Request ID: FOI-1410-2122 Date published: 27 October 2021
You asked
Revised request from FOI-1146-2122:
Correspondence regarding Cycleway 9
Please can you provide copies of email correspondence containing the terms “C9”, “C9T”, “CS9”, “cycleway”, “cycle way”, “collision” or “Chiswick” sent or received by TfL (excluding Will Norman), to or from councillors or officers at the London Borough of Hounslow (email suffix “@Hounslow.gov.uk”) between 1 June 2021 and 27 August 2021
We answered
Our Ref: FOI-1410-2122
Thank you for your request received on 4 October 2021 asking for correspondence 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.
Unfortunately, to provide the information you have requested would still exceed the ‘appropriate limit’ of £450 set by the Freedom of Information (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004.
As previously advised, 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 still 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.
We have carried out a narrowed search for all emails held by TfL sent/received to any email with the suffix @Hounslow.gov.uk during the requested time periods using the terms provided. This has still returned over 2,000 results. As previously stated this 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.
We have looked at a sample of the results and believe the search terms are too broad as it captures a vast range of different subjects. We suggest that if you have specific questions then this would probably be more helpful in providing you with the information you’re seeking than a further request for correspondence.
To help bring the cost of responding to your request within the £450 limit, you may wish to consider narrowing its scope so that we can more easily locate, retrieve and extract the information you are seeking. 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. You should identify the information that you want as clearly and concisely as you can, specifying the types of document that you are looking for. You may find it more beneficial to ask specific questions that would enable us to focus a response on the information that is most of interest rather than a broad email trawl which is likely to incorporate a significant volume of material which is of limited interest.
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.
Yours sincerely
Gemma Jacob Senior FOI Case Officer FOI Case Management Team General Counsel Transport for London
