers Hunt

Cumberland Foxhounds

Cury Hunt

Dartmoor Hunt

Derwent Hunt

Devon and Cornwall Minkhounds

Dove Valley Mink Hounds

Duke of Beaufort's Hunt

Dulverton Farmers Hunt (formerly the Dulverton East Foxhounds)

Dulverton West Foxhounds

East Cornwall Hunt

East Devon Hunt

East Essex Hunt

East Kent Foxhounds

East Kent with West Street Hunt

East Sussex and Romney Marsh Foxhounds

Eastern Counties Minkhounds

Eggesford Foxhounds

Eskdale and Ennerdale Foxhounds

Essex and Suffolk Hunt

Essex Farmers and Union Hunt

Essex Hunt

Exmoor Foxhounds

Farndale Hunt

Fernie Hunt

Fitzwilliam (Milton) Hunt

Four Burrow Hunt

Glaisdale Foxhounds

Goathland and Glaisdale Hunt

Goathland Foxhounds

Grafton Hunt

Grove and Rufford Hunt

Hampshire Hunt

Hampshire Minkhounds

Haydon Hunt

Heythrop Hunt

Holderness Hunt

Hursley Hambledon Hunt

Hurworth Hunt

Isle of Wight Foxhounds

Kent and Sussex Mink Hounds

Kimblewick Hunt

Lamerton Hunt

Ledbury Hunt

Ludlow Hunt

Lunesdale Foxhounds

Melbreak Foxhounds

Mendip Farmers Hunt

Meynell and South Staffordshire Hunt

Mid Devon Foxhounds

Middleton Hunt

Moorlands Hunt

Morpeth Hunt

New Forest Hounds

Norfolk Mink Hounds Hunting Club

North Cornwall Foxhounds

North Cotswold Hunt

North Herefordshire Hunt

North Ledbury Hunt

North Lonsdale Foxhounds

North Pennine Hunt

North Shropshire Hunt

North Staffordshire Hunt

North Tyne Hunt

Northamptonshire Mink Hounds

Northern Counties Hunt

Oakley Hunt

Old Berkshire Hunt

Old Surrey Burstow and West Kent Hunt

Pennine Foxhounds

Percy Hunt

Portman Hunt

Puckeridge Hunt

Pytchley Hunt

Quorn Hunt

Radnor and West Hereford Hunt

Royal Artillery Hunt

Saltersgate Farmers Hunt

Seavington Hunt

Silverton Foxhounds

Sinnington Hunt

Sir Watkin Williams-Wynns Hunt (the Wynnstay)

South and West Wilts Hunt

South Devon Hunt

South Dorset Hunt

South Durham Hunt

South Herefordshire Hunt

South Notts Hunt

South Shropshire Hunt

South Tetcott Hunt

South Wold Hunt

Southdown and Eridge Hunt

Spooners and West Dartmoor Hunt

Staintondale Hunt

Stevenstone Hunt

Suffolk Hunt

Surrey Union Hunt

Taunton Vale Foxhounds

Tedworth Hunt

Teme Valley Minkhounds

Tetcott Hunt

Three Counties Mink Hounds

Thurlow Hunt

Tiverton Foxhounds

Torrington Farmers Hunt

Tynedale Hunt

Tynedale Mink Hunt

Ullswater Foxhounds

United Pack

Vale of White Horse Hunt

Valley Mink Hounds

Vine and Craven Hunt

Warwickshire Hunt

Wealden Mink Hounds

Wensleydale Foxhounds

West Norfolk Foxhounds

West of Yore Hunt

West Percy Hunt

West Somerset Foxhounds

West Somerset Vale Hunt

Western Hunt

Wheatland Hunt

Wilton Hunt

Woodland Pytchley Hunt

Worcestershire Hunt

York and Ainsty North Hunt

York and Ainsty South Hunt

Zetland Hunt

The total number of noise complaints relating to construction work that the council has received from March 2018 to end of Feb 2021, broken down into monthly figures

Where the information is available, please specify (in separate columns) how many of the construction noise complaints came from residential addresses/business addresses/unknown addresses

