JUST how many times has Cheshire West and Chester Council paid a Feng Shui consultant or for a member of staff to attend a Feng Shui course?

How many complaints have employees or members of the public made about haunted buildings, ghosts or other paranormal phenomena in its establishments in the last ten years?

And how many cheques have been issued by the council to individuals and organisations between April 1, 2009 and March 31, 2010? Just some of the more bizarre and unusual questions among the 900 posed to the authority so far under the Freedom of Information Act.

The authority says that answering them is costing the council taxpayer at least an estimated £250,000 in staff time and materials.

Now the council’s Executive has unanimously agreed a charging policy for FOI requests to help claw back some of the expense.

Said Cllr Jones: “We are all in favour of openness and transparency but some of the questions are ridiculous, sometimes even anonymous, and in no way reflect the admirable spirit of the Act.

“What concerns us greatly is that these FOI queries sometimes request copious detail, requiring a considerable amount of staff time to research- all of which is costing the council tax payer money, much of it unnecessary in these times of financial stringency.

“Many of these enquiries are from companies simply using FOI to answer questions for market research purposes – at the expense of the taxpayer.”

Cllr Jones has taken up the issue with Local Government Minister Bob Neill and raised the matter at the recent Local Government Association Conference in Bournemouth.

“Apparently we are by no means the only authority to have concerns and the Minister has asked for details from us which we will be supplying in the next few days from our solutions team.

“The majority of our enquiries are genuine and understandable. What the Act seeks to achieve is commendable but sadly I do not think that its authors anticipated the way it is being misused and manipulated.”

In the meantime, council legal, finance and solutions staff will be putting together the final details of a charging policy for FOI requests in accordance with the conditions laid down in the Act.