A FREEDOM of Information

bid to establish

the details of former

Teignbridge Council

CEO Nicola Bulbeck’s

pay off has failed.

The Mid-Devon

Advertiser revealed last

month she received

£160,000 towards her

pension and £160,000

redundancy pay.

The paper had submitted

a request to confirm

the figures which

were released by a

whistleblower.

The district authority

has since argued that if

information about Ms

Bulbeck’s leaving package

was disclosed it

would breach ‘data protection

principles.’

The council’s Freedom

of Information

Officer, Karen Mason,

said: ‘Any package provided

to a member of

staff when leaving council

is defined by Section

1 of the Data Protection

Act.

‘In my opinion, the

information requested

constitutes personal

data because it relates to

an identifiable living

individual and would

breach the data protection

principles if it was

released.

‘The employee would

also have a general

expectation of privacy.’

A similar bid for

details was sent to the

authority last year to

find out which Teignbridge

member hadn’t

paid their Council Tax.

But Teignbridge

refused to divulge the

information on the

grounds that it wasn’t in

the public interest.

At the same time a

similar scenario unfolded

with Leeds City

Council but the Information

Commissioner

ordered the authority to

reveal the names of the

Council Tax non-payers.

The Mid-Devon

Advertiser is appealing

against the latest council

snub to the Information

Commissioner’s Office.

The paper feels that

public money, paid to a

public servant, should

be in the public domain.