FOI request (FOIR-486957441)

HBC / Southern Water business, commercial, financial or other relationship

Requested Tue 14 February 2023
Responded  Mon 20 March 2023

As a constituent and HBC council tax payer I request under the Freedom of Information act the following information held by Hastings Borough Council, your agents and/or subsidiaries as a matter of high public interest. It should be noted that a similar request for information has also been sent to Rother District Council and East Sussex County Council.

We request under FOI:

A full disclosure report on all financial, business, commercial or other relationships between Southern Water and all their agents and subsidiaries primarily (but not exclusively) having the designated registered address of 'Southern House, Yeoman Road, Worthing, BN13 3AX' (hereinafter referred to as Southern Water) and Hastings Borough Council (hereinafter referred to as HBC), your staff in a HBC representative capacity, your agents and subsidiaries.

This report should cover specifically (but not exclusively):

FINANCIAL INSTRUMENTS

Any investment by HBC in Southern Water shareholdings either directly or by subsidiaries, agents, representatives, brokers, fund managers including but not exclusively pension fund managers and agents. Any operation and control of shareholdings or other financial instruments such as loans, lines of credit et al from which HBC, your employees, agents or subsidiaries or Southern Water may benefit either financially or in kind. Full disclosure of the fiscal values and terms of those shareholdings and financial instruments.

Any loans, grants or other financial instruments that may have been extended by HBC through any agents or representatives to Southern Water with full disclosure of the terms and values of those financial instruments. Including property leases, rents, and so on.

Any loans, grants or other financial instruments extended to HBC by Southern Water with full disclosure of the terms and values of those financial instruments. Including land leases, rentals or sales, and so on.

PROPERTY

Full declaration of all property owned or leased by HBC from which Southern Water benefit either through occupation, leasing, joint ownership or other land occupation mechanism. A full report on benefits received by HBC from Southern Water/HBC land occupancy. Values (possibly estimated) of any lands owned by HBC occupied or utilised by Southern Water. Full report of the values of any lease arrangements, ongoing rent payments benefit of Southern Water land exploitation to HBC.

Specifically: Bulverhythe Southern Water treatment/pumping station.

Does HBC own the land or freehold of the land on which the Southern Water facility is built and the land under which the waste storage tanks are located? If HBC does have any interest in the land in the area of the Bulverhythe Southern Water facility what is that interest and what benefit from Southern Water occupancy and management does HBC gain. That is, does HBC collect rent against a lease for the land use. Did HBC sell the land to Southern Water. If so what is the financial benefit in the past from the sale of the land or ongoing lease, rent of the land to Southern Water.

Thank you very much for your time and consideration.

We fully appreciate that compiling the requested information may take some time to establish the detail in full, however it is not unreasonable to expect an outline response within 14 days of today's date. We also understand that you may make a small charge for accessing this information. Please let us know immediately what that charge may be and how we make payment.

Response

Please accept my apologies for the slight delay in responding.

The Freedom of Information Act is based on recorded information held by a local authority, it is not a tool to ask questions.

As a constituent and HBC council tax payer I request under the Freedom of Information act the following information held by Hastings Borough Council, your agents and/or subsidiaries as a matter of high public interest. It should be noted that a similar request for information has also been sent to Rother District Council and East Sussex County Council.

<>We request under FOI:

A full disclosure report on all financial, business, commercial or other relationships between Southern Water and all their agents and subsidiaries primarily (but not exclusively) having the designated registered address of 'Southern House, Yeoman Road, Worthing, BN13 3AX' (hereinafter referred to as Southern Water) and Hastings Borough Council (hereinafter referred to as HBC), your staff in a HBC representative capacity, your agents and subsidiaries.

This report should cover specifically (but not exclusively):

FINANCIAL INSTRUMENTS

Any investment by HBC in Southern Water shareholdings either directly or by subsidiaries, agents, representatives, brokers, fund managers including but not exclusively pension fund managers and agents. Any operation and control of shareholdings or other financial instruments such as loans, lines of credit et al from which HBC, your employees, agents or subsidiaries or Southern Water may benefit either financially or in kind. Full disclosure of the fiscal values and terms of those shareholdings and financial instruments.

Answer: Information not held

Any loans, grants or other financial instruments that may have been extended by HBC through any agents or representatives to Southern Water with full disclosure of the terms and values of those financial instruments. Including property leases, rents, and so on.

Answer: Information not held

Any loans, grants or other financial instruments extended to HBC by Southern Water with full disclosure of the terms and values of those financial instruments. Including land leases, rentals or sales. and so on.

Answer: Information not held

PROPERTY

Full declaration of all property owned or leased by HBC from which Southern Water benefit either through occupation, leasing, joint ownership or other land occupation mechanism. A full report on benefits received by HBC from Southern Water/HBC land occupancy. Values (possibly estimated) of any lands owned by HBC occupied or utilized by Southern Water. Full report of the values of any lease arrangements, ongoing rent payments benefit of Southern Water land exploitation to HBC.

Specifically: Bulverhythe Southern Water treatment/pumping station.

NOTICE OF REFUSAL

The information you are requesting relating to property falls under Regulation 12(4)(b) Manifestly Unreasonable.

The Environmental Information Regulations (EIR) allows public authorities to refuse a request for information which is manifestly unreasonable. The inclusion of the word 'manifestly' means that there must be an obvious or clear quality to the unreasonableness.

In this case the cost of compliance with the request would be too great and excessively time consuming.

Not all legal documents are held electronically. Therefore, a manual search would need to be conducted. Hastings Borough Council believes that due to the volume of documents held it would be too impractical to comply with and simply does not have the resources.

NOTICE OF REFUSAL

Hastings Borough Council has located 2 documents held electronically relating to this request. However, both are being refused under Regulation 12(5)(g) - Protection of the Environment.

Regulation 12(5)(g) provides an exception from the duty to make environmental information available if it would harm the protection of the environment to do so.

'The environment' in this context has a wide meaning. It has been established that the information in question relates to the aspect of the environment that is being protected.

PUBLIC INTEREST TEST

These two regulations are subject to a Public Interest Test. This means that a public authority can refuse to disclose information under these exceptions if in all the circumstances of the case the public interest in maintaining the exception outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.

Factors for disclosure:

a) Transparency and accountability.

Factors against disclosure:

a) Protecting the location of the storm water tank from criminal or other damage (part of the drainage network designed to regulate and prevent uncontrolled discharges into the environment).

The public interest in maintaining the exception outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.

Does HBC own the land or freehold of the land on which the Southern Water facility is built and the land under which the waste storage tanks are located? If HBC does have any interest in the land in the area of the Bulverhythe Southern Water facility what is that interest and what benefit from Southern Water occupancy and management does HBC gain. That is, does HBC collect rent against a lease for the land use. Did HBC sell the land to Southern Water. If so what is the financial benefit in the past from the sale of the land or ongoing lease, rent of the land to Southern Water.

Answer: These are questions and not requests for recorded information. Therefore, they fall outside the remit of the Act.