A council has been ordered to release the names of councillors submitting responses to an active travel consultation on behalf of constituents.
The first-tier tribunal decision says Cambridgeshire County Council must release the information within 42 days.
The authority had initially provided a redacted response to a Freedom of Information request from Simon Eden-Green for the name or identifying title of people responding to the 2021 consultation as stakeholders.
The council said these names were removed because a data protection statement in the consultation stated it would not publish any personal details.
The case was then referred to the Information Commissioner, who said that such a statement would be there to reassure members of the public that their personal information would not be released.
The commissioner was “not satisfied” this would relate to those individuals in a public facing role, such as councillors and the clerks of councils. The commissioner concluded the council was not correct to refuse the information. However, the council appealed this decision, which has now been dismissed at tribunal.
The consultation had sought feedback on a host of schemes designed to promote cycling and walking as the first choice for shorter journeys.
A Cambridgeshire County Council spokesperson said: “We received an FOI in October 2022 asking for responses from stakeholders and councillors to an Active Travel consultation undertaken in 2021.
“We responded with the relevant information, including the comments of elected councillors and public facing individuals. However, names were redacted because in the consultation survey there was a data protection statement which said we would not publish any personal details with responses.
“Our response was escalated to the commissioner, we lodged an appeal, which has subsequently been dismissed and we are now complying with the steps ordered as quickly as possible.
“We are in the process of releasing the required information and learning from this ruling to ensure we avoid this situation in future.”
