Tees Valley Combined Authority Faces Freedom of Information Meltdown after being deluged with 178 FOI Requests...
- teessidetoday
- Nov 23
- 3 min read
New Evidence Shows The Tees Valley Combined Authority is Buckling Under FOI Pressure, after locals take to submitting direct requests for information, as transparency in the organisation descends into chaos...
23rd October 2025
Documents released ahead of a Tees Valley Combined Authority’s Audit & Governance Committee meeting have revealed yet another growing problem — with a huge surge in Freedom of Information (FOI) requests which are said to be exposing deep public distrust, poor transparency, and a system that's literally struggling to cope.
According to the papers seen by the Teesside & Durham Post, The TVCA has received 178 FOI requests just in 2025 alone, a staggering figure for a combined authority of its size. Even more striking is that its claimed 55 of these requests have been submitted by just four individuals, suggesting a pattern of heavy scrutiny from a frustrated and determined section of the public.
But instead of accepting this as a wake-up call, TVCA’s response is already said to be raising eyebrows.
A Symptom of a Much Bigger Transparency Problem
FOI requests don’t spike without reason. They increase when Public bodies refuse to disclose information openly, Communities lose trust in local leadership, the Financial decisions being made lack clarity & Major controversies unfold behind closed doors
Given everything else going wrong inside the Combined Authority— from the disclaimed audit opinion to the Best Value Notice and the chaos inside the Mayoral Development Corporations — it’s no surprise the public is demanding answers.
TVCA’s Proposed Solution? Crack Down on the Public Instead of Opening Up...
Rather than improving openness, The Tees Valley Combined Authority has reportedly taken a leaf out of Nearby Hartlepool Borough Councils Book by proposing something far more alarming in the form of a new Public Code of Conduct aimed at managing what the Combined Authority now calls “vexatious behaviour” and “unreasonable complainants.”
This policy is being pushed after auditors noticed the high volume of FOI requests — with the documents specifically referencing four individuals who've submitted multiple requests.
In a similar mote to how Hartlepool Borough Council operates, the response to public scrutiny isn’t to become more transparent…It’s to regulate how the public behaves, with critics claiming its a dangerous direction for any public authority, let alone one already under a Best Value Notice for governance failures.
Why Are People Submitting So Many FOIs? Because TVCA Doesn’t Publish Information Proactively...
The reality is simple, people are submitting FOIs because they cannot get straight answers from the Combined authority in any other way.
The TVCA has repeatedly been criticised for:
Poor transparency around Teesside Airport
Withholding details of development deals
Limited publication of financial data
Failing to release decision-making information
Operating with weak governance and oversight structures
When residents can’t get information through normal channels, the FOI Act becomes the only remaining tool to hold power to account & it hasn't gone unnoticed by the Authority.
A Public Code of Conduct or a Public Gagging Order?
The new Public Code of Conduct will be presented to Cabinet for approval in December.
On paper, it’s being described as a policy to protect staff from abuse or unreasonable demands. But in practice, such policies are often used by public bodies to:
label persistent requesters as “vexatious,”
block FOIs more easily,
avoid scrutiny, and
shut down inconvenient investigations from members of the public.
Given The TVCA’s current transparency record, this move looks less like policy housekeeping and more like method of silencing critics.
An Organisation looking more clandestine every day...
FOI requests are not the problem. They're the symptom of a broken organisation.
The real crisis inside the TVCA is a lack of transparency, weak governance, and a public that no longer trusts the authority to tell the truth unless its legally forced to, just like locals are seeing with yet another troubled institution known as Cleveland Police..
Instead of cracking down on the public, The TVCA should be asking why so many people feel they need to use the FOI Act in the first place.
Until they do, the questions — and the distrust — will only continue to grow.
