Dear Mrs Woods,

Thank you for your email. To some extent you've given me a spade rather the actual informaon,

but parcularly with the circumstances of Susannah's compassionate leave that is understandable

and I have started digging. I'm going to address your points one by one; please forgive the

expediency of answering in another colour between paragraphs but we have three numbering

systems in our correspondence and it will be clearer this way. My addions to your email below

are in blue.

On 05/06/2014 11:11, Susannah Jennings wrote:

Dear Mr Walter

Thank you for your email dated 4th June 2014. I will endeavour to respond to that email as well as

queries raised in your previous emails.

1. I conrm I found the original completed survey forms and oered you that chance to come and

view the defacted copies at the Parish Oce but you decline this opportunity unl you had received

further informaon from me.

Yes, indeed. Since you will not let me have a copy of the redacted sheets to take with me, I need

to be sure that I know what to look for when I come or it will be a wasted visit. I have to do the

spadework before then.

2. I contacted Jackie Johnson from the Isle of Wight Council and she kindly emailed me through the

link to the relevant secon of the IWC website, which Shaleet Parish Council had been sent, in order

for you to see the original survey form. Jackie Johnson said to me that if you wish to know her

qualifcaons you will need to contact her direct and she is available on the IWC phone number

(01983) 821000.

I believe several Parish and Town Councils are working from the template and guidance sent through

from the IWC, including Arreton and Fishbourne.

I phoned Jackie who was very helpful but neither of us could see why I needed to know her

qualicaons since she was the junior member of the team looking at the task, and I needed to

speak to Mr Peter Griths, who is a planning ocer. The main thing that Jackie stressed is that

especially since the Localism Act it is the Parish Councils who have responsibility for this not the

Principal Authority. She said she had certainly not insisted on any quesons being included in the

Parish Aordable Housing Survey and she doubted whether Peter would have (I have yet to speak

to Peter). She stressed a second me that for beAer or worse, the responsibility lies with the

Parish Council.

3. I conrmed that I had been informed that the survey (inially sent through by the IWC) was agreed

by the Shaeet Parish Council Working Party and subsequently by the full Council.

The Shaleet Parish Council Working Party has/had no authority to make decisions about the

survey. The WP, I understand, was to report to the Parish Council. When you say "the full Council"

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do you mean the Parish Council or the IWC? In either case that would be minuted. If you mean

the Parish Council, would you please steer me to the appropriate meeng/minutes? If it was the

IWC would you steer me to something that allows me to dig it out. It wouldn't the the Full Council

in any case, I would have thought? To precis, can you please nd out who (or which CommiAee)

actually minuted that the Aordable Housing Survey was t to send out, and when?

4. Mr R. Powell who undertook the processing of the survey and collated the report is quite happy for

you to contact him to discuss further i.e. macros/formula etc. His phone number is (01983) xxxxxxxx.

His name is in fact on the front sheet of the Sustainable Housing Survey of which we referred to

yesterday on the telephone.

He informed me his qualicaons are:

Masters Degree in Physical Oceanology, Bachelors in Environmental Science and 'A' Level Maths.

Cllr Whitney believes the IWC were sased with Mr Powell collang the survey informaon via a

phone call but suggested you could ask Jackie Johnson for conrmaon.

Cllr Hewston previously conrmed in our telephone conversaon, held on speaker phone, that it was

not compulsory or mandatory for the IWC to monitor the survey carried out by Shaleet PC.

So Mr Powell has no relevant qualicaons? i.e. he has no prior professional training or job

experience in the analysis of public surveys, parcularly housing surveys? Jackie, on the phone,

said that it was not even appropriate for the IWC to take responsibility for the survey on behalf of

the SPC let alone compulsory. In her email of 27/5, Susannah said that "The Isle of Wight Council

was consulted to ensure the survey conformed to the latest Government advice. ....The Isle of

Wight Council were happy that he met all the necessary competent criteria." I hope you see the

problem? I stress that I am not trying to point any nger of blame to anyone. I am simply trying to

determine whether the Aordable Housing Survey is/was t for purpose. If it isn't then I will ask

SPC to have it removed from the record or brought up to standard. For the me being, it is being

used by Property Developers to jusfy a housing 'need' that the residents believe does not exist. I

hope this is clear because it is the sole purpose of this FOI request. Indeed, if SPC had looked at it

again as I asked them to three mes they would have found all this out by themselves.

5. I believe Cllrs said on the phone that the IWC had accepted the draHs and conclusions of the report,

do not recall the word 'approved' being used as obviously it is a Shaeet Parish Council indepentent

report.