If you do not have specific information regarding construction noise complaints available, I would like the total number of noise complaints between the specified dates (again, month by month). In this case, please highlight that this figure refers to ALL noise complaints

The number of construction noise complaints for the months March 2018 to and including February 2021 are as follows:

Mar-18 = 2

Apr-18 = 3

May-18 = 3

Jun-18 = 1

Jul-18 = 8

Aug-18 = 2

Sep-18 = 0

Oct-18 = 1

Nov-18 = 0

Dec-18 = 0

Jan-19 = 0

Feb-19 = 1

Mar-19 = 2

Apr-19 = 1

May-19 = 5

Jun-19 = 0

Jul-19 = 1

Aug-19 = 2

Sep-19 = 1

Oct-19 = 2

Nov-19 = 1

Dec-19 = 1

Jan-20 = 1

Feb-20 = 0

Mar-20 = 1

Apr-20 = 0

May-20 = 0

Jun-20 = 2

Jul-20 = 2

Aug-20 = 4

Sep-20 = 1

Oct-20 = 2

Nov-20 = 3

Dec-20 = 0

Jan-21 = 3

Feb-21 = 1

1. Do you have any Filament Light-bulbs in buildings (offices etc), if so are these scheduled to be upgraded, if so when? Also please provide number of filament bulbs

2. Do you have a current count of how many LED bulbs you are using?

3. Do you have any Halogen Bulbs, if so are these scheduled to be upgraded, if so when? Also please provide number of Halogen bulbs

4. The average yearly costs of replacing/upgrading bulbs and the price paid per bulb

5. The energy usage from lighting council buildings broken down by each month from Jan - December 2020. (If this information is not available, total building energy consumption will suffice)

6. Do you have a policy for light bulb purchases currently in place?

7. What percentage of your lighting is using efficient LED Luminaries?

1. This is unknown. If there are any left it will be low numbers

2. No, this information is not held

3. Yes, fittings are upgraded when broken. No schedule in place to upgrade them. The number of halogen lamps is not held

4. The Council pays app average cost £300 per year for replacement lamps. 25w four pin at £2.70, T5 tubes at £2.12. In addition the Council instructed contractors to replace lamps on our behalf, app average cost £500 per annum; the cost of the lamp is not separate in the invoice

5. Energy for lighting is not captured separately. Total energy consumption for 2019/20 = £155,293.52 split over 62 assists

6. No, the Council replaces with LED when current fittings break/found to be faulty

7. This information is not held

1. Did North Devon Council send submissions to the Independent Review of Administrative Law and Judicial Review in response for its request for evidence?

2. If so, what are the exact contents of those submissions to the Independent Review? 

1. No, it did not

2. Not Applicable

The following information about the ‘Everyone In’ support scheme for rough sleepers during the Covid-19 pandemic:

1.Based on the data you have already provided for the Government dataset ‘Coronavirus (COVID-19) emergency accommodation survey data: November 2020’ (which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-emergency-accommodation-survey-data-january-2021), how many of the total number of people listed as ‘currently being provided with emergency accommodation in response to Covid-19 pandemic’ in your local authority district (see Table 1) were;

1. Funded solely by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government’s ‘Everyone In’ scheme

2. Funded directly by the local authority because they had ‘No Recourse to Public Funds’ conditions attached to their immigration status

3. Funded directly by the local authority for another reason (please specify)

4. Funded by a source other than the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government or the local authority (please specify)

2. Based on the data you have already provided for the Government dataset ‘Coronavirus (COVID-19) emergency accommodation survey data: November 2020, how many of the total number of people listed as having ‘moved into settled accommodation or a rough sleeping pathway outside of temporary accommodation since the Covid-19 response began’ in your local authority district (see Table 2) were;

 1.Funded solely by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government’s ‘Everyone In’ scheme

2.Funded directly by the local authority because they had ‘No Recourse to Public Funds’ conditions attached to their immigration status

3.Funded directly by the local authority for another reason (please specify)

4.Funded by a source other than the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government or the local authority (please specify)

3. As of 28 January 2021;

1.How many people are currently being provided with emergency accommodation in response to the Covid-19 pandemic in your local authority district

