CRITICISM has been levelled at Cotswold District Council for failing to respond to a Freedom of Information (FOI) request about use of taxpayer’s money within the required time period.

An FOI request was made to the council on January 21, asking them to detail how much last month’s Standards Board hearing into the behaviour of Cllr Esmond Jenkins had cost the council.

By law, CDC was required to respond to the request by February 17, but no information has yet been received.

Leader of the Liberal Democrat group on CDC Cllr Paul Hodgkinson (Lib Dem, Churn Valley) said he was aware of at least three requests that had been made to the council.

“This information is really important to get into the public domain because many people are really aghast at the amount of time that was spent on this farce,” he said.

“This is something I’ve seen a number of times before with CDC unfortunately.

“It doesn’t help with public transparency and it gives the impression that the council is not able to respond effectively to these kinds of requests.”

A spokesman from CDC apologised for the delay in responding to the request.

“It is more complicated than it appears because it entails working out officer time spent on all activities associated with the recent Standards Committee hearing and various other expenses, some of which have only recently been clarified,” he added.

“A response has now been prepared and should be with the requestor within the next day or so.”

A similar request to Standards for England, the organisation that ran the investigation into Cllr Jenkins, has revealed that the cost to the organisation was £63,362.45.