RATTLED Town Hall chiefs have stepped in again to block the New Journal from viewing housing department documents.
In a request under the new Freedom of Information release scheme, journalists asked to see how Camden Council reacted to this newspaper’s decision to campaign on behalf of tenants for direct investment in their crumbling homes. Government investment has been frozen since residents rejected plans to switch control of the council’s stock.
Reporters asked to see all comments and correspondence on a massive petition gathered by the New Journal and handed to Housing Minister Keith Hill. Publicly, senior Labour councillors supported the petition.
But Town Hall lawyers now say it would jeopardise future housing discussions if the New Journal was to see documents mentioning the petition.
A response sent on Tuesday – 10 days later than laid down by guidelines – said: “The reasons why the public interest favours withholding the information are that the release of such information would harm the frankness and candour of internal discussion in the future and thereby prejudice the council’s ability to undertake an honest assessment of its position or its policies.”