A DECISION to stop publishing third party correspondences on planning issues online seems to have more to do with financial savings than complaints.

Documents received through a Freedom of Information (FOI) request reveal that the decision was made on December 5, 2018 by the former head of property, planning and public protection, Kenneth Yorston.

Mr Yorston who has now left Powys County Council (PCC), had the full backing of portfolio holder for planning and economy, Cllr Martin Weale (Independent -Llanbadarn Mynydd) to make the decision.

An email from the current head of property, planning and public protection, Gwilym Davies to his former boss Mr Yorston on December 5, 2018, includes a risk assessment  giving reasons behind the decision.

The risk assessment said that: “This measure will mitigate the impact of staff reductions identified in 2019/20 savings proposals.

Other factors in favour of the decision in the risk assessment include:

“The cessation of the publication of the information will reduce the risk of personal and sensitive information that should not be published, being published.”

“The cessation of the publication of the information will reduce the chances of intimidation of the authors of third party correspondence.

The assessment added that the decision could impact the FOI team as they could be dealing with more requests for information on planning applications.

The file also reveals that the decision will need to be looked at again on December 5, 2019.

At the time, the department had three members of staff going through the correspondence to redact personal information, such as names and addresses.

In a four year period from 2014 to 2018, PCC received eight complaints on this issue. Four breaches of data protection had been found by the commissioner. Two of these were for failing to redact email addresses found in a hard copy file.

The commissioner noted these breaches and gave recommendation to improve the processes but no punishments or fines are mentioned.

At a full council meeting in July the controversial decision was criticised by Dr Christine Hugh-Jones who believes that it will lead to an: “increase in secrecy and decrease public accountability of planning.”

At the meeting Cllr Weale was asked by Dr Hugh-Jones to re-think the decision. But Cllr Weale defended the decision due to the fear of astronomical fines running into hundreds of millions of pounds for data breaches.

PCC has said that people can visit the planning department offices at Neuadd Maldwyn in Welshpool or the Gwalia offices in Llandrindod Wells by appointment to look at planning files.