I WAS very disappointed to read that the district council is supporting Parliament’s plans to remove or severely curtail the rights people have under the current Freedom of Information Act (FOI).

Since this has been introduced it has bought to light thousands of cases of malpractice or incompetence in both public and private bodies that would have remained hidden otherwise.

Our district council cites nearly 500 cases costing £10,000 as being an unacceptable burden on the council and tax payers.

As a tax payer I am more than happy for this money to be spent, as it increases the chances of errors and malpractice being found before they cost the district council even more money to put right.

CDC pay a large sum of money each year to auditors who assess the financial health and probity of the authority.

In my view FOI provides another branch to these audits and if audits provide a benefit to the council then so does FOI.

The given examples of frivolous and vexatious FOI requests are indeed annoying but then no one suggests discontinuing 999 calls because some people make frivolous and vexatious use of them.

In this day and age organisations, both public and private, can no longer hide behind a wall of needless secrecy and CDC’s effort to bunker down and ignore the press and public is far from edifying.

FOI, when applied to the health service, has saved people’s lives when poor practice has been rooted out by enquiring journalists and grieving relatives. Surely this is far more important than an officer at the district council being slightly inconvenienced.

Perhaps the district councillors of all parties who represent us could show their support of the FOI act by a vote in council.

I find it hard to believe any district councillor would be against the press and public having access to the truth.

STEVE TILLEY