All Thorndon Connections submission data re street changes and bike network - Traffic Resolution (TR63-23)
Thorndon Residents' Association made this Official Information request to Wellington City Council
The request was partially successful.
From: Thorndon Residents' Association
Dear Wellington City Council,
The Association, along with others in the community, struggles to understand some of the selected statistics from the 1084 responses reported on this webpage:
https://www.transportprojects.org.nz/cur...
It is understood that the data for these stats have been driven by individuals answering an online WCC questionnaire, or a paper version of it.
Findings that puzzling, for example, include:
That 35% of submitters 'normally travel around' by bicycle in the Thorndon Connections area.
That 32% of submitters 'normally travel around' by Car/Van.
Yet 9,000 vehicles per day and ~100 cyclists use Molesworth & Mulgrave Streets.
Therefore the findings derived from the submissions mystify; could they be skewed somehow?
In order that anyone may independently scrutinize, audit or verify the computations being made from the data supplied by submitters:
1) Please provide a spreadsheet comprising EVERY element of raw data collected by WCC, every field, every comment, etc, that underpins the 1084 responses reported as received by WCC.
2) Please provide a separate spreadsheet recording EVERY element of raw data (comments et al, etc) collected via the Thorndon Community Group's submission form, as separately submitted to WCC, whether paper or digital.
(Background: an extension of one week was granted by WCC for the community to continue to submit on the complex Thorndon Connections proposals in Traffic Resolution 63-23)
3) All metadata for each data field (to ensure there's no ambiguity in interpreting what each element means, is intended to measure, etc)
4) Please provide a digital copy of WCC's questionnaire
5) Please provide a digital copy of the Thorndon Community's questionnaire
6) Please identify any submissions that were appraised as 'invalid' (thus not counted), and the reason for each such decision
7) In the spreadsheets please ensure each data row includes 'location' i.e. a suburb or town or postcode (etc) that each submitter identified with
8) Please advise when ALL these data will be readily accessible from WCC's website.
Yours faithfully,
Thorndon Residents' Association
From: BUS: Assurance
Wellington City Council
Tēnā koe
Thank you for your request dated 5 April 2023.
We have logged this as a new request and will manage this under the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987 which requires us to provide a decision as soon as possible, but no later than 8 May 2023, being 20 working days of receipt.
The reference number for your request is IRC-4683.
Please contact us if you have any further questions.
Kind regards
The Assurance Team
Email: [email address]
Wellington City Council | W Wellington.govt.nz | |
-----Original Message-----
From: Thorndon Residents' Association <[FOI #22396 email]>
Sent: Wednesday, 5 April 2023 3:00 pm
To: BUS: Assurance <[email address]>
Subject: Official Information request - All Thorndon Connections submission data re street changes and bike network - Traffic Resolution (TR63-23)
Dear Wellington City Council,
The Association, along with others in the community, struggles to understand some of the selected statistics from the 1084 responses reported on this webpage:
https://www.transportprojects.org.nz/cur...
It is understood that the data for these stats have been driven by individuals answering an online WCC questionnaire, or a paper version of it.
Findings that puzzling, for example, include:
That 35% of submitters 'normally travel around' by bicycle in the Thorndon Connections area.
That 32% of submitters 'normally travel around' by Car/Van.
Yet 9,000 vehicles per day and ~100 cyclists use Molesworth & Mulgrave Streets.
Therefore the findings derived from the submissions mystify; could they be skewed somehow?
In order that anyone may independently scrutinize, audit or verify the computations being made from the data supplied by submitters:
1) Please provide a spreadsheet comprising EVERY element of raw data collected by WCC, every field, every comment, etc, that underpins the 1084 responses reported as received by WCC.
2) Please provide a separate spreadsheet recording EVERY element of raw data (comments et al, etc) collected via the Thorndon Community Group's submission form, as separately submitted to WCC, whether paper or digital.
(Background: an extension of one week was granted by WCC for the community to continue to submit on the complex Thorndon Connections proposals in Traffic Resolution 63-23)
3) All metadata for each data field (to ensure there's no ambiguity in interpreting what each element means, is intended to measure, etc)
4) Please provide a digital copy of WCC's questionnaire
5) Please provide a digital copy of the Thorndon Community's questionnaire
6) Please identify any submissions that were appraised as 'invalid' (thus not counted), and the reason for each such decision
7) In the spreadsheets please ensure each data row includes 'location' i.e. a suburb or town or postcode (etc) that each submitter identified with
8) Please advise when ALL these data will be readily accessible from WCC's website.
