Renewed payout call for private data gaffe (From Echo)

Renewed payout call for private data gaffe

7:50am Thursday 17th July 2008 in

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BASILDON Council has been urged to pay compensation and apologise to travellers after publishing their personal details.

Tony Ball, deputy council leader, said the authority, which has so far refused to pay, would now hold another meeting to consider if compensation was justified.

In April, the Local Government Ombudsman ordered the council to pay £300 to travellers who complained about private details being made public. This included children’s names, health problems and benefits payments published online and in an agenda before councillors voted to clear the illegal Dale Farm site, in Crays Hill and Hovefields, Wickford, in January, 2006.

In an official report just published, the Ombudsman believed “maladministration had caused injustice” and criticised the council for its stance and urged it to pay out and apologise in writing.

Ombudsman Tony Redmond said: “The council could have chosen to report the information to councillors in anonymous and summarised forms, or treated it as exempt information.

“Luckly, neither the complainants nor their children suffered any serious repercussions. Although the complainants worried this information might fall into the wrong hands and their children could be put at risk.”

But council leader Malcolm Buckley has been adamant the travellers will not get a penny.

He maintains councillors’ had to see the information so they could consider personal circumstances before the eviction vote and acted in good faith.