GHF-E170 — Llandough Council FOI/EIR request and section 12 refusal, 21 September–11 October 2026
Institution: Llandough Community Council.
Request: 21 September 2026. Response: 11 October 2026. Decision: refusal under section 12 FOIA.
Information requested
- Records created after the 2002 deposit concerning Great House Farm / Tŷ Mawr, Church View Close, village green VG 41 or the roadside verge by the churchyard wall.
- Photographs, postcards or images of the farm, barn, green or church surroundings, of any date.
- Records of what transferred from Penarth Town Council at the 1982 reorganisation and where pre-1982 community records were deposited.
21 September 2026 — request transcription
Transcribed from the request quoted in the 28 September correspondence. The original 21 September email is not separately present in the reviewed record.
Dr Misra, Thank you for replying, and for doing so promptly and at a weekend. Good drills Sir. What an honour. I know you and the Council serve as volunteers, and I am grateful for the time. Let me set out plainly what I am asking of the Council, which is narrow. If you'll allow me? I am not asking your Council to revisit Mr Egan's answer of 14 June 2026. He explained that the minute books from 1982 onwards were deposited with Glamorgan Archives in 2002, and I am pursuing those there. What I am asking about is what that answer did not cover. Llandough Community Council is a public authority under Schedule 1, Part II, paragraph 7(b) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. The Act applies to the recorded information set out below generally; the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 apply in addition to any part of it that is environmental information. PART ONE — REQUEST FOR RECORDED INFORMATION 1. Whether the Council holds any recorded information created after the 2002 deposit — minutes, correspondence, reports, emails, photographs or files of any kind — concerning Great House Farm (Ty Mawr) / Church View Close, the village green in front of St Dochdwy's including registered green VG 41, or the roadside verge by the churchyard wall. 2. Whether the Council holds any photographs, postcards or images of the farm, the barn, the green or the church surroundings, of any date. 3. Whether the Council holds any recorded information showing what, if anything, transferred to it from Penarth Town Council at the 1982 reorganisation, and any recorded information identifying where the pre-1982 Llandough community records were deposited. If the answer to any of these is that no such information is held, I would be content with a short statement to that effect — but I do need it stated. Section 1(1)(a) of the Act requires the Council to confirm or deny whether the information is held. Section 10 (and regulation 5 of the EIR) allows twenty working days from receipt, which on my request of 20 September 2026 I calculate as 16 October 2026. If the Council is refusing, section 17 (and regulation 14) requires a written refusal notice identifying the exemption or exception relied on; section 17(7) requires the Council to give particulars of any complaints procedure it operates, or to state that it has none, and to notify me of my right to apply to the Information Commissioner; and regulation 11 gives a right to an internal review of any refusal under the EIR. "We have nothing more to add" does not meet those requirements. If the period passes without a compliant response I will have no option but to complain to the Information Commissioner. PART TWO — MATTERS FOR THE COUNCIL'S DISCRETION These are not part of the request above and carry no deadline. They are simply things I would be grateful for. A. I am not asking for the name or contact details of any individual. I am asking whether the Council would be willing to pass my details to any former member, former clerk or long-standing resident who might remember the village between the 1950s and the 1990s, leaving it entirely to them whether to contact me. I appreciate the Council may have data protection or administrative reasons for declining, and I would not press it. B. Whether the Council would be willing to table this correspondence at a meeting and minute it. I am content for it to be tabled in full. C. Whether the Council would consider, in due course, whether an interpretation board or a plaque near the green would be appropriate. The excavation on the land beneath Church View Close recorded 1,026 burials, described in the published report as by far the largest early medieval burial population so far recovered from Wales, above a Roman villa and an Iron Age roundhouse. That history belongs to Llandough as much as to my family, and there is nothing on the ground that records it. I would be glad to give the Council or the community a short talk on the documentary record, without charge, if that would be useful. I should be grateful for a response to items 1 to 3 by 16 October 2026. Regards, Sion Buckler (Ret'd Sergeant) Royal Signals Cyber/ Electronic Warfare Professional and Life Member
Responses
| Date | Content | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 20 September | “We have nothing more to add.” Quoted in the 28 September email; original message not separately recovered. | R53 |
| 28 September | The request had been passed for consideration. | R54 |
| 11 October | Section 12 refusal; 2002–2006 offered as a possible narrower period; internal review offered; other matters referred to the October meeting. | R55 |
Interpretation
The Council’s time estimate states 224 sets of minutes, 20 minutes to read and 10 minutes to assess each. The two components total 6,720 minutes (112 hours) if both apply to every set. The response’s stated “over 2240 minutes” (37 hours) corresponds to the assessment component alone.
The response does not separately state an outcome for the image request or the 1982 transfer/deposit records. It treats the request under FOIA section 12 and does not separately explain the EIR aspect.
Original email files are not attached to the public transcriptions. The 20 September wording remains a quotation in the 28 September thread.
Sources: R53 · R54 · R55 · Reply register.