2.Of those people currently being provided with emergency accommodation, how many have ‘No Recourse to Public Funds’ conditions attached to their immigration status

3.How many people have been moved into settled accommodation or a rough sleeping pathway outside of temporary accommodation since the Covid-19 response began in your local authority district

4.Of those people who have been moved into settled accommodation or a rough sleeping pathway outside of temporary accommodation, how many have ‘No Recourse to Public Funds’ conditions attached to their immigration status

1. 1. 40
2. 1
3. 0
4. 0

2. 1.N/A
3. 0
4. N/A
5. N/A

The Council does not have this breakdown data captured.  The majority would have been funded via MHCLG although some would have been funded via a Discretionary Housing Payment and others via alternative contracts such as Devon County Council’s Contribution to Homelessness

3. 1. 28
4. 0
5. 56

1. The names of all parks which have public toilets where there is a fee for the public to use them and how many public toilets in the proximity of each park

2. How much money each trip to each public toilet in the locations specified above costs

3. How much money the public toilets, in the locations as specified above (in proximity in a park or within a park), made between the dates of 23.3.20 and 10.3.21

1. None

2. N/A

3. None

4. N/A

For all Assets of Community Value (ACV) nominations the council have received (ie successful, pending, withdrawn and unsuccessful) received between 1 April 2020 to date (when my request is actioned)

I request the following information for each ACV nomination:

1. The nomination form and any supporting evidence supplied with the nomination form

2. Any response received from the owner of the nominated asset (or their representative) to the ACV nomination

3. If the nomination was decided by panel, any additional documents or briefing notes made available to the panel

1) How many overpayments did your council identify for claims made as part of Covid-related government grant schemes it administered (for example, but not limited to: small business rates grant scheme; retail, hospital and leisure grant scheme) over the stated period?

1a) If such overpayments did occur, please could you tell me the total frequency of/ reasons for /such overpayment (for example, but not limited to: 'payment error', 'ineligible claim', 'fraudulent claim')

1aa) For each of these overpayments please can you state: the cost to the council of the overpayment amount (in £); how much of its total has been recovered (in £) as of the current date, and how much money (in £) is outstanding as of the current date

 So, for instance, taking the 'fraudulent claim' category as an example, your council may have made overpayments worth £300,000 for 30 fraudulent claims, recovered £25,000 for 2 of them as of the current date, meaning there is £275,000 outstanding for 28

1b) In relation to the identified fraudulent claims, please can you break this information down in terms of what kind of fraud occurred (for example, but not limited to: 'organised fraud')

Discretionary funds/Tier 2 open scheme only:

1. Discretionary Funds: 5 'overpayments' in the time period stated.

Tier 2 Open Scheme:  no 'overpayments' in the time period stated.

1.a) Discretionary Funds:  The 5 'overpayments' occurred at two different periods - 2 in June 2020 and 3 in February 2021.  All 4 cases were detected post-payment and were found to be ineligible due to the applicant being awarded another covid-support grant

1.aa) Discretionary Funds: 2 payments (June 2020), totalling £5,000 have been fully reclaimed by the Council. 3 payments (February 2021), totalling £14,964 are in the process of being fully reclaimed by the Council

1.b) Discretionary Funds: None of the cases are deemed to be fraudulent. The applicants in all cases had submitted applications to both schemes in error.  In two cases (June 2020) the applicants believed one of the applications they submitted was deemed ineligible so applied for discretionary funds - later being informed their original application was being funded.  In both of these cases the applicants informed us that they believed they were in receipt of the discretionary grant in error. The 3 subsequent cases (February 2021) were similar - applicants were unsure which scheme to apply to, not being clear on which scheme supported applicants who were open and impacted

Revenues

1. Five

1.a) All five ineligible claims.

1.aa) - 5 ineligible claims totalling £32,668

Recovered 3 totalling £30,000

Still to collect 2 totalling £2,668

March 2020 = 0

April 2020 = 40

May 2020 = 42

June 2020 = 42

July 2020 = 23

August 2020 = 5

September 2020 = 0

October 2020 = 0

November 2020 = 0

December 2020 = 0

January 2021 = 0

1. Please inform me what questions were used in the interview for the Monitoring Officer/Head of Legal/Deputy Head of Legal roles?

