Cheshire East Council

The complainant requested information from Cheshire East Council (CEC) relating to business rates and council tax collected by CEC from the former Macclesfield Borough Council (MBC) area. The Commissioner’s decision is that CEC is not entitled to rely on section 12(1) (cost limit) of FOIA to refuse to provide the requested information. He also finds that CEC has breached section 1(1)(a) of FOIA by failing to clearly confirm or deny whether it holds an estimate of the council tax and business rates it has collected from the former MBC area. The Commissioner requires CEC to take the following steps to ensure compliance with the legislation. CEC must issue a fresh response to the request which does not rely on section 12(1) of FOIA. CEC must issue a fresh response to the request which clearly confirms or denies whether an estimate of the council tax and business rates it has collected from the former MBC area is held. CEC must take these steps within 30 calendar days of the date of this decision notice. Failure to comply may result in the Commissioner making written certification of this fact to the High Court pursuant to section 54 of the Act and may be dealt with as a contempt of court.