We know that the survey has been included in the IWC planning package but we don't know

whether they approved it or relied on SPC to carry out due diligence. Jackie rather suggested that

it was SPC's duty to sasfy themselves and since there are no qualied persons on SPC to carry out

this appraisal they would have had to take outside advice. Clearly Mr Powell's Oceanology,

Environmental Science and A level maths is not relevant to Housing Needs Surveys; indeed, a short

visit to the Government website shows that this is a very technical science in its own right.

Furthermore, even without the benet of a qualicaon in Housing Needs Surveys, if you read the

document 'Local Development, Island Needs IW Council Feb 2012' from which Susannah almost

certainly took the template, you will see a large number of deciencies:

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"It is important that all households in your area are included in the survey". As you know, a

considerable number say they never received the survey, a fact that my wife and I reported back

when we collected on behalf of the SPC. This was conrmed at two recent public meengs with

people present saying they never got the survey or no-one picked it up. Obviously if they weren't

picked up it amounts to the same thing as not being included.

"You will also need to include a return date and a return envelope (pre-paid is the recommended

opon to ensure a good response date)" From my recollecon there was no envelope supplied

and the pick-up was so late that almost everyone commented that they'd given up with it. Some

of mine said they'd thrown them away and certainly wouldn't ll in another.

"Also, be prepared to send a second survey if no response is received by your response date" I

don't believe that happened?

"Always include a covering leAer and a response date for the form to be returned. this should

clearly set out the benets of understanding housing need for the community, along with contact

details for people who may have queries or might require assistance in compleng the form" Was

that included?

"....For this reason it is important that you have a good response rate for your survey and we

would suggest that a survey should try and achieve as close to a minimum response rate of 50% as

possible." The response rate, from Mr Powell's Excel le gures, was 21% not 50%! My stats is

very out of date and was for my engineering degree, but from what I remember the dierence is

vast. It seems incredible that the SPC would press on with approving the document with such a

low response rate, knowing that the consequence could be for property developers to seek

planning to build on our Green Belt on the invalid assumpon that there is a need.

"Remember: the survey is not just about determining aordable housing need but all types of

housing." - Printed in bold. Yet SPC refers to this as the 'Aordable Housing Survey'. What about

social housing - i.e. what used to be called 'Council Housing' with property belonging to the

Council being let to tenants who meet a dened prole?

I am aware that you have requested for the validity of the survey to go on a Parish Council Agenda and

if aHer receiving the above informaon you feel this is sll necessary then it woud be up to Susannah,

as Parish Clerk to arrange this. I feel I have done all I can to answer the queries you have raised with

the informaon I have gathered and indeed have spent some me on this maAer in order to do so.

Please bear in mind Susannah does have a meeng to prepare for on her return from compassionate

leave.

I am sorry if you feel that you have been put-upon but you will understand that this is an

important maAer and the law - the Freedom of Informaon Act - places this obligaon on you. If

Shaleet Parish Council had not refused point blank on three occasions to address this issue you

would not have been leH having to answer these quesons under an FOI request. I was leH with

no alternave.

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As you see, there are sll quesons that need to be answered. I shall write to Peter Griths and I

am copying him on this with another email to explain but from what we know at the moment it

seems that the answers lie within Shaleet Parish Council who will need to answer them and

consider how these revelaons aect the validity of their Aordable Housing Survey.

Best wishes.

Yours sincerely,

Sally M Woods (Mrs)

On behalf of

Susannah Jennings

(Clerk to Shalfleet Parish Council)

The information in this message should be regarded as confidential and is intended for the addressee only unless

otherwise stated. If you have received this email in error please delete and notify the sender. Any views expressed

in this message are personal and not necessarily those of Shalfleet Parish Council, unless otherwise stated.

From: Seraphina

Sent: 04 June 2014 11:46

To: clerk@shaleeow.org.uk

Cc: John Whitney; hewston

Subject: Re FOI Aordable Housing Survey (The Survey)

FAO Mrs Sally Woods, acng Clerk to Shaleet Parish Council

Dear Mrs Woods,

Herewith my notes of our telephone conversa#on this morning, with Cllrs Hewston and Whitney

part-#me on conference call.

1. The original survey forms are not immediately to hand. You will try to nd them. Rather than

photocopy them, given that you haven't a scanner, you suggested that will let me have sight of the

forms in your oce.

2. You explained that the Survey quesonnaire was provided by the IWC and lled-in by the Clerk. I

am seeking the source of this - both the template and the quesons.

3. You said that the Survey was approved by the IWC before being sent out. I am seeking evidence of

that approval.

4. I am seeking evidence that those who worked on the data processing had the appropriate skills.

You said that IWC had approved the individual. I am seeking evidence of that.

5. You said that IWC had approved the conclusions of the Report. I am seeking evidence of that.

I hope that sums up the essenals of our discussion on the maAer of the FOI? If not, please let me

know.

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Thank you for your help.

Sincerely,

David Walter

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