Correspondence between Will Norman and London Borough of Hounslow
Request ID: FOI-1145-2122 Date published: 21 September 2021
You asked
Please can you provide copies of email correspondence containing the terms “C9”, “C9T”, “CS9”, “cycleway”, “cycle way”, “collision” or “Chiswick” sent or received by Walking and Cycling Commissioner, Will Norman, to or from councillors or officers at the London Borough of Hounslow (email suffix “@Hounslow.gov.uk”) between 1 January 2021 and 27 August 2021.
Thank you for your requests received on 31 August 2021 asking for information relating to cycling in Chiswick.
Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act and our information access policy. I can confirm we do hold the information you require.
With regard to your request for collision data for Chiswick High Road, this information can be found using the Road Danger Reduction Dashboard available on our website:
This information is routinely updated once we have received collision data from the police.
Unfortunately, to provide the remaining information you have requested would exceed the ‘appropriate limit’ of £450 set by the Freedom of Information (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004.
Under section 12 of the FOI Act, we are not obliged to comply with a request if we estimate that the cost of determining whether we hold the information, locating and retrieving it and extracting it from other information would exceed the appropriate limit. This is calculated at £25 per hour for every hour spent on the activities described.
We have estimated that it would cost over £450 to provide a response to your current request. This is because it is estimated that it would take in excess of 18 working hours to retrieve and compile the information you have requested. Section 12(4)(a) of the Act provides for the costs of complying with two or more requests made in a 60 working day period which are, to any extent, for the same or similar information to be combined. We are now applying the aggregate cost limit to your remaining requests as they all relate to Cycleway 9.
We have done an initial search for all emails held by TfL sent/received during the requested time periods using the terms provided, and this has returned nearly 2,200 results. This number will likely include duplicates, as well as emails not caught by the request. However, we would still need to manually review all of the emails identified by the search in order to extract and collate the relevant emails.
To help bring the cost of responding to your requests within the £450 limit, you may wish to consider narrowing its scope. If you want to refine your request or make a Freedom of Information Act request in future, please bear in mind that the Freedom of Information Act allows you to request recorded information held by us. However it is recommended that you focus your request and prioritise the information that is of most importance to ensure that you are able to make best use of the processing time allowable under the Act.
Although your request can take the form of a question, rather than a request for specific documents, we do not have to answer your question if it would require the creation of new information or the provision of a judgement, explanation, advice or opinion that was not already recorded at the time of your request.
Please note that we will not be taking further action until we receive your revised request.
In the meantime, if you have any queries or would like to discuss your request, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Please see the attached information sheet for details of your right to appeal.
Yours sincerely
Gemma Jacob Senior FOI Case Officer FOI Case Management Team General Counsel Transport for London
