EA/2014/0072 East Devon District Council v IC & Jeremy Woodward
The oral hearing in the above case has been rearranged for 28 August 2014 at Court 3, Exeter Magistrates Court, Heavitree Road, Exeter EX1 2LS.
The hearing has been listed for half a day and will begin at 10am.
The details of the hearing will be uploaded to the Tribunal’s website over the next couple of weeks (it’s hard to say when exactly as the website is managed by a separate office), in the meantime you are welcome to share the details of the hearing with anyone who is interested to know.
Observers of the heating are also welcomed – all GRC hearings are open to the public (and press) as a matter of course. The judge may direct a ‘closed session’ (in which the disputed information is discussed) but would simply ask any observers etc. to leave the court room for the duration of this.
For background information on this important First Tier Tribunal case which pits EDDC’s intention to keep all documemts regarding Knowle development secret against our right to know what is being done with our money see our earlier post:
East Devon Watch 
Obviously a lot of this is going to be legal technical discussions about how the various laws governing release of information apply in this case. Do we know who is arguing for the information to be released?
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Jeremy Woodward, a Sidmouth resident who made the initial FoI requests that were turnec down by EDDC. The Information Commissioner said(redacted for purely commercial information) documents should be released – EDDC appealed the decision. This is as high as it goes for decision.
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If this is a legal argument and EDDC has a lawyer there, shouldn’t the public be represented by a lawyer too? Or is this the ICO vs. EDDC?
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This question has been forwarded to the complainant and the response will be published.
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When EDDC appealed against the Information Commissioner’s Office Decision Notice – that it should release the Davis Langdon report on Knowle – I then asked to ‘join’ this process, not as the appellant, but as the original complainant who put the Freedom of Information Request to the District Council back in November 2012. [See http://eastdevonalliance.org/2014/05/27/eddc-knowle-relocation-secrecy-important-update/%5D
That allowed me, as complainant, to send the Tribunal further ‘evidence’ to support my case (and to support the ICO in its original decision) – and EDDC have been able to do the same (in challenging the ICO’s decision).
On the day of the hearing itself, both the ICO and EDDC will have legal representation at the Tribunal.
Hope that makes things a wee bit clearer.
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So the ICO will be fighting our cause š
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Or, we will be assisting the ICO fighting THEIR cause!
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