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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711 disclosures

  1. Complaints about invasive weeds, 2021-2025

    I am writing under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to request the following information from your authority:

    Under the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 please provide information about complaints received by the council concerning invasive weeds growing on neighbouring or adjoining land.

    For each of the five complete calendar years 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025, please provide:

    The total number of unique complaints received concerning invasive weeds.

    A breakdown of these complaints by the following plant species:

      *   Japanese knotweed

      *   Bamboo

      *   Giant hogweed

      *   Himalayan balsam

      *   Other invasive plant species

    Please provide the information electronically, preferably as an Excel or CSV file.

    For the purposes of this request:

      *   Please include cases where the plant had spread, was alleged to have spread or was considered at risk of spreading from neighbouring or adjoining land.

      *   Please include complaints concerning privately owned, commercially owned and council-owned neighbouring land.

      *   Please exclude reports made solely about an invasive plant growing on the reporting person’s own land, unless the report also concerned its spread from neighbouring or adjoining land.

      *   Please exclude routine inspections, scheduled maintenance and infestations identified internally where no corresponding report was received from a member of the public.

      *   “Other invasive plant species” means any other plant recorded by the council as invasive, non-native, encroaching or requiring control because of its spread.

    Published: 8 September 2026

  2. Unauthorised encampment in Send

    I am seeking information relating to the unauthorised occupation of the public land in Send at the beginning of July 2026, located opposite the Send Surgery on Send Road, during the period in which multiple vehicles and caravans were parked on the site.

    Information Requested – please provide the following:

    1. All recorded actions taken by Guildford Borough Council in response to the unauthorised occupation, including:

    * Enforcement actions,

    * Environmental health actions,

    * Waste‑management or cleansing actions,

    * Any liaison with Surrey Police or other agencies,

    * Any legal steps taken to remove the individuals or vehicles from the land.

     

    2. Details of all offences or breaches recorded, including but not limited to:

    * Illegal parking or unauthorised encampment,

    * Fly‑tipping,

    * Human waste disposal,

    * Keeping of unrestrained livestock or animals,

    * Use of motorcycles by children on the land.

     

    3. Information on any investigations or prosecutions pursued, including:

    * Whether individuals were identified,

    * Whether fixed‑penalty notices, fines, or other sanctions were issued,

    * Whether any cases were referred to the courts or other authorities,

    * The outcomes of any enforcement or prosecution activity.

     

    4. Financial information, specifically:

    * The total cost incurred by Guildford Borough Council (and, if held, Send Parish Council) in clearing waste, human defecation, and other materials left on the land,

    * Whether the Council sought to recover these costs from the individuals involved,

    * Whether any cost‑recovery was successful, and if so, the amounts recovered.

     

    5. Equality of enforcement

    * Confirmation of whether the individuals involved were subject to the same enforcement processes and penalties that would ordinarily apply to any resident committing the same offences,

    * Any policies or guidance used by the Council when determining enforcement action in cases involving unauthorised encampments.

     

    Published: 8 September 2026

  3. Council officers working outside of the United Kingdom

    I am writing under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to request the following information from your authority:

    This is an information request relating to council officers being given permission to work from outside the United Kingdom. By United Kingdom, I refer to Northern Ireland, England, Wales and Scotland, not including the crown dependencies.

    Please include the following information, for the 2023/24, 2024/25, 2025/26 financial years:

    * The number of staff, per year, given permission to work from abroad.

    * For each member of staff granted permission, please provide:

    * their pay band,

    &

    * the country they have been allowed to work from,

    &

    * the length of time that they have been allowed to work for and,

    &

    * the dates they were allowed to work from abroad.

    * The longest time a member of staff has been granted permission to work from abroad and what country they went to.

    * The highest ranking officer that was allowed to work from abroad.

    * The current number of people working from abroad and where they are.

    Published: 7 September 2026

  4. Litter reports in parks

    I am writing under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to request the following information from your authority:

    Please treat this as a request for recorded information under the Environmental Information Regulations 2004, or the equivalent environmental information legislation applicable to your authority.

    For the period 1 January 2021 to 31 July 2026 inclusive, please provide the number of reports or service requests received concerning litter or rubbish in council-owned or council-managed parks and public open spaces.

    Please provide the figures broken down by individual park/site and calendar year, ideally in the following format:
    Park/site name | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 1 Jan–31 Jul 2026

    Where your system already records whether the report relates specifically to a playground or children's play area, please also indicate this or provide the number of those reports separately.

    Please use the park/site name and categories as they are recorded in your existing system. I am not asking the council to manually review free-text descriptions to determine whether an incident occurred within a playground.

    Published: 7 September 2026

  5. Local authority assets enquiry

    I am writing under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to request the following information from your authority:

    * The number and total value of local authority assets that have been sold in each of the last 15 calendar years (2010 to 2025 inclusive), setting out clearly which types of asset are included and splitting them by category or type. Please separate out social housing asset sales and community asset transfers, so these can be identified distinctly from other sales.

