Freedom of information (FOI) releases from Guildford

This is a disclosure log of Guildford Council's responses to freedom of information (FOI) or environmental information regulations (EIR) requests that might be of wider public interest.

If you can't find the information you're looking for, you can make a new FOI request.

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428 disclosures

  1. 1. How many new homes were completed in your authority in the financial year 2023/24?

    2. How many residential development applications received planning permission in the financial year 2023/24?

    Published: 26 July 2024

    1. Can you tell me how many trees the council has ordered to be removed in the last 10 years? I would like information on all trees felled by council departments including those on streets and in woodlands.

    2. And how many have been replanted in that period?

    3. Can you specify how many trees were cut down because they faced insurance claims?

    4. Can you specify how many trees were cut down to allow the construction of housing developments? If providing stats going back 10 years is not possible can you provide stats for tree felling for the past 5 or 3 years?

    Published: 13 June 2024

  2. See below.

    Published: 3 June 2024

  3. I request a copy of all documents relating to the decision to close Chantry Wood campsite made at the Executive meeting on the 8th of January 2019, including but not limited to, all meeting minutes, analysis, reports and significant correspondence relating to the decision, both before the 8th of January and since that date.

    Published: 7 May 2024

  4. I would like the visitor numbers for the Chantry Wood Campsite for the years 2018-19, 2019-20, 2020-21, and 2021-22. To include: - which dates were booked - number of people in each booking - forecast bookings ie bookings made but still in the future - if available, categories of visitor eg family group/ school/ Scouts/ Playrangers/other internal GBC/ other organisation etc. - if available, information on any cancellations. ie. which of the bookings were later cancelled or rebooked.

    Published: 7 May 2024

  5. Please provide the following as a Freedom of Information request.

    (1) The annual costs for the Chantry Wood campsite going back 15 years, i.e. from 2018-19 to 2003-04 inclusive. To be broken out as they are in the forecast in section 3.3 of the document provided to the Executive Committee on 7th Jan 2019 called "Item 06 2 - Chantry Wood Campsite - App 2 - Future Options.pdf".See below: 3.3. Estimated Operational Cost: Total: £10,000 Wardening (incl cleaning) £5,000 Admin: (without automated booking system) £2,000 Management Re-charge: £500 Facilities: Electricity, Water, Cesspit emptying, Legionella checks etc.: £1,000 R&M: £1,000 Services: Fire Wood supply, Waste Removal etc: £500

    (2) For the same time period, to explain how the wardening cost is estimated. Is it just a fraction of an FTE? If so, please provide the fraction of FTE that it was each year.

    (3) For the same time period, to explain how the admin cost is estimated. If it is a fraction of an FTE, please say what fraction it was each year.

    (4) Please explain why there is electricity on the list of costs above, when there is no electricity supply at the campsite.

    (5) For the same time period as above, please provide the following information about visitors: (a) per annum total numbers (b) per annum total bookings (c) price per person night for each year (d) income reported for the campsite. Some of this information has already been shared - see below: I am asking for the blanks to be be filled in: Visitors Bookings Income Pppn 1 2003-04 2 2004-05 3 2005-06 4 2006-07 5 2007-08 6 2009-10 7 2010-11 8 2011-12 9 2012-13 £ 6.10 10 2013-14 £ 3.00 11 2014-15 12 2015-16 1767 107 £ 4,023 £ 3.00 13 2016-17 1898 101 £ 5,031 £ 3.50 14 2017-18 1263 86 £ 4,695 £ 4.50 15 2018-19 1441 £ 4.75 16 2019-20 £ 4.75

    (6) For the same time period as above, please provide (a) the split between families and organisations; (b) how many visitors are Scouts/Guides/similar, (c) how many are from schools. Please provide this in terms of both visitors and bookings.

    Published: 7 May 2024

  6. Information Request - Accounts for Chantry Wood Campsite

    Dear GBC, This is an FOI for the Finance Department. I want to see the accounts for the Chantry Wood Campsite for the years 2018-19; 2019-20; 2020-21; and 2021-20 (forecast), to include the income, operating and capital expenditure. I would like a breakdown of the operating expenditure into whatever categories are available. In particular I would like to understand: (a) how much staff cost is being charged to the campsite, in terms of money, but also in terms of the fraction of FTE. From what I understand there has been a restructure and the bookings that used to be handled by the Countryside Management team are now going to be handled by Customer Services. So I would like staff cost shown separarently for Wardens from the Countryside Management team, versus any staff cost elsewhere in the organisation e.g. Customer Services. (b) if there are repairs and maintence costs, what detail you have on what this money has been spent on, i.e. what maintenance has been needed.

