“I would like to see all the modelling that Devon County Council have commissioned for the Ivybridge Flood Scheme behind Clayman’s Pathway to check the extent of flood risk modelling that has been done to see what happenes to the floodwater if the new culvert blocks i.e. is the existing flooding situation made worse anywhere if the culvert fails? Public money has paid for this modelling and it should therefore be available for inspection.”
This information is exempt from disclosure under Exception 12(5)(c) of the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 – ‘Intellectual Property Rights’. This is because this information is the intellectual property of our consultant, JBA Consulting.
We have reviewed the Ivybridge Flood Scheme contract in place with JBA Consulting, and the Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) clause clearly states that the Intellectual Property Rights for this model belong to JBA.
If this information were to be released, it would breach the contract we have in place and would prejudice the commercial interests of JBA, as disclosure would make this model publicly available to competitors who could use it for their own competitive advantage.
Devon County Council has an obligation to protect its relationship with its suppliers so as to inspire trust and confidence in its business relationships and to ensure that third parties continue to wish to have dealings with the Authority.
We understand that this exception is subject to the Public Interest Test and are confident that the public interest is best served by withholding this information at the current time.