    * The stock of local authority assets currently held, by number and value, setting out clearly which types of asset are included and splitting them by type where possible. Please again separate social housing, and any community assets that are due to be transferred.

    * The number of local authority assets that have been transferred into community ownership in each of the last 15 calendar years (2010 to 2025 inclusive).

    Published: 7 September 2026

  6. Off-street parking places order for Portsmouth Road Car Park, Guilford

    I am writing under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to request the following information from your authority:

    I would like to request a copy of the off-street parking places order for Portsmouth Road Car Park, Guilford. Please could this be provided in PDF format, with searchable / selectable text, and inclusive of all schedules.

    Please note, this request is for the traffic order in its entirety, not only the part of the order relevant to the location mentioned above. Please do not provide any sort of "extract" that is anything less than the full document.

    Please note this is a request for the sealed / formally enacted order, please do not provide any informal "working copy". If the order has been amended multiple times by later orders, please provide the sealed copy of the original order as enacted, plus the sealed version of all amending orders (again with searchable / selectable text, and inclusive of all schedules).

    Published: 7 September 2026

  7. Parking Penalty Charge Notices Paid by the Council

    I am writing under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to request the following information from your authority:

    Please provide the following information relating to parking fines/Penalty Charge Notices (PCNs) paid using council funds:

    1. The total number of parking fines/PCNs paid by the council during the 2025/26 financial year.
    2. The total cost of those fines.
    3. The total number of parking fines/PCNs paid by the council in the current financial year to date.
    4. The total cost of those fines.

    This request includes fines incurred by employees, agency staff, contractors, or council vehicles, where the payment was made from council funds.

    Published: 7 September 2026

  8. Public litter bins – current provision and changes

    I am writing under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to request the following information from your authority:

    1. The current number of public litter bins or combined litter/recycling bins for which the authority is responsible.

    Where your records permit, please split this between:
    - streets/highways and other public realm;
    - parks/open spaces;
    - council housing estates; and
    - other locations.

    Please exclude household or communal residential refuse/recycling containers.

    2. Your current electronic asset list/register for these bins, containing the following existing fields where held:
    - asset ID;
    - location, coordinates and/or postcode;
    - location/category type;
    - bin type and/or capacity;
    - planned emptying/service frequency; and
    - installation date.

    I am requesting an export of existing recorded fields only. Please do not undertake a manual exercise to complete fields which are not already recorded.

    3. For each of:
    - 2024/25;
    - 2025/26; and
    - 2026/27 to the date of this request,

    the number of public litter bins:
    - newly installed; and
    - permanently removed.

    Published: 7 September 2026

  9. CCTV From Chinese Manufacturers

    I am writing under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to request the following information from your authority:

    Please can you tell me how many CCTV cameras the council operates and how many of these are produced by Chinese companies. Please can you show this as two figures.

    Please also provide the total number of the council’s CCTV cameras that use either live or retrospective facial recognition and how many of these are produced by Chinese companies.

    Published: 7 September 2026

  10. Queen Elizabeth Park

    Please treat this as a request for information under the Environmental Information Regulations 2004.

    To the extent that any requested information does not constitute environmental information, please treat that part under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

    I am undertaking postgraduate dissertation research into the implementation and long-term monitoring of residential travel plans. The development below was included as a case study in the Department for Transport publication Making Residential Travel Plans Work: Guidelines for New Development.

    Development: Queen Elizabeth Park, Guildford, on the former Guildford Barracks site at Stoughton.

    Original developers: Laing Homes and Linden Homes.

    Please confirm whether the Council has ever received any travel-plan monitoring report, review, monitoring return, survey report or comparable submission for this development, and provide the following recorded information:

    1. Copies of every residential, green or sustainable travel-plan monitoring report, review report or monitoring return received in connection with the development.

    2. Copies of associated appendices, survey results and supporting datasets, including resident travel surveys, modal-split information, traffic or parking surveys, public-transport information, car-club data and monitoring of walking or cycling.

    3. Records showing the required or anticipated submission date, date received, submitting organisation, monitoring period, Council review or acceptance, and any revisions or additional measures required.

    4. Relevant correspondence, officer notes, reports or minutes concerning submission or non-submission, performance against targets, amendments, remedial measures, enforcement, or any decision to vary, suspend or end the monitoring requirement.

    5. Any final, closure or handover report recording transfer of responsibility from the developer or consultant to a management company, community body, residents’ organisation or another party.

    6. If relevant records were destroyed or disposed of, records showing what was destroyed, when, under which retention or disposal rule, and whether copies were transferred elsewhere.

    Please include the first monitoring report prepared when the development reached approximately 75% occupation and every subsequent annual report or return.

    Please also include the underlying resident travel surveys, modal-split calculations and correspondence concerning the proportions of single-occupancy car journeys and total car travel.

    As the local planning authority, please search the planning application and obligation files, development-management records, enforcement records and any archived case files.

    Please search current and archived records held by planning or development management, transport or highways, planning enforcement, legal or Section 106 teams, information management and any relevant predecessor-authority or off-site archive.

    Published: 3 September 2026