FOI request (FOI215946)

HS/CA/09/00681 and HS/CA/06/00797

Requested Thu 22 June 2017
Responded Thu 22 June 2017

I was unaware until today that you suppressed | withheld comments made on old planning applications.  Why would you do that?   When did it start? 

It's a policy that suggests Orwell's 1984:

And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed – if all records told the same tale – then the lie passed into history and became truth. 'Who controls the past', ran the Party slogan, 'controls the future: who controls the present controls the past'. 

(Chapter 3)

If local residents | council tax payers | members of the public take the trouble to send an opinion on any planning application, then that is part of the history of the case. 

Under FOI or otherwise I request the Comments for HBC cases HS/CA/09/00681 and HS/CA/06/00797 at present unavailable.

Response

The content of the historic paper files was scanned and destroyed as part of an on going programme to reduce paper storage. Historically, objection comments were not made publically available as they are now. The objection comments for the applications requested have however, now been redacted as necessary and made available on public access at http://publicaccess.hastings.gov.uk/online-applications/