Heritage Trail Bridges

Summary

The requester sought Council of Ministers decisions and minutes regarding planning applications for new bridges on the St John's to Kirk Michael heritage trail. The authority provided a link to the public planning decision and released partial minutes, but withheld specific personal data under an absolute exemption.

Key Facts

• The request concerned planning applications 21/00026/B for bridges on the St John's to Kirk Michael heritage trail.
• The decision on the planning application is publicly available via the Department of Environment, Food and Agriculture website.
• Partial Council Minutes were released to the requester.
• Some information was withheld because it constituted personal data of individuals other than the requester.
• The Cabinet Office cited the Data Protection (Application of GDPR) Order 2018 as the basis for the exemption.

Data Disclosed

• 1981649
• 2021-09-08
• 2021-10-01
• 21/00026/B
• August 24
• section 20
• section 25
• Article 5
• Article 6
• 2018

Exemptions Cited

• Section 20 of the Freedom of Information Act 2015 (Information reasonably accessible)
• Section 25 of the Freedom of Information Act 2015 (Absolutely exempt personal information)
• Data Protection (Application of GDPR) Order 2018

Original Request

I seek the publication of the decision and any minutes from the Council of Ministers to grant permission to planning applications 21/00026/B and 21/00026/B on August 24 which relate to the building of new bridges on the St John's to Kirk Michael heritage trail.

Data Tables (1)

Full Response Text

Government Office Douglas Isle of Man IM1 3PN Telephone: (+44) 01624 686244 Website: www.gov.im/co

Our ref: 1981649 1 October 2021

Dear ###

We write further to your request which was received on 8 September 2021 and which states:

"I seek the publication of the decision and any minutes from the Council of Ministers to grant permission to planning applications 21/00026/B and 21/00026/B on August 24 which relate to the building of new bridges on the St John's to Kirk Michael heritage trail."

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, under section 20 of the Act, we are not required to provide information in response to a request if it is already reasonably accessible to you, whether free of charge or on payment of a fee. The decision is available online at https://services.gov.im/planning which is administered by the Department of Environment, Food and Agriculture, Planning and Building Control and can be found at the following link: https://services.gov.im/planningapplication/services/planning/planningapplicationdetail s.iom?ApplicationReferenceNumber=21/00026/B

I have attached the information that is being released to you in relation to the Council Minutes for planning applications 21/00026/B.
While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide some of the information you have requested because it is absolutely exempt under section 25 of the Act (absolutely exempt personal information). The reasons why that exemption applies are that: • The Cabinet Office is satisfied that the information amounts to personal data of which you are not the data subject; and • The Cabinet Office is satisfied that disclosure of the information would contravene one of the data protection principles as set out at Article 5 of the General Data Protection Regulation as it applies in the Isle of Man pursuant to the Data Protection (Application of GDPR) Order 2018, namely that the Cabinet Office can only disclose the information where it would be fair, lawful and meet one of the conditions for lawful processing in Article 6 and in this case, none of those conditions have been met.

Please quote the reference number 1981649 in any future communications.

Your right to request a review

If you are unhappy with this response to your freedom of information request, you may ask us to carry out an internal review of the response, by completing a complaint form and submitting it electronically or by delivery/post.

An electronic version of our complaint form can be found by going to our website at https://services.gov.im/freedom-of-information/Review . If you would like a paper version of our complaint form to be sent to you by post, please contact me and I will be happy to arrange for this. Your review request should explain why you are dissatisfied with this response, and should be made as soon as practicable. We will respond as soon as the review has been concluded. If you are not satisfied with the result of the review, you then have the right to appeal to the Information Commissioner for a decision on; 1. Whether we have responded to your request for information in accordance with Part 2 of the Freedom of Information Act 2015; or 2. Whether we are justified in refusing to give you the information requested.
In response to an application for review, the Information Commissioner may, at any time, attempt to resolve a matter by negotiation, conciliation, mediation or another form of alternative dispute resolution and will have regard to any outcome of this in making any subsequent decision. More detailed information on your right to a review can be found on the Information Commissioner’s website at www.inforights.im. Should you have any queries concerning this letter, please do not hesitate to contact me. Further information about freedom of information requests can be found at www.gov.im/foi.

I will now close your request as of this date.