Yours faithfully,
Thorndon Residents' Association
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From: BUS: Assurance
Wellington City Council
Kia ora,
Thank you for your request, please see the attached response.
Ngā mihi
Claudia
Claudia Holgate
Official Information Team
-----Original Message-----
From: Thorndon Residents' Association <[FOI #22396 email]>
Sent: Wednesday, 5 April 2023 3:00 pm
To: BUS: Assurance <[email address]>
Subject: Official Information request - All Thorndon Connections submission data re street changes and bike network - Traffic Resolution (TR63-23)
Dear Wellington City Council,
The Association, along with others in the community, struggles to understand some of the selected statistics from the 1084 responses reported on this webpage:
https://www.transportprojects.org.nz/cur...
It is understood that the data for these stats have been driven by individuals answering an online WCC questionnaire, or a paper version of it.
Findings that puzzling, for example, include:
That 35% of submitters 'normally travel around' by bicycle in the Thorndon Connections area.
That 32% of submitters 'normally travel around' by Car/Van.
Yet 9,000 vehicles per day and ~100 cyclists use Molesworth & Mulgrave Streets.
Therefore the findings derived from the submissions mystify; could they be skewed somehow?
In order that anyone may independently scrutinize, audit or verify the computations being made from the data supplied by submitters:
1) Please provide a spreadsheet comprising EVERY element of raw data collected by WCC, every field, every comment, etc, that underpins the 1084 responses reported as received by WCC.
2) Please provide a separate spreadsheet recording EVERY element of raw data (comments et al, etc) collected via the Thorndon Community Group's submission form, as separately submitted to WCC, whether paper or digital.
(Background: an extension of one week was granted by WCC for the community to continue to submit on the complex Thorndon Connections proposals in Traffic Resolution 63-23)
3) All metadata for each data field (to ensure there's no ambiguity in interpreting what each element means, is intended to measure, etc)
4) Please provide a digital copy of WCC's questionnaire
5) Please provide a digital copy of the Thorndon Community's questionnaire
6) Please identify any submissions that were appraised as 'invalid' (thus not counted), and the reason for each such decision
7) In the spreadsheets please ensure each data row includes 'location' i.e. a suburb or town or postcode (etc) that each submitter identified with
8) Please advise when ALL these data will be readily accessible from WCC's website.
Yours faithfully,
Thorndon Residents' Association
-------------------------------------------------------------------
This is an Official Information request made via the FYI website.
Please use this email address for all replies to this request:
[FOI #22396 email]
Is [Wellington City Council request email] the wrong address for Official Information requests to Wellington City Council? If so, please contact us using this form:
https://fyi.org.nz/change_request/new?bo...
Disclaimer: This message and any reply that you make will be published on the internet. Our privacy and copyright policies:
https://fyi.org.nz/help/officers
If you find this service useful as an Official Information officer, please ask your web manager to link to us from your organisation's OIA or LGOIMA page.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
hide quoted sections
From: Thorndon Residents' Association
Dear BUS: Assurance,
Thank you for your letter of 26 April.
Consistent with the Association's original request we seek all the data that you can supply from all the submissions received on the Thorndon Connections project, only leaving out fields that would violate privacy.
Please provide the result in a spreadsheet format.
The Association does not anticipate any costs for this request to be fulfilled, as this is digital data (it must be to be in a report), and the data fields that can be supplied should be able to be readily transformed into a spreadsheet.
The expectation is that individuals' names and their email addresses would be the only data excluded.
Yours sincerely,
Thorndon Residents' Association
From: BUS: Assurance
Wellington City Council
Kia ora,
The submissions relating to the Thorndon Connections proposal are now available on our website under the 'reports' sections of this page:
https://wellington.govt.nz/your-council/...
Once you have reviewed these, please let us know if you require any further information.
Nga mihi
Claudia
Claudia Holgate
Senior Advisor | Official Information Team
-----Original Message-----
From: Thorndon Residents' Association <[FOI #22396 email]>
Sent: Saturday, 29 April 2023 11:22 pm
To: BUS: Assurance <[email address]>
Subject: RE: Official Information request - All Thorndon Connections submission data re street changes and bike network - Traffic Resolution (TR63-23)
Dear BUS: Assurance,
Thank you for your letter of 26 April.
