A COUNCIL has admitted it must change its policies after it was too slow to disclose key information on the controversial transfer of allotment land in Burnham.

A Freedom of Information request was submitted to Burnham Town Council in August by resident Roger Smith asking for all written material regarding the ownership of the allotment land, in Arcadia Road, back to 1992.

The request was made in August last year. The Standard revealed in May this year that half of the 255-plot allotment site had been owned by Moat Housing since 1995, after it was sold as part of Maldon District Council’s large scale voluntary transfer.

Town council bosses initially responded, stating it did not hold any documents other than the land lease agreements, a stance it maintained even after a complaint was made about this response.

Mr Smith then appealed to the Information Commissioner’s Office, which advised the council should reconsider its response in March this year.

During this time and through meetings with Mr Smith, it was discovered the council did possess minutes of meetings relevant to the allotments, and has since fully disclosed all documents requested.

In his report published on the ICO’s website, Commissioner Andrew White said: “The settlement statement also records that further information had been redacted from the council’s minutes regarding the ‘need for openness and transparency’.

“The redaction included a statement that the council had agreed to use to respond to any enquiries concerning the ownership of the allotment site. The settlement statement records that ‘the council regrets its redaction of this paragraph’.

“Whilst the commissioner cannot know the circumstances within the council that led it to deny that any information was held, the chronology of events is a matter of concern.”

Moat Housing has since stated it has no plans to use the land for anything other than allotments, and negotiations are underway for the land to be transferred back to the town council, or for Moat to offer it a 999 year lease for the land.

Complainant Mr Smith said: “The land registry documents were discovered by the team making the documentary about the allotments’ history last year.

“We knew the mistake had been made by previous members of the council [and] all I wanted from the FOI request was for the council to just openly admit it.

“Yet they continued to deny that any documentation existed, when we now know there was.

“To me, it just seemed completely daft and frustrating. There was no substantive reason to withhold any of them.

“We must state that the allotments are not at risk, and it looks like the issue is moving to a positive conclusion, but to just have confirmation that something went wrong and its now being fixed would’ve been absolutely fine.”

At a town council meeting last week, mayor Wendy Stamp sought to reassure the public existing council policies had been reviewed and new ways of working have been introduced.