FHDC: Dodgy data, but one shouldn’t shoot the messenger

Something does not stack up. 

One has to realize that one doesn’t shoot the messenger, but the person/s, department, responsible for passing the message to the Freedom Of Information Team to pass to the requestor.

When someone sends an FoI, it gets sent to the Council’s FoI Team. They in turn send the request onto the relevant department,eg Finance, Planning, Housing Waste, Council Tax etc. The Department then retrieves the information requested, then sends it back to the FoI Team, who then check to see if any exemptions might apply, if not, then they send the response to the requestor. The FoI Team is the messenger. 

As of 1st April 2023 the Council stated in a FoI response – Ref 00141256, to persons unknown 

Individuals – total number of people listed on all applications made.

Household – consisting of one application by a sole person for that sole person or multiple people within that household.

1.    Number of individual people on the housing register: 3475

2.    Number of households on the waiting list as at 1/04/23: 1450

Then in another response Ref 00131277 – How many people are on the Housing List on 1st April, 2023. The Council responded by saying:

The data recorded on requested date of 01/04/2023 was unobtainable as it was a Saturday. However the data recorded for number of people on the housing waiting list as of Monday 03/04/2023 is 1646.

Whichever way one cuts the mustard, the figures released in the two FoI responses are not the same. Plus the Council can obtain figures for the 1/4/2023 in one response, but not in the other.

It’s clear then one needs to be cautious of the data presented by Folkestone & Hythe District Council officers in their FoI responses. As we said, the data is simply passed to the FoI team who then pass it on to the requestor. So, one shouldn’t shoot the messenger.

The Shepway Vox Team

Dissent is NOT a Crime