Open, Honest and Transparent? Not in Wealden.

For an administration that claims to be open, honest, and transparent, Wealden District Council’s Alliance for Wealden is going to extraordinary lengths to avoid being open, honest, and transparent. They also commit to being “kinder” as part of their Council Strategy.

In January 2025, I submitted what should have been a simple Freedom of Information (FOI) request. It asked for correspondence and details involving Cllr. Daniel Manvell during a critical ten-day period over Christmas and New Year, a time when Wealden was facing internal turmoil and external scrutiny following an issue with council tax collection.

Routine stuff. But instead of openness, I was met with silence.

Not a refusal, not a holding note, just nothing.

It took formal intervention from the Information Commissioners Office before the council responded, and even then, what I received was far from satisfactory.

Black Ink. Blank Answers

But the material doesn’t appear to contain confidential policy advice or sensitive deliberations. From what has been disclosed, it’s clear the messages largely reflect political commentary. Councillors strategise responses, coordinate media lines, and manage political image. There may have even been some deliberate attempts to avoid the Council’s scrutiny process.

Let’s be frank. What’s being protected here isn’t the functioning of the council; it’s the political reputations and embarrassment of those in charge. What could possibly be so bad as to warrant such an effort to conceal? Perhaps the reality is not as kind or open as they’d like us to believe (we’ll have to wait and see).

Behind Closed Doors The Alliances Aversion to Scrutiny

This isn’t a one-off. Increasingly, we’re hearing from multiple insider sources that officer advice is being routinely disregarded and that those who point to statutory guidance or procedural risks are often ignored or sidelined.

At the same time, the council’s official communications have, on occasion, drifted well beyond neutrality, venturing into partisan advocacy. Statements from the administration often read more like political press releases than public information.

This pattern points to a deeper cultural problem: a leadership, in this case the Green Labour Liberal Democrat “Alliance for Wealden,” that is deeply uncomfortable with challenge and allergic to scrutiny. Perhaps a dose of antihistamine should be administered before every meeting?

Lawyers First Answers Later

What makes the situation worse is that before responding to my FOI request, the council (at the instruction of the leader, Green Party politician Rachel Millward) commissioned external legal advice using public money.

This wasn’t to protect residents. It was to shield councillors from the potential embarrassment of their private conversations becoming public (or at least what they thought might be “private conversations”). The ICO also has guidance in this regard and it’s pretty clear (as it is broad in its application). In short, the information is in scope.

At a time when budgets are tight and services are stretched, it’s telling that the political leadership’s first instinct was to protect themselves, not be transparent with the public (or indeed with their fellow councillors).

Internal Review Eventually

Following my formal challenge, the council has finally agreed to conduct an internal review. Whether that review will be a genuine attempt to uphold the law or another exercise in delay remains to be seen. Any further obfuscation will be met with an immediate re-engagement with ICO to make an adjudication.

What’s already clear is this openness is something this administration talks about but does not practice.

They avoid scrutiny. They operate behind closed doors. And they reach for dubious legal arguments when what’s really needed is political accountability.

So ask yourself

If everything was aboveboard, why go to such lengths to keep it hidden? When the redactions are removed and the full extent of the conversations are revealed I wonder what it will show. We’ll have to wait a little bit longer but I understand the FOI Act and have been successful at getting what I want to lawfully see in the past from organisations far larger than Wealden District Council. I’m not exactly asking for the Black Spider Memo’s here and, if King (or as he was then Prince) Charles and Tony Blair couldn’t stop the release of those I don’t think I’ll have too much trouble with this.

Watch this space – it’s about to get interesting.