Consistent with the Association's original request we seek all the data that you can supply from all the submissions received on the Thorndon Connections project, only leaving out fields that would violate privacy.
Please provide the result in a spreadsheet format.
The Association does not anticipate any costs for this request to be fulfilled, as this is digital data (it must be to be in a report), and the data fields that can be supplied should be able to be readily transformed into a spreadsheet.
The expectation is that individuals' names and their email addresses would be the only data excluded.
Yours sincerely,
Thorndon Residents' Association
-----Original Message-----
Kia ora,
Thank you for your request, please see the attached response.
Ngā mihi
Claudia
Claudia Holgate
Official Information Team
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Please use this email address for all replies to this request:
[FOI #22396 email]
Disclaimer: This message and any reply that you make will be published on the internet. Our privacy and copyright policies:
https://fyi.org.nz/help/officers
If you find this service useful as an Official Information officer, please ask your web manager to link to us from your organisation's OIA or LGOIMA page.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
hide quoted sections
From: Thorndon Residents' Association
Dear BUS: Assurance,
Attn. Claudia Holgate
Please acknowledge that data
- clearly exists
- has not been delivered within statutory time limits, and
- has not been supplied in a form preferred by the Association.
1) The Association would welcome an explanation.
2) PREFERRED FORM
Please make the information available in the way preferred by the Association.
Spreadsheet form was specified in the Association's original information request on 5 April.
The Association notes that it has encountered this barrier previously e.g. WCC reference IRC-4217 (2022).
https://fyi.org.nz/request/21353-propose...
Accordingly, there is heightened concern that this not only seems to offend Council's internal policies on open data, but also constitutes a breach of the Association's rights outlined in LGOIMA 1987 s15(2).
3) URGENCY
Please treat this information request as URGENT.
The subject matter is of great public interest.
Time is of the essence as these matters will be subject to Council regulatory decision-making later this week.
By not supplying the information in the form originally requested, but rather suggesting that the Association review some other 'unfriendly' format, this has effectively wasted two productive days for the Association. That's an entire weekend for volunteers to receive the data, and to use it.
The Association needs the data in the format requested please.
4) GRIEVANCE
The Association is aggrieved that WCC could not expedite this information request sooner.
Additionally, it requests that in future WCC publishes all DATA in a form(s) that can be easily discovered and easily scrutinized without needing to invoke an information request i.e. stop locking data into PDF's. Perhaps, supplement the PDF's with relevant data in forms such as spreadsheets.
Yours sincerely,
Thorndon Residents' Association
From: BUS: Assurance
Wellington City Council
2023 02 11 agenda koata htepe regulatory processes committee.pdf
6.0M
Download
View as HTML
20230508 Thorndon FinalSubmissions cleaned TRA.xlsx
77K
Download
View as HTML
20230508 Thorndon Community form TRA.xlsx
65K
Download
View as HTML
TRA submissions data.pdf
545K
Download
View as HTML
Kia ora,
Please see attached response.
Ngā mihi
Claudia
Claudia Holgate
Senior Advisor | Official Information Team
-----Original Message-----
From: Thorndon Residents' Association <[FOI #22396 email]>
Sent: Saturday, 6 May 2023 9:10 pm
To: BUS: Assurance <[email address]>
Subject: RE: Official Information request - All Thorndon Connections submission data re street changes and bike network - Traffic Resolution (TR63-23)
Dear BUS: Assurance,
Attn. Claudia Holgate
Please acknowledge that data
- clearly exists
- has not been delivered within statutory time limits, and
- has not been supplied in a form preferred by the Association.
1) The Association would welcome an explanation.
2) PREFERRED FORM
Please make the information available in the way preferred by the Association.
Spreadsheet form was specified in the Association's original information request on 5 April.
The Association notes that it has encountered this barrier previously e.g. WCC reference IRC-4217 (2022).
https://fyi.org.nz/request/21353-propose...
Accordingly, there is heightened concern that this not only seems to offend Council's internal policies on open data, but also constitutes a breach of the Association's rights outlined in LGOIMA 1987 s15(2).
3) URGENCY
Please treat this information request as URGENT.
The subject matter is of great public interest.
Time is of the essence as these matters will be subject to Council regulatory decision-making later this week.
