TfL Ref: 1925-2021

Thank you for your request received by us on 23 and 29 December 2020 asking for copies all correspondence between the emergency services and Transport for London (TfL) in relation to what formerly known as Cycle Superhighways 9 (CS9) and is now referred to as CycleWay 9 (CW9).

Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the FOI Request and our information access policy.  I can confirm that we hold some of the information you require. You asked for: 

all correspondence between the emergency services and TfL regarding the cycle route CS9/CW9, since the route was first proposed and now

Unfortunately, to provide the 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 in excess of £450 to provide a response to your current request. This is because it is estimated that it would take over 18 working hours to retrieve and compile the information you have requested.
When requests for email correspondence are received the FOI Case Management team use a search tool called eDiscovery. This allows us to conduct company wide email searches using keywords, dates and email addresses. The more specific a requester can be as to what they are looking for, the more we can narrow the search and therefore stand a better chance of a more relevant or focused result. A search will then return an amount of ‘hits’ which potentially contain information relating to the search terms used. Each ‘hit’ is a single email, although that email will often consist of a chain of emails containing the search term at least once.
We have implemented an initial search for all emails held by TfL sent to/received from the emergency services using the keywords ‘CS9" OR ‘CW9’ OR ‘cycleway 9’ OR ‘cycle superhighway 9’. This search produced over a thousand hits; it is also important to bear in mind that this search tool stops once it reaches a thousand hits and therefore the total number will certainly be more than that.

Through a retrieval of results it is clear that the vast majority of these are duplicates of weekly road works reports which are circulated to a wide range of stakeholders, including councils and the emergency services, and so, whilst most of the results will not be directly relevant to your request, we would need to manually review, extract and collate a considerable volume of emails given the broad and very wide ranging nature of your request about a scheme that began several years go.

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. For example by asking for emails relating to the more recent temporary changes that have been made to CW9, or providing a more specific explanation of the type of 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 might also consider limiting your request to a particular period of time, geographical area or specific departments of the organisation.

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.

If you are considering submitting a further FOI request please think carefully about whether the request is essential at this current time, as answering FOI 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.

If this is not the information you are looking for, or if you are unable to access it for any reason, please do not hesitate to contact me.

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

Jasmine Howard
FOI Case Officer
FOI Case Management Team
General Counsel
Transport for London