I’ve just spotted this interesting contribution that was posted on the web recently – on 13th February 2013.

It’s a link to the UK Freedom of Information blog, a regular posting on all things FoI from The Campaign for Freedom of Information.

http://foia.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/justice-committee-hears-from.html

In it you’ll notice that the person at the very top in the UK field of Freedom of Information, the Information Commissioner himself, holds a rather dim view of our local council:

Q35 Graham Stringer: Would it be fair to say, going back to your previous answer, that things are improving, but they would improve more quickly if you were able to audit public bodies?

Christopher Graham: Certainly, because we would concentrate our efforts on those organisations. Wirral borough council is on the watch list at the moment. I would really like to send in a good practice squad to Wirral borough council, but I do not have the powers do that. I am not picking on Wirral; it is just an example that comes to mind.

And so, here we go again.  The rank amateurs at Wirral Borough Council, are getting all the wrong kind of publicity.  And from those with the power and influence.  Yet again, this council elbows other contenders out of the way and muscles into the forefront of how to get it all wrong.  What a stunning achievement.

After reading this, I wondered whether Christopher Graham had come across this cack-handed report to Wirral’s councillors on his travels?  Where the council, without the slightest trace of irony, tried to blame the local public for its own woeful performance…

http://democracy.wirral.gov.uk/documents/s50005983/FOI%20REPORT.pdf

There’s not much chance of Wirral Council reading this and being alerted.  So we can relax, as they’ll be unlikely to go into full cover up mode and to cynically start hiding information away and getting their denials written out, pretending that they give some sort of a damn about public service.

I’d rather they didn’t know I suppose…. so that one day soon, a hit squad of external troubleshooting FoI experts flies in in a helicopter, streams down ropes onto the roof of the Town Hall, bursts the doors open and invites themselves in.  Haha.

With the element of surprise, I’m confident they’d stumble across all sorts of horrors.