24 March (Part 2) - Nobody loves him
Mick Barnbrook didn’t only
apply to be one of Bexley’s Community Champions,
he thought he could make a valuable contribution to the fledgling Bexley Safer
Neighbourhood Board. This is the successor to the
Bexley Community Policing Engagement Group
(BCPEG) which ran occasional public meetings but which the
Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) decided to do away with, and it
advertised for volunteers, hence Mick Barnbrook’s interest in becoming a member.
He was rejected of course and on 22nd February 2014 Mick asked BCPEG for a copy of
“MOPAC’s guidelines setting out the criteria for membership of the Board”.
When three weeks later he had received no acknowledgment he sent a reminder to
Joyce Sutherland, the chair of the BCPEG, and added that if she continued to
ignore him he would seek the information via a Freedom of Information
request to the Mayor’s Office. Three days ago Ms. Sutherland deigned to reply,
not that she answered Mick’s question of course. She also went further than that
by defiantly stating that she wasn’t subject to the Freedom of Information Act.
As an organisation fully funded by the Greater London Authority via MOPAC I
think madam Sutherland is in for a rude awakening. The Information
Commissioner’s Office makes it pretty clear who is subject to the FOI Act
and you don’t escape it just by being not totally included in the parent
organisation. General Practitioners doing NHS work are subject to the FOI Act as are
governors at publicly funded schools. Madam Sutherland being fully funded by
MOPAC is unlikely to be any different.
MOPAC have been happy to accept Mick’s FOI request. We shall see. Will it be
another case of councillors interfering?
The BCPEG will cease to exist on 31st March 2014.