Worthing Borough Council

The Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the Act) came into force in January 2005. The Act governs and increases rights of access to information held by public authorities (other than personal information which continues to be governed by the Data Protection Act).

A Publication Scheme is a catalogue of information that the authority already makes available to the public as a matter of course, it states what format the information can be supplied in, who can provide access and whether there will be a fee to provide that information. All local authorities are required to produce a new Publication Scheme by 1.1.09 following the Information Commissioner’s Model Publication Scheme. This Publication Scheme has been produced in accordance with the current model.

With a population of around 100,000, Worthing is the largest town in West Sussex and a bustling modern commercial centre. The town lies on the coastal plain bounded to the north by the outstanding natural beauty of the South Downs and to the south by the English Channel.2.2    It is the town’s geographical situation, offering as it does the dual attractions of beautiful countryside and the sea, which over the years has been the primary reason for the town's popularity and growth.

Worthing has all the amenities one would expect in a town of its size. It is the premier shopping centre in West Sussex with an excellent variety of specialist shops, well-established family businesses, department stores, chain stores and supermarkets. All serve the local population and a very large surrounding area. The modern town centre is located just off the seafront and is mainly pedestrianised.

Over the years Worthing has been chosen by a number of national and multi - national companies for their headquarters and as their main operating bases.

The Council’s staffing structure is in the process of being combined with that of Adur District Council. Both Authorities share a Chief Executive, 3 Strategic Directors and 10 Executive Heads of Service. The  ten service areas are:-  Corporate Strategy, Financial Services, Technical Services, Adur Homes, Recycling & Wastes Management, Customer Services, Legal & Democratic Services, Leisure & Cultural Services, Planning Regeneration & Wellbeing, and Health, Housing & Community Safety.

The Council is working to making itself more open and seeks to make increasing amounts of routine information available to the public, via the website or using hard copy documents available at our offices and in those of our partner agencies such as district libraries.

The aim of a Publication Scheme is to let people know what information is already publicly available as a matter of course. The layout of our Publication Scheme has been designed by the Office of the Information Commissioner, and will be used unaltered by almost all public authorities in the UK.

Every document listed in the scheme has been put into one of the 8 main Headings, or “classes of information”, as follows:

• Who we are and what we do.
• What we spend and how we spend it.
• What our priorities are and how we are doing.
• How we make decisions.
• Our policies and procedures
• Lists and Registers
• The services we offer.
• Election Information.

Information within each main heading/class is also then subdivided by a series of sub headings, dependent on that particular category.

If you want information that is listed in the publication scheme, you should contact the person or department listed in the right hand column. They will provide you with the information as quickly as possible, and in any event will aim to respond to your request within 5 working days.

If you want some information that is not listed in our publication scheme, please see below.

• Worthing Borough Council wishes to make as much as possible of the information listed in the publication scheme available free-of-charge.  For example, information on the website will be free-of-charge unless otherwise specified, as will information delivered by e-mail.
• Information provided in hard copy form will be free for the first fifty pages, then will be charged at 10p per A4 sheet  for all pages above fifty (plus postage if the applicant is unable to collect it), to cover our costs.
• Publications which are produced by the Council for sale will be subject to the cost as shown on the cover if not listed in the publication Scheme.  All charges are kept continuously under review.
  

No. Not all the information we hold is listed in our publication scheme and there will be occasions when the Council will not agree to provide certain information that is requested. This is lawful.

The Act sets out a series of statutory exemptions that we may apply if for some reason we consider it is not appropriate to disclose the information requested to a member of the public. You can find out more details about the statutory exemptions by looking at the Information Commissioner’s website.

If you want some information that is not listed in our publication scheme, you will have to specifically request it from us in writing.

• You can do this by e-mail via our website, sending your request to the Information Officer for the department you think is most likely to have that information:
  • Corporate Strategy - corporate.foi@worthing.gov.uk
  • Customer Services - customer.foi@worthing.gov.uk
  • Recycling and Waste Management - waste.foi@worthing.gov.uk
  • Planning, Regeneration and Wellbeing - planning.foi@worthing.gov.uk
  • Housing, Health & Community Safety - envhealth.foi@worthing.gov.uk
  • Financial Services - financial.foi@worthing.gov.uk
  • Technical Services - technical.foi@worthing.gov.uk
  • Legal & Democratic Services - legal.foi@worthing.gov.uk
  • Leisure & Cultural Services - leisure.foi@worthing.gov.uk
    
• Alternatively you could post your written request to:
  
  • Penelope Cronin,
    Practice Manager,
    Legal & Democratic Services,
    Worthing Borough Council,
    Worthing Town Hall,
    Chapel Road,
    Worthing,
    BN11 1HA.
    
    Your written request will then be logged upon receipt and then allocated to the most appropriate Information Officer to deal with.

When requesting information, applicants must include the following details:

• Name & address
• Information or documents requested, and in connection with which authority (ie Adur or Worthing), as we have a joint staff structur
• The way they would prefer the information to be supplied (e.g. as a hard copy or via e-mail)

We aim to reply within twenty working days of receipt of any written request. We will either provide the information, or confirm that we will not provide the information and if so which statutory exemption we seek to rely on.

If the applicant requires any information in a specific format, such as Braille, large type, audio or languages other than English, we will do our best to assist accordingly.

We would normally expect that the contact listed in the publication scheme will understand what information it is you have asked for and either provide it or assist you further.  If, however, the information you receive is not what was expected please contact the named officer again.

If you still remain dissatisfied with the way your request for a document listed in the publication scheme has been dealt with, please contact Julie Watson, the officer with responsibility for the Publication Scheme, at the following address:

• Worthing Borough Council
  Town Hall
  Chapel Road
  Worthing
  BN11 1HA
  

Alternatively you may make a formal complaint to the Council.

If having followed our formal complaints procedure you still are not happy with how we have dealt with your request, you may also contact the Information Commissioner to ask for a formal investigation of the matter.  You can contact the Information Commissioner at:-

• Wycliffe House
  Water Lane
  WILMSLOW
  Cheshire
  SK9 5AF
• Telephone: 01625 545700
• E-mail: data@dataprotection.gov.uk