26 July 2023
Your request
For the attention of Lambeth Streets department.
I am making a request for information regarding the commissioning, tendering, and undertaking of highways and pavement works to Atherfold Road SW9 9LW in 2023.
Please could you provide the following documents.
- Drawings (General arrangement plan, site works, and mark ups) related works undertaken to pavements and highways by the council and/or council appointed contractors to Atherfold Road, SW9 between 1st November 2022 and 1 June 2023.
- Drawings (General arrangement plan, site works, and mark ups) related to pavement upgrades tendered, instructed, and completed to Atherfold Road, SW9 between 1st November 2022 and 1 June 2023.
- Reports and letters (including emails) relating to the signing off (practice completion) of the works noted above. This must include information from and to the council and associated contractors undertaking pavement and highways works within this period.
Our response
We consider that the EIR is the correct legislation for this response.
We note that Section 2(EIR) defines Environmental Information as follows:-
Environmental Information has the same meaning as in Article 2(1) of the Directive, namely any information in written, visual, aural, electronic or any other material form on—
a) the state of the elements of the environment, such as air and atmosphere, water,soil, land, landscape and natural sites including wetlands, coastal and marine areas, biological diversity and its components, including genetically modified organisms, and the interaction among these elements;
b) factors, such as substances, energy, noise, radiation or waste, including radioactive waste, emissions, discharges and other releases into the environment, affecting or likely to affect the elements of the environment referred to in (a);
c) measures (including administrative measures), such as policies, legislation, plans, programmes, environmental agreements, and activities affecting or likely to affect the elements and factors referred to in (a) and (b) as well as measures or activities designed to protect those elements;
(d) reports on the implementation of environmental legislation;
(e) cost-benefit and other economic analyses and assumptions used within the framework of the measures and activities referred to in (c); and
(f) the state of human health and safety, including the contamination of the food chain, where relevant, conditions of human life, cultural sites and built structures inasmuch as they are or may be affected by the state of the elements of the environment referred to in (a) or, through those elements, by any of the matters referred to in (b) and (c);
We consider that this request falls within the EIR.
Please find attached
- Drawings (General arrangement plan, site works, and mark ups) related works undertaken to pavements and highways by the council and/or council appointed contractors to Atherfold Road, SW9 between 1st November 2022 and 1 June 2023
Please find the attached the detailed design drawings for Atherfold Road footway renewal schemes. There were no highway schemes associated with this road during this period.
- Drawings (General arrangement plan, site works, and mark ups) related to pavement upgrades tendered, instructed, and completed to Atherfold Road, SW9 between 1st November 2022 and 1 June 2023.
Our highways schemes are delivered by our LoHaC2 Framework Contractor Ringway who the Council commissioned to produce the attached detailed design drawings for Atherfold Road
See below Lambeth’s web-link Cabinet Member Delegated Decision Report (CMDDR) of 9 March 2021 on Highways Services Contract.
Highways Services Contract - Single Report 2020-21 Final DT_MB_BD 1.pdf (lambeth.gov.uk)
- Reports and letters (including emails) relating to the signing off (practice completion) of the works noted above. This must include information from and to the council and associated contractors undertaking pavement and highways works within this period. Footway renewal scheme works at Altherfold Road started on Monday 9 January and completed on Friday March 2023.
Throughout the duration of the scheme on site, construction works were inspected by Lambeth project’s team (Project Manager, Project Engineer, and Clerk of Works). On completion of the works, the scheme was re-measured, and a final actual cost agreed. The email exchanges and the Bill of Quantities are commercial in confidence between the Lambeth Council and the Contractor and so cannot be released to the Member of the Public. For your information, the final cost of the scheme was about £76,000.
See the Lambeth web-site links below for Cabinet Member Delegated Decision Report (CMDDR) of 08 AUGUST 2022 on Highways Improvement Programme (HIP) 2022/23 - Footway Renewal.
Decision - Highways Improvement Programme (HIP) 2022-23- Footway Renewal | Lambeth Council
Please note we are unable to share any commercial information such as Bill of Quantities to Member of the Public on the grounds of commercial confidence..
We therefore engage Regulation 12(5e) to this part of this request.
Regulation 12 (5)(e) Confidentiality of commercial or industrial information
12.—(5) For the purposes of paragraph (1)(a), a public authority may refuse to disclose information to the extent that its disclosure would adversely affect—
(e) the confidentiality of commercial or industrial information where such confidentiality is provided by law to protect a legitimate economic interest
Disclosure could weaken our term contractor’s future competitiveness and position in the market, with the potential to cause significant damage to our relationship with them.
As this request relates to Environmental Information; we have also considered the public interest in disclosure/maintaining the exception.
Public Interest in Disclosure
We note Regulation 12(2) EIR has a presumption of disclosure.
We also consider that disclosure would increase the public’s understanding of this issue and we note the general benefit in transparency where possible.
Public Interest in maintaining the exception
It is not in the public interest to provide this information as this could weaken our term contractor’s future competitiveness and position in the market, with the potential to discourage future suppliers, reducing the council’s capacity to provide best value for our residents.