TOWARD the end of 2023 it was decided that the Scrutiny Committee of Mid Devon District Council (MDDC) would form a Working Group to look into the failed Council owned 3 Rivers Development Limited. It was to report on lessons learned and not to apportion any blame.

As part of the preparation the Chief Executive wrote to me, and some unidentified others, on October 10, 2023 seeking response to certain questions/statements which subsequently formed the Terms of Reference for the Working Group.

He advised “that the District Solicitor will be reviewing all information provided in order to ensure it meets the standards of accuracy and integrity that befits the worthiness of the scrutiny committee's consideration.”

I did not respond directly to the questions in the letter, but offered to speak directly with the Working Group, as I had a lot of knowledge of what had happened during the time of 3 Rivers, but this offer was not taken up.

When I saw the final report, I had concerns as to what information had been available to the Working Group.

On January 25, 2024 I submitted a Freedom of Information [FOI] request to MDDC with a number of questions, one asking the identity of former Councillors who had also been sent the letter from the Chief Executive.

The first response was “Information not available.” I asked for that to be reviewed but that was met with a response that the names could not be released because of the Data Protection Act.

I complained to the Information Commissioner [ICO] who issued a Decision Notice instructing that the Council should make further searches and issue a fresh response to me.

The ICO also pointed out that the Council had changed its position during the course of his enquiries and expressed concerns regarding the poor arguments being used in their responses to me and that this was causing considerable delay in disclosure.

The response from MDDC was to tell me that five former Councillors had been sent the letter but it would not name them again using the Data Protection Act as the reason.

I again asked MDDC to review this response in the light of the ICO comments but their response again refused to release the names quoting further reasons.

I referred the matter back to the ICO who, on July 8, 2025, issued a further Decision Notice which required MDDC to disclose the names of five former Councillors.

The Commissioner stated that he did not accept the arguments put forward by the council.

Twenty days later, on July 28, 2025, MDDC gave me the names of five former elected Councillors, one of which was mine.

These five were three former Leaders of the Council and two former Cabinet members.

It is a bit of an insult for the Chief Executive to say he would have the District Solicitor review our responses for his given reasons.

It has taken 18 months to get five names out of MDDC and that was only achieved by the firm intervention of the ICO.

If the current administration want to continue telling we voters that they are ‘open and transparent’ then they need to get that message across to their officers.

Barry G J Warren

Cherry Close

Willand