Why is Douglas so Backwards?

Douglas Council has been unable to confirm when it will allow freedom of information requests to be made online.

Unlikely every other large local authority, the island’s capital requires people to submit written forms to the Council.

To submit a FoI request to other, often smaller local authorities, a person goes onto the gov.im site, chooses the authority they want to submit an FoI for, put in their information and sends off the request.

However, for a select few, this isn’t possible.

If you seek to request info from Andrew, Ballaugh and Jurby Commissioners, you would be met by the following message: ‘The Andreas, Ballaugh and Jurby Comissioners do not use email. Please contact the authority directly to submit your request to them by paper.’

The Capital City

Even if this was acceptable for some small authorities, if you select Douglas Council on the list, you get this message: ‘To make a FOI request please visit the Douglas Borough Council website.’

When you do this, the link takes you directly to the council’s main homepage. There is no simple click through from here either, instead you have to search freedom of information or go to the bottom of the page and click F and scroll down.

To a link that reads ‘Freedom of Information Act 2015’. On this page, you will be given the choice to download a PDF form and the address to send it to.

Why?

Gef did attempt to get a reason for this from Douglas Council, but did not receive a formal response. Instead we were led to believe that the council has appointed a new Data Protection Officer and modernising this system is due to be on their ‘to do’ list.

We’ll just have to wait and see then, all the while the island’s capital, chosen for city status partly on the basis of its modern business centre, as it pushes everyone else to consider their waste, while cutting bin collections, continues to insist on printing off forms and dropping them off or posting them.