2. Please inform me of the guided/model answers for the above interview?

3. Please inform me about what the interview comprised,  i e interview and presentation? psychometric testing?

4. Was an external organisation instructed to carry out the above process?

1. This information is no longer held. Recruitment information is kept for up to 12 months after the vacancy (the most recent vacancy for those job titles listed was July 2019). Questions and answers from the successful candidate is not kept on their file

2. This information is no longer held

3. This information is no longer held. The Council does not use psychometric testing

4. No, it was carried out in-house

1. How many such funerals has the Council arranged since 1st January 2020?

2. In each case please disclose:

a) The name and last residential address of the deceased

b) The deceased’s dates of birth and death

c) Whether the deceased’s next of kin/family members have been traced

d) Whether the deceased’s estate has been referred to the Government Legal Department or elsewhere

3. Has the Council passed this information to any other individual or organisation (either formally through a FOI request or by other means)?

4. Does the Council work with any genealogist? If so, which?

5. Does the Council publish a list of Public Health Funerals it has arranged? If so:

a) Where is the list published (please provide web url if on-line)?

b) How often is the list updated?

c) When was the list last updated?

6. Who in the Council is responsible for the Council’s Public Health Funerals? Please advise us of their names and contact details

1. This information is published within the Council’s monthly Public Health dataset, via the following link:

https://www.northdevon.gov.uk/open-data/?ID=6D869870-EF56-455D-8985-3B36CA7B9D34&DS=4005

a) to d) Please refer to the published dataset

3.No, the information is publicly available, so any requests for this information are directed to the above dataset

4. No

5.Yes, please see the link provided above

a) As provided in response above

b) Monthly

c) 16 February. The dataset is currently being updated for publication this week (week commencing 22 March 2021)

6.Andy Cole, Service Lead - Environmental Protection

CON29 information relating to a property at EX36 3FH

Applicant advised that no information is held

Please can you provide me with the name and email address of your Revenues Manager for your Council Tax and NNDR Section

If this position does not exist, please can you provide me with the most suitable alternative

If your local authority has outsourced your Revenue and Benefits section, please can you provide me with the company who is now responsible and the Revenues Manager responsible

Julie Dark

Revenues and Benefits Manager

North Devon Council

PO Box 379, Barnstaple, EX32 2GR

julie.dark@northdevon.gov.uk  

The Council’s Revenues and Benefits department is not outsource

Note for all of the following questions – please provide your metrics/responses pre-Covid levels (ie normal operation of air-conditioning

1. Is your system an air-conditioning system or recirculated air system?

2. Please supply the supplier name/model of your air-con system?

2a) Is the system manual or computer controlled (automatic or allows some user intervention)

3. Please state how you comply with Regulation 5 (Maintenance of mechanical ventilation systems) and Regulation 6 (effective ventilation) of The Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992?

4. Does the system have an alarm to warn of failure in the system specifically in relation to the general ventilation to reduce concentrations of contaminants?

5. Air recirculation – is this filtered (eg by AHU’s) and adequately filtered to remove particulates?

6. Where are the office inflow ducts located (floor or ceiling)?

7. Where are the exhaust or stale air extract ducts located?

8. What proportion (percentage or ratio) of fresh air mix is supplied into the offices?

9. What is the rate of fresh air flow in litres per second per person?

10. What is the average air flow velocity?

11. Does the system have a humidifier to regulate humidity and what is the setting?

12. Does the system use filters (i e HEPA filters) in respect of air intake?

13. How often are these filters checked and replaced

14. How often is the air-conditioning system cleaned, checked and maintained?

15. What chemicals do you use to clean the system?

16. Do you have local exhaust ventilation (LEV) in the offices?

17. Do you have a system to monitor CO2 PPM and what is the threshold PPM of CO2 set at to open vents/windows to flush CO2?

18. How many complaints have been made in relation to the offices or ‘Sick Building Syndrome’ by employees in calendar years 2017, 2018 and 2019?

