"Reform-run Kent council has been accused of trying to block scrutiny after it refused, for more than five months, to produce evidence that it had saved more than 40m by cancelling two environmental projects that did not exist yet. Polly Billington, a Labour MP in Kent, first requested background to the claim via a freedom of information (FoI) request in July. She said the subsequent delay had not been explained and seemed to show the council was embarrassed at what the documents would show."
"The saga began when the Kent leader, Linden Kemkaran, told a council meeting on 10 July that the authority had saved 32m by scrapping a programme to make properties more environmentally friendly, and 7.5m by not making the council's fleet of vehicles electric by 2030. This prompted the FoI request from Billington, who worked in green energy before becoming an MP, which requested documents setting out how the total figure had been calculated."
"Billington told the council it was not plausible that no other documents or emails about the projects existed, and demanded they be passed to her. Since then, the MP has written several more times to the council and then to Kemkaran, saying they had breached laws over FoI requests and that she would take the case to the information commissioner's office."
Kent County Council claimed to have saved more than £40m by cancelling two environmental programmes. The council leader, Linden Kemkaran, said on 10 July that £32m related to a properties programme and £7.5m related to not electrifying the vehicle fleet by 2030. Polly Billington submitted a freedom of information request in July seeking documents showing how the totals were calculated. The council replied in August that only two lines in a budget document existed and no business cases had been completed because the projects were not formally agreed. Billington demanded further documents and threatened to involve the information commissioner. The council said it would release information and denied a cover-up.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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