By not supplying the information in the form originally requested, but rather suggesting that the Association review some other 'unfriendly' format, this has effectively wasted two productive days for the Association. That's an entire weekend for volunteers to receive the data, and to use it.
The Association needs the data in the format requested please.
4) GRIEVANCE
The Association is aggrieved that WCC could not expedite this information request sooner.
Additionally, it requests that in future WCC publishes all DATA in a form(s) that can be easily discovered and easily scrutinized without needing to invoke an information request i.e. stop locking data into PDF's. Perhaps, supplement the PDF's with relevant data in forms such as spreadsheets.
Yours sincerely,
Thorndon Residents' Association
-----Original Message-----
Kia ora,
The submissions relating to the Thorndon Connections proposal are now available on our website under the 'reports' sections of this page:
https://wellington.govt.nz/your-council/...
Once you have reviewed these, please let us know if you require any further information.
Nga mihi
Claudia
Claudia Holgate
Senior Advisor | Official Information Team
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Please use this email address for all replies to this request:
[FOI #22396 email]
Disclaimer: This message and any reply that you make will be published on the internet. Our privacy and copyright policies:
https://fyi.org.nz/help/officers
If you find this service useful as an Official Information officer, please ask your web manager to link to us from your organisation's OIA or LGOIMA page.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
hide quoted sections
From: Thorndon Residents' Association
Dear BUS: Assurance, Attention Claudia Holgate, Senior Advisor, Official Information
Thank you for your letter of 11 May 2023
You advise:
'... we are unable to review all the data in the free text section and apply redactions to this within the timeframe you have specified. We have therefore removed this section in its entirety to remove the risk of personal information being revealed ...'
The Association is dissapointed to discover from WCC, at this late date, that the data could not be provided within the statutory timeframe (20 days).
The Association requests that ALL of the data be provided please, in the format requested (spreadsheet) and especially including the comments (free text).
Yours sincerely,
Thorndon Residents' Association
From: Thorndon Residents' Association
Dear BUS: Assurance,
Please provide all the data requested.
Yours sincerely,
Thorndon Residents' Association
From: BUS: Assurance
Wellington City Council
Kia ora,
Apologies for the delayed response.
As originally outlined to you, we are unable to provide the data in the form you have requested.
The submissions in full are also available on our website.
Ngā mihi
Claudia
-----Original Message-----
From: Thorndon Residents' Association <[FOI #22396 email]>
Sent: Thursday, 1 June 2023 11:01 pm
To: BUS: Assurance <[email address]>
Subject: RE: Official Information request - All Thorndon Connections submission data re street changes and bike network - Traffic Resolution (TR63-23)
Dear BUS: Assurance,
Please provide all the data requested.
Yours sincerely,
Thorndon Residents' Association
-----Original Message-----
Kia ora,
Please see attached response.
Ngā mihi
Claudia
Claudia Holgate
Senior Advisor | Official Information Team
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Please use this email address for all replies to this request:
[FOI #22396 email]
Disclaimer: This message and any reply that you make will be published on the internet. Our privacy and copyright policies:
https://fyi.org.nz/help/officers
If you find this service useful as an Official Information officer, please ask your web manager to link to us from your organisation's OIA or LGOIMA page.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
hide quoted sections
From: Thorndon Residents' Association
Dear BUS: Assurance,
Please recognise the obligation regarding the Association's preference for receiving information in a particular format.
Under section 15 of the LGOIMA, the Association's preferred format for receiving this information is XLSX (otherwise CSV would suffice).
This format preference is consistent with other information requests made by the Association, and were fulfilled.
Yours sincerely,
Thorndon Residents' Association
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- Add an annotation (to help the requester or others)
- Download a zip file of all correspondence
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Thorndon Residents' Association left an annotation ()
Ombudsman's response 7 June 2024 re the Thorndon Residents' Association complaint against Wellington City Council:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HV2W87l...
The Ombudsman suggests that if the Association seeks information quickly from WCC, it specifies the request be dealt with urgently and provides the reasons for this, using section 10(3) of LGOIMA.
Background:
The Association requested the information in XLSX or CSV format. WCC failed to supply all the data because they claimed insufficient time to check if anything needed to be redacted (e.g. concealed personal information). The delay denied the Association opportunities to analyse the data before public hearings were convened by WCC.
Link to this