THE way a Gwent town council handled a Freedom of Information (FOI) request earlier this year involved "numerous procedural weaknesses", the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has ruled.

The town council was incorrect to refuse an FOI request to see a report produced at a full council meeting in May, according to an ICO report.

Minutes from the council’s complaints committee in October show the FOI request was made by Chepstow Chamber of Commerce and Tourism.

When it was refused, the chamber referred the matter to the ICO, the UK-wide body for making decisions on FOI appeals.

The ICO found that the town council made two breaches of the Freedom of Information Act. "The main purpose of this decision notice is not to chastise the council for its failings, but to identify weaknesses that the council can address when handling future requests,” states the ICO report.

The ICO found that the council did not respond to the original request within the mandatory time limit of 20 working days. The requested documents, in a redacted form, were only supplied four months later, and only after the commissioner had intervened.

The ICO also found that the FOI request had been responded to, originally, by a single councillor rather than the council clerk, as it should have been - and when the ICO first became involved, the report notes, the council was “apparently unaware of the request ever having been submitted”.

When the Chamber of Commerce and Tourism initially complained about the refusal, the council failed to conduct a mandatory internal review of the decision.

The ICO ordered the council to disclose the information to the chamber, though some confidential information must be omitted.

The council declined to comment on the ICO’s decision.