The public have no right to read the discussions between Hackney Council and dodgy developer Hackney Walk about their plans for 55 Morning Lane. This is the disappointing ruling of the Information Commissioner’s Office.
The Commissioner has read the information that we can’t see and decided “it is clearly not of a trivial nature”. Yet still he has decided it’s in the public interest for pre-application discussions between Councils and developers to be confidential. This distorted logic assumes that we get better results for the public when we don’t know what’s happening rather than when local residents have the information we need to hold our elected representatives to account.
This shameful decision shows that Freedom of Information law serves to protect private not public interests. You can read the full 15 page ruling here.
morninglanepeoplesspace.org 