    Published: 7 May 2024

  7. You sent me a spreadsheet with visitor numbers for the last few years (in response to my FOI on Chantry Wood campsite).

    Can I just check - (1) What do all the zero-person bookings mean? Is it where someone booked provisionally but then never paid? (2) what does it mean where the same date appears twice? Is it possible for two groups to book the same date? Or does it represent someone who cancelled as above and then the date was given to someone else? - for example, the two entries for 28/10/17: 28-Oct-17 Family 30 28-Oct-17 Family 0 (3) What does it mean where bookings are labelled 'internal'? (4) Some bookings are labelled 'commercial'. Does ths mean the booking is made by a private business? (5) The bookings don't tally with the numbers given in response to my other question about the visitor split in / out of borough. (I've counted the non-zero bookings). What am I doing wrong? Number of Nights booked by customers from Outside the Borough Within the Borough total Non-zero bookings shown in spreadsheet 2016/17 77 65 142 101 doesn't match 2017/18 50 53 103 86 doesn't match 2018/19 45 48 93 not given (6) In the FOI response you also shared these numbers (below). I'm afraid I need you to have another pass at this because it doesn't answer the question I asked. 2016/17 2017/18 2018/19 Scout/ Guides/ Schools bookings (Booked Visitor Numbers) 10 (859) 5 (276) 4 (160) Commercial Activities similar to Forest Schools including Local Authority Run events (Booked Visitor Numbers) 4 (374) 15 (294) 5 (160+) The question was Please provide evidence to back up the statement by GBC's director of environment "use of the site by the target group, Scouts and Guides is decreasing each year and Forest Schools are using the site already" - 9th of Jan Surrey Advertiser - The first row lumps together Scouts, Guides and schools whereas the director's statement was specifically about Scouts and Guides, not schools. Please provide this data split out. - The numbers don't match what is in the visitor spreadsheets either. For example, how can there have been 859 Scouts/Guides/schools visitors in 2016/17 when apparently there were only 719 visitors in total from 'organisations'? See below: Date Stayed Family/Organisation Number of People 08-Apr-16 Organisation 15 15-Apr-16 Organisation 8 17-Apr-16 Organisation 30 23-Apr-16 Organisation 61 26-Apr-16 Organisation 38 30-Apr-16 Organisation 89 21-May-16 Organisation 36 11-Jun-16 Organisation 57 12-Jun-16 Organisation 50 26-Jun-16 Organisation 88 03-Sep-16 Organisation 50 16-Sep-16 Organisation 40 01-Oct-16 Organisation 35 10-Mar-17 Organisation 32 25-Mar-17 Organisation 90 total 719 The second row: what are "Commercial Activities similar to Forest Schools including Local Authority Run events" ? I don't know what this actually means. Does it mean that the number of forest schools who have booked the campsite in the time period is actually zero? Finally (7) In the original paper in January this year you made public the visitor figures for two years (2017: 1263 and 2016: 1898) In my FOI I asked for the full visitor analysis and you have released only one more year (2015: 1767). What is the reason that you haven't provided the total number of visitors going back, say, 10 or 15 years? You have alluded to a historical trends in visitors, so this must be based on something. (8) please provide the spreadsheet of visitor bookings for the latest year, i.e. 2018-19.

    Published: 7 May 2024

  8. 1. Please provide the full list of organisations and interested parties that were contacted by the Council to ask for views or submit feedback on the proposals for Chantry Wood (2019).

    2. The responses to the consultation

    3. Please provide evidence that the Council publicly advertised the consultation.

    4. Please provide evidence of who the Council invited to the site meeting on Feb 5th 2019, and of what was discussed during the meeting

    5. Please provide evidence to support the claim by the lead councillor on this matter, made in the Surrey Advertiser on 21st Feb 2019, "He added that consulting all site users would be "difficult" as many travelled in from outside the borough, saying: "We need to make sure we engage with local residents who help provide the service through their council tax." "

    6. Please provide evidence to back up the statement by GBC's director of environment "use of the site by the target group, Scouts and Guides is decreasing each year and Forest Schools are using the site already" - 9th January 2019, Surrey Advertiser

    Published: 7 May 2024

  9. 1. What Content Management Platform is used to manage the Local Authority's corporate website?

    2. Is this developed in house or by an external provider?

    3. If an external provider, please provide: a. Name of the provider b. Renewal date for the contract c. Annual support cost

    4. Are there plans to review provision of your content management system in the next 12 months?

    Published: 20 February 2024