jawenold wrote:It could be useful - nay important - to know on what grounds the Government denied support in this first round of Garden Villages applications. The application has been released has the Government's reply been made public?
FOIA may be your friend. Both LA and Department have obligations under it, so two Requests for Information may be made. No need to mention in either that the other is being made
That way, one response may be more informative than the other. Some or possibly all detail may be withheld under permitted Exemption eg Commercial Confidentiality, but each may judge this differently. Furthermore, any less than complete response, eg under Exemption, can be appealed. Appeal must be considered by a different officer in the responding authority, and no new Exemptions can be cited in any Appeal response.
Used properly, FOIA is a powerful tool
[and, at least until Brexit takes effect, quite separate applications may be made under the EU's Environmental Information Regulations (EIRs) , which are (at least until then) enforceable under a UK Statutory Instrument. Under EIRs not only are all agencies of all echelons of Government required to answer questions on any activities which may have an environmental impact - as major planned changes of land use obviously would - but so are private companies and entities who are licensed by any such echelon to carry out activities which have such an impact; eg AOC holders, aerodrome operators, aviation fuel suppliers, .. Many companies affected seem unaware of this until they are asked qualifying questions. Such questions must include clarifcation that they are being made under EIRs, and addressed as with FOIA ones to the Information Rights Officer. Also as with FOIA, there is a time limit for reponses, but the limit is different.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environme ... tions_2004 AIUI, thus means that if the aerodrome operator's licence is held by an organisation, that organisation may be required to disclose all internal documents which might show how they were planning n years ago for how much environmental impact their activities would have in each of future years: such as planning to close the aerodrome and so having 0 effect from Avgas/Avtur sales, before they had publicly disclosed such plans ]
(mere guide at) Jet Age Museum, Gloucestershire Airport
http://www.jetagemuseum.org/TripAdvisor Excellence Award 2015
http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attraction ... gland.html