Unnatural Individuals

When they are not planning the laying waste of more natural aspects of landscape at Blacka Moor, Sheffield Wildlife Trust's managers are poring over claims forms and grant applications and engaging in self-promotional activities on their own behalf. Those claims forms are now the target of the latest FoI requests this blog is sending in. Back in September a request was sent in to the Rural Payments Agency hoping to establish just how much public money has gone into the management (and laying waste) of the natural vegetation here. This is proving an ongoing education. If you thought you knew what bureaucracy means, think again. The first response that came back was deficient in that it failed to give information about the grassy pasture land (unit 70 of the SSSI, the moor area being unit 69). It also indicated payments made for claims in 2010 when there were no cattle on the land which was then queried. A second response has now been received acknowledging errors in the first response but adding more confusion into what should be a simple task. An excerpt:

"Following a further search of our records we have identified that unit 70 was claimed by the Sheffield Wildlife Trust in 2010. Previous payment amounts disclosed also included payments made for this area. Unit 70 was also claimed by Sheffield City Council in 2010. However as this area of land is in a Severely Disadvantaged Area and the Council do not hold any Severely Disadvantaged Area entitlements, they did not receive any payment for it.

One other applicant claimed on this land in 2010 however they are considered to be a ‘natural individual’ i.e. their business status is either a sole trader or a partnership. As the information constitutes personal data relating to a third party, we have decided that the information should be withheld under regulations 12(3) and 13(1) (third party personal data) of the Environmental Information Regulations 2004.

We consider that disclosure of this information is likely to breach the first data protection principle in Schedule 1 to the Data Protection Act, which relates to the fair and lawful processing of personal data, in two ways. Firstly, disclosure would not constitute fair’ processing of the personal data and, secondly, disclosure would not satisfy any of the conditions for data processing set out in Schedule 2 to the Data Protection Act."


So why did Sheffield City Council and Sheffield Wildlife Trust and a certain 'natural individual' all claim for unit 70 in 2010? And why is this a Severely Disadvantaged Area? The obvious answer to the last question has to be that any land managed by clowns in the conservation industry is having a pretty hard time but I suspect that is not the determining factor.

But the big question is this: why should it be so difficult for a member of the public to be given accurate information showing just how much public money is being spent making a mess of public land? More Freedom of Information requests on the way.