Will you please provide the full correspondence between Richmond upon Thames Council and TFL in their bid for funding under the Local Streetscape Plan, To include, but not solely confined to: 1. The justification for this money 2. The amount allocated and 3. Any conditions impossd

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TfL Ref: EIR-0936-2021

Thank you for your request received by Transport for London (TfL) on 29^th August 2020 asking for information about the Streetspace programme.

Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Environmental Information Regulations (EIR) and our information access policy.

Specifically you asked:

“Will you please provide the full correspondence between Richmond upon Thames Council and TFL in their bid for funding under the Local Streetscape Plan, to include, but not solely confined to:

1. The justification for this money

2. The amount allocated and

3. Any conditions imposed,

I can confirm that we hold the information you require. However, the request is being refused under regulation 12(4)(b) of the EIR on the grounds that it would be “manifestly unreasonable” to comply. From a preliminary search we have found 250 emails that potentially fall within the scope of your request, and think that a wider search would find more still. Each of these emails would need to be reviewed to confirm that they are within scope, then consideration would need to be given as to whether any exceptions apply under the terms of the EIR (for example, in relation to personal data or commercially sensitive material). Where such exceptions apply the material would need to be redacted. The guidance on the use of this exception from the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) states that it can apply when the cost of compliance with the request would be too great, and that:

“The purpose of the exception is to protect public authorities from exposure to a disproportionate burden or an unjustified level of distress, disruption or irritation, in handling information requests”.

While we appreciate the need for transparency and accountability from public bodies in the conduct of their business, and the expectation under EIR that requested information will be released, in this instance we believe that the balance of public interest falls in favour of the exception applying given the amount of resource that would be required to be expended in meeting the request, which would represent a disproportionate burden and unjustified level of disruption, requiring the allocation of limited resources which would more beneficially be spent elsewhere, particularly at the current time.

Notwithstanding the above, we can provide you with the attached documents which set out Richmond’s funding applications (note that you may need to expand the width of some columns to read the data in full). The list of successful bids is as follows:

Scheme	Type of Scheme	Funding Allocation
School Streets (PH1)	School Streets	£16,800
Emergency School Streets (PH2)	School Streets	£200,000
School Frontages	School Streets	£54,500
Kew Road	Strategic Cycle Routes	£267,500
Castelnau, Barnes	Strategic Cycle Routes	£160,500
Hampton Court Road	Strategic Cycle Routes	£54,500

You may wish to contact the council directly for further details on their schemes.

If you are considering submitting a further request please think carefully about whether the request is essential at this current time, as answering FOI/EIR requests will require the use of limited resources and the attention of staff who could be supporting other essential activity. Where requests are made, please note that our response time may be impacted by the current situation.

Please see the attached information sheet for details of your right to appeal as well as information on copyright and what to do if you would like to re-use any of the information we have disclosed.

Yours sincerely,

David Wells

FOI Case Officer

FOI Case Management Team

General Counsel

Transport for London

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