19. TM44 – when is your next assessment due, and who will be the assessor?

1. It is an air conditioning system but it recirculates air through the fan coil to heat or cool

2. Mitsubishi and Daikin

2.a) It has a central controller, which can be altered along with local rooms controllers

3. Checked, cleaned and serviced by independent contractors

4. No

5. Yes, filtered

6. Ceiling

7. Ceiling

8. Data not held. This would need to be measured/calculated

9. Data not held. This would need to be measured/calculated

10. Data not held. This would need to be measured/calculated

11. No

12. G4 pleated panel

13. Six months

14. Six months

15. Codencide and easycare evaporator cleaner and disinfectant

16. No

17. No

18. None

19. Last completed May 2018. No assessor contracted to date

A list of business rates credits on business rates accounts that are live and those which have been closed and when the company moved out of the premises

• The name of the rate payer
• The start date of the business rates account
• If the account is still live or the date it ended
• The full property address of the property with the credit on
• The date /year of when the credit was created
• The full amount of credit you hold for the business

• Local Restrictions Support Grants (LRSG)
• Additional Restrictions Support Grant (ARG)
• Small Business Grants Fund (SBGF) - closed August 2020
• Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Business Grants Fund (RHLGF) - closed August 2020
• Local Authority Discretionary Grants Fund (LADGF) - closed August 2020

Please provide the following information for each of the schemes above separately:

1. How much money has been issued from the start of the scheme to date and to how many businesses?

2. How much money has been assessed as obtained fraudulently and how many businesses have been involved?

3. How much of the money identified in the answer to Q2 has been recovered to date?

4. Where fraud was identified how many of those cases have been referred to the authorities to date?

5. How much has been issued in error and to how many businesses? For each please explain what the error was

6. How much of the money issued in error identified in Q5 has been recovered to date?

7. What policy was in place to ensure that grants were not fraudulently obtained or granted in error to businesses?

Revenues and Benefits – responsible for:

• Local Restrictions Support Grants (LRSG)

• Small Business Grants Fund (SBGF) - closed August 2020

• Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Business Grants Fund (RHLGF) - closed August 2020

1. as follows:  

Local Restrictions Support Grants (LRSG)

LRSG – closed addendum lockdown 2 (5.11.2020 to 01.12.2020)

£2,701,044.00 – 1838 businesses

LRSG – closed Tier 2 (2.12.2020 to 30.12.2020)

£40,405.24 – 25 businesses

LRSG – closed Tier 3 (31.12.2020 to 04.01.2021)

£335,486.06 – 1294 businesses

LRSG – closed addendum lockdown 3 (5.01.2021 to date)

£8,712,164.00 – 1945 businesses

Small Business Grants Fund (SBGF) - closed August 2020 - £29,980,000.00 – 2998 businesses

Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Business Grants Fund (RHLGF) - closed August 2020 - £12,965,000.00 – 800 businesses

2.       None

3.       N/A

4.       N/A

5. Small Business Grants Fund (SBGF) – 3 businesses at £10,000 each. The error was in each case the applicant was not the ratepayer listed on the relevant date

LRSG – closed addendum lockdown 2 (5.11.2020 to 01.12.2020) – 2 businesses at £334.00 each The error in both cases was that the business was not mandated to close

6. £30,000 of the above has been recovered to date

7. A full range of pre-payment checks were undertaken to cover each aspect of eligibility

Economic Development responsible for:

• Local Authority Discretionary Grants Fund (LADGF) - closed August 2020

• Additional Restrictions Support Grant (ARG)

Local Authority Discretionary Grants Fund (LADGF) - closed August 2020

1. £2,255,000 distributed to 472 businesses

2. £0 none

3. N/A

4. N/A

5. £5,000 to 2 businesses, in both cases a discretionary grant was awarded and then the applicants were deemed eligible for the mandatory grants, so monies were reclaimed

6. £5,000 – all of the money

7. Guidelines from Government were followed in the design of the application forms and checking/verification processes

Additional Restrictions Support Grant (ARG)

1. £2,805,844 distributed to 856 businesses

2. £0 none

3. N/A

4. N/A

5. £16,064 to 5 businesses.  4 of the 5 cases had an additional restrictions grant awarded and then the applicants were deemed eligible for the mandatory grants.  For the final case the applicant was direct awarded a second grant under Lockdown 3.0 (for the Feb 16th – Mar 31st period) and asked for it to be refunded as applicant didn’t feel it was needed.  These all occurred in March 2021

