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West End Extra - LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Published: 22 February 2008

The cost of ‘free’ information

• ANY questions being asked of Westminster Council through the Freedom of Information Act (FOI) in regard to Pimlico School are now being refused.
Steve Farnsworth, director of schools and learning, and and also the chair of the Interim Executive Board at Pimlico School, responded to a recent FOI refusal, by saying that within a period of 60 days, “the aggregated costs of providing the information to you and others acting together now exceeds the appropriate limit”, which means that, lumped together, requests amount to more than £450 or two and a half days of investigations.
The truth is that individual parents have obviously taken it upon themselves to request information, but we have not been “acting together” or orchestrating requests as part of a campaign.
I would suggest that not only is this refusal very convenient for Westminster, but also it shows the amount of anger that parents have regarding the Pimlico Academy proposal.
I would be interested to know if the number of requests under the FOI is an unusually high number or not.
In any case, it reinforces the argument that the IEB/Westminster, and the interim management team are doing so much by stealth, that parents have felt that recourse to the FOI act is the only way to find out anything regarding Pimlico.
Now even that avenue is closed.
Pimlico parent
Address supplied

Send your letters to: The Letters Editor, West End Extra, 40 Camden Road, London, NW1 9DR or email to letters@westendextra.co.uk. The deadline for letters is midday Wednesday. The editor regrets that anonymous letters cannot be published, although names and addresses can be withheld. Please include a full name, postal address and telephone number.
Letters may be edited for reasons of space.

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