Freedom of Information Stoke - Recently Updated Pages

Oustanding questions

Anonymous — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 17:04:18 CDT

Ask NOW

MarkJames — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 15:17:31 CST

Chances are many people will have come to this page looking for some specific bit of information about Stoke-on-Trent. Maybe the Freedom of Information Act is a good way to go, maybe someone in this community will already know the answer, or maybe there's another route that will get your burning question answered.

Whatever, if you want to ask away here before you start exploring the rest of the site, feel free to just hit EasyEdit or ask your question on the discussion thread below.

My question: There are rumors circulating regarding the potential use of Acreswood/Bank Top as a site for a new build secondary school that resembles a shopping mall. Can you provide all the information providing this contaminated/land fill site? Its future use by the council? It has not been available for redevelopment for residential purposes because of the state of the land so why is it deemed fit for the use of a 1200 pupil school? Please treat this request with the utmost urgency.

Next steps
Now you've got that out of the way, please explore the site and see if you'd like to get involved in the community.

> sign up for a username, come back here and click 'watch this page' to be sent an alert if anybody else posts, perhaps in answer to your question
> Look around the links to the top left to refine your question and perhaps find the answer immediately
> add your question to the Question Coordination page if you think it something that falls under the Freedom of Information act, or just use the resources link to go ahead and ask!

Documents

Anonymous — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 16:04:09 CST

This section is for adding links to documents in the public domain and interesting extracts therein

SOT City Council budget & financial plan (PDF)

Q from Capital Investments Programme: what has happened to the £700,000 budgeted for the Burslem Indoor Market in 07-08? Also to £513,000 on Burslem public realm and £1.815 million on Wedgwood Institute? Does money get reallocated or saved for other worthwhile projects?

Land sold by City Council and money raised 2007-8

Rateable values of commercial properties, ST6 area

Ford Green Hall regeneration

thegroundhog — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 07:20:43 CST

The Ford Green Hall area was spruced up last year which included the resurfacing of the car park, some landscaping, hedge trimming, a new sign denoting the path and a fence etc. Also, you may have noticed a piece of art, funded by the SRB and commissioned by the Museum forming the central focus of the car park. It was a fibreglass-type bud about 8ft tall. Unfortunately this was vandalised beyond repair and had to be moved, but new funding is being sought for its replacement which hopefully will go up soon (and be made from non-inflammable materials!). I'm told that further landscaping is also scheduled ASAP.

Serco

clarewhite — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 02:26:04 CST

Official Links

Serco website
Serco on Wikipedia

News links
Some interesting stories about Serco:

Papers or information available in other places
- the Hands off Haywood email list has extensive discussion and links relating to Serco's involvement in Stoke's schools. Email community@handsoffhaywoodhigh.org.uk for more information.

Question Coordination

clarewhite — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 11:09:52 CST

This page is for coordinating questions that could be asked as FoI requests. You might want to post questions here before you send tem off, in case:
- the information may be easily available
- people have suggestions for making the question clearer or the correct department it should be sent to
- someone has already asked the question

Or you might prefer to send them off anyway, in which case feel free to use the Outstanding questions page to track when they have been asked.

If you would prefer to, use the Threads link below to start new discussions on issues you are curious about.

Once a question is sent off, please move it to the Outstanding Questions page.

Q:
Dept to ask:
Sent:

--

Answers

Anonymous — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 02:29:35 CST

This page is for answers that have been received from FoI requests either from this site or answers that have been made available on news websites. Attachments of information can also be added to this page.

As the site grows, this could be divided into subsections.

Topic: Regeneration
Request made by: BBC Radio Stoke
To: RENEW North Staffordshire
Information made available: That £800,000 has been spent securing houses earmarked for demolition in Middleport, Coalville and Hanley. More

Topic: public spending
Request made by: The Sentinel
To: SOT City Council
Information made available: From the Sentinel, 17 December 2007. £729,000 has been spent to refurbish two floors at Stoke-on-Trent City Council's headquarters. The cost of revamping floors two and three at the civic centre in Stoke includes £263,000 for new furniture, £16,000 for pictures, artwork and signs, and £67,000 for painting and decorating. The figures, revealed to The Sentinel under the Freedom of Information Act, show £47,000 was spent on carpeting floor three. More

Introduction

clarewhite — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 15:47:38 CST

"The FOI gives you the right to ask any public body for all the information they have on any subject you choose. Also, unless there’s a good reason, the organisation must provide the information within a month."

This experimental website has been started to assist in the coordination of Freedom of Information requests by the community and local media organisations in Stoke-on-Trent and its surrounding areas. It will track questions and answers, avoiding the replication of questions and putting information received into the public domain.

As a wiki, the site is editable by anybody. All users are asked to stick to the purpose of the site - the wiki itself it is not a discussion board and its objective is to share information in a format that is simple and accessible. Registration is not required and questions can be submitted anonymously, while all information posted should be state the source or it may be removed.

Questions or comments that are statements rather than attempts to get information should be confined to the discussion section. In order to maintain a peaceful community, the moderator reserves the right to remove any posts that go beyond the realms of fair comment without giving any reason and asks all users to treat each other with respect at all times.

Anybody is welcome to get involved in the site, including holders of information and journalists from different media organisations making or researching requests. Hopefully the collaborative sharing of information will result in a forum that is useful for everybody in the area.

Links to local institutions

clarewhite — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 10:31:08 CST

Public organisation policy documents and links to information schemes (information they are committed to
publishing)

Requests to SOT CC , email foi@stoke.gov.uk
Staffs University
NHS North Staffordshire
Staffordshire Police
UK parliament (MPs are also generally good at getting information and records on their constituents' behalf for any national government matters - find your MP at theyworkforyou.com)

FoI Info and Use

clarewhite — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 10:29:57 CST

Links to Freedom of Information resources and links to local organisation sites

Your Right to Know (London-based)

Resources

clarewhite — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 10:27:44 CST

Basic details on how to make a request follow from DirectGov (may be subsequently edited). See subpages to the left for Documents, Links to Stoke institutions, FOI info and use

How to make a request: All you have to do is write to (or email) the public authority that you think holds the information you want. You should make sure that you include:
•your name
•an address where you can be contacted
•a description of the information that you want. You don't have to mention the Freedom of Information Act, but there is no reason not to if you want to. You should try to describe the information you want in as much detail as possible: for example, say 'minutes of the meeting where the decision to do X was made', rather than 'everything you have about X'. This will help the public authority find the information you need. All public authorities must manage their information in accordance with a publication scheme which describes the 'classes' or 'kinds' of information held (such as minutes or reports). It is worth bearing this in mind when you make your request.

Foggy Answers

clarewhite — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 12:36:33 CST

Officialdom being what it is, sometimes the answers we receive are less than clear. Any answers that don't quite tell us much can be posted here in the hope of finding follow-up questions that might bring us more light later