6. £0 - Invoices are currently being raised to reclaim all the monies as per Q5

7. Guidelines from Government were followed in the design of the application forms and checking/verification processes

1. Type of hosting – Dedicated, Co-Location, Cloud Hosting, Other?

2. Who is the supplier of the contract? If possible can you also provide me with the name of the vendor, if applicable?

3. What is the annual contract value for each contract?

4. What type of cloud environment?

Private Cloud- a distinct and secure cloud based environment in which only the specified client can operate

Public Cloud - where cloud services are provided in a virtualized environment, constructed using pooled shared physical resources, and accessible over a public network such as the internet

Hybrid- integrated cloud service utilising both private and public clouds to perform distinct functions within the same organisation

5. What is the original start date of the contract agreement? If there are more than one contract please provide me with the start date for each contract

6. What is the actual expiry date of the contract agreement? If there are more than one contract please provide me with the expiry date for each contract

7. When will the organisation plan to review this contract? If there are more than one contract please provide me with the review date for each contract

8. What is the contract period in years? Please include whether the agreement has any extension periods?

9. What services are provided under the contract? Please do not put hosting information such as web hosting, file storage, hosted application. The more information the better

10. Can you please provide me with the contract officer responsible for this contract? Complete contact details if possible name, title, contact email and number

North Devon Council does not have a hosted environment contract

1. Do you outsource On Street Parking Services? If yes please list all the services

2. Do you outsource Off Street Parking Services? If yes please list all the services

3. Do you outsource back office Penalty Charge Notice Processing?

4. Do you outsource back office Penalty Charge Notice representations and appeal processing?

5. If yes to any of the above questions please can you advise:

a) Who are your current out sourced provider(s) and for which services?

b) Length of the outsourced enforcement contracts?

c) Contract renewal dates?

6. Please provide the name and email address of the person or persons responsible for all enforcement contracts?

1. Please contact Devon County Council for this information: accesstoinformation-mailbox@devon.gov.uk

2. Enforcement, recovery of debt

3. No

4. No

5. A) Enforcement Marston Holdings/Ross and Roberts but due to change from 01/04/21 to Dukes (Marstons are challenging this)

B) 2 years then reviewed above from April 2016 to date

C) 01.04.21 to 31.03.23 initially

6. Penny Grigg, Procurement Officer, procurement@northdevon.gov.uk

All properties within the Council’s Billing Authority area where there is either a credit held on the account or there was previously a credit which has now been written on

The fields required are all non-personal;

Primary Liable Party Name (Business Name)

Full Property Address

Postcode

Billing Authority Reference Number (Assessment Number)

Current Rateable Value

Credit Amount

Date Credit Applies To

It is considered that the release of this information would be likely to prejudice the prevention and detection of crime and therefore the Council considers that this information is exempt from disclosure under Section 31(1)(a) of the Act

A list of any capital projects that were due to start within your Local Authority area after May 2010 but that were cancelled either by central government or as a result of central government funding cuts, to include

a) what the capital project was

b) how much it was forecasted to cost

c) how it was being paid for – for example through a specific Government funding pot and

d) who it was cancelled by, for example the local authority or a Government department

The Council’s Finance team confirms that no projects/schemes have been cancelled either by central government or as a result of central government funding cuts, for the period requested

1. Is your Homelessness Team (often known as Housing Advice Service, Housing Options team etc) kept in house or subcontracted out to a charity/ private company?

2. How many staff are employed in that department? Currently

3. Of those staff, how many are Housing Options Officers? (please include prevention officers, home visiting officers, reviews officers)

4. How many are managers within that team?

1. In-house

2. 17

3. As follows:

Five Housing Option Officers

Two Senior Option Officers

One Senior Temporary Accommodation Officer

Two Temporary accommodation officers

One Support Temporary Accommodation Officer

One Private Rented Sector Senior Officer

One Private Rented Sector Officer

One Private Rented Sector Support Officer

One Service Lead

4. As Above