Council staff need information lessons I WELCOME the new chief executive of City of York Council’s pledge regarding Freedom of Information (FOI) requests (The Press, September 21) and her statement that “if we cannot give out information, we have to think about explaining why. And if we get things wrong, we will be honest about that”.

However, in the centre pages of the same issue she states that “Often people put in an FOI request without even bothering to ask the council for information first”.

May I suggest to her that a major education exercise needs to be undertaken by the council with members of staff as to why they insist they will not give information out.

I had a meeting with a chief officer of CYC several months ago, who read out information to me. When I asked for a copy of the information, the officer refused, using Data Protection as the reason.

I wrote to the council requesting a copy under FOI and was sent a copy almost immediately, with a covering letter stating that Data Protection did not prevent the initial officer from providing me with a copy when I requested it.

I suggest that the new chief executive embarks on an education exercise for all council staff (including chief officers) on how to deal with requests for information from members of the public, before blaming members of the public for bombarding the council with FOI requests.

Howard Perry, St James Place, Dringhouses, York