freedom of information act

spatchco

start of by asking mod to change it if its in the wrong form,ok here goes every other day i read in the papers that the newspaper prints an article [whatever story]but the story was got through the FIA,now how or can an ordinary joe soap get such information,
my case is [was] i had my house exterior insulated,2 years ago all went well but the day that the scaffold came down i had an inspector out from DCC saying that there had been a complaint made to the council that illigal work had been carried out on my house,now when it was sorted i.e the work did not require any planning permission,i wrote to DCC asking them for the name of the person who reported me but they would not give it to me ,there excuse was they dont have the staff to carry out all inspections so they rely on our neighbours to shop one another,now is there any i can find out who done this as till the day i die i will be looking at and thinking what so and so done the dirt on me and no i cant get a life

BrianD

the public are entitled to make complaints and there should be confidentiality about these complaints. And when it comes to this kind of activity the public do need to notify the council if there is potentially something wrong going on.

I would doubt if DCC rep accused you of illegal practice but would have been acting on information received to verify that all was in order. No skin off your nose if you were all OK. That's the nature of inspections. By the way, when you say "doing the dirt on you" implies that you did something wrong which you state you didn't.

I would suspect that you know who may have complained and just want confirmation!

ResearchWill

all your answers should be here, happy hunting http://foi.gov.ie/home/

spatchco

thanks for the replys,BrianD and Researchwill,,yes brian you were right the dcc came out on receipt of a complaint but strange thing they did not know at the time they called if in fact i hade broken planning rules,and yes every day i look at my neighbours and think what miserable went behind my back,,and research i did in fact fill out the form and paid the fee but did not have the know how to follow it up when i met with the dcc planning i was stonwalled with gobble de gook

blueythebear

spatchco wrote: »

thanks for the replys,BrianD and Researchwill,,yes brian you were right the dcc came out on receipt of a complaint but strange thing they did not know at the time they called if in fact i hade broken planning rules,and yes every day i look at my neighbours and think what miserable went behind my back,,and research i did in fact fill out the form and paid the fee but did not have the know how to follow it up when i met with the dcc planning i was stonwalled with gobble de gook

I doubt you would be successful in your request... The Act allows for a refusal where to grant the request could reveal the identity of the person who gave information in confidence in relation to civil law matters.

You seem to feel strongly about it so by all means make an FOI request, but it's not likely to be granted. If not, I wouldn't recommend you bring it any further as it would be a waste of time in all likelihood.

MadsL

You knew you needed planning permission, but you did it anyway. And now you want to know who complained? Why? So you can 'sort' them?

Please don't waste DCC's time - You won't get the name, planning enforcement files are strictly confidential. Rightly so, as it was you that broke the law.

ResearchWill

MadsL wrote: »

You knew you needed planning permission, but you did it anyway. And now you want to know who complained? Why? So you can 'sort' them?

Please don't waste DCC's time - You won't get the name, planning enforcement files are strictly confidential. Rightly so, as it was you that broke the law.

Don't think you got the relevant part of the OP "now when it was sorted i.e the work did not require any planning permission".

BrianD

MadsL wrote: »

You knew you needed planning permission, but you did it anyway. And now you want to know who complained? Why? So you can 'sort' them?

Please don't waste DCC's time - You won't get the name, planning enforcement files are strictly confidential. Rightly so, as it was you that broke the law.

As it happened the OP didn't require planning permission as per his post.

spatchco wrote:

yes brian you were right the dcc came out on receipt of a complaint but strange thing they did not know at the time they called if in fact i hade broken planning rules

DCC wouldn't know if you had broken any rules until they inspected. It's quite common for people to do work without permission (even build entire houses) or apply for planning permission and do something differently. That's the point of inspections.

MadsL

OP are you saying that you have no enforcement action against you? If so, dude seriously do think about getting that life.

You'll never find out who made a complaint and they were perfectly entitled to make a complaint even if you didn't breach planning law. That's what the system is there for.

AlcatrazLogan

As unlikely as it is that the FOI will go through I'm curious as you would do if you got the information?