Micah's Blog

I obtained some information on Council Garages using under Freedom Of Information (FOI) request. I had asked for some info in a normal postal letter to person at Edinburgh Council who deals with garages but with no response as expected, I asked for more under FOI.
Those live near these garages and are interested in renting one might find this snapshot list of vacant ones useful. Although it is already out of date, as our old garage became vacant on 1 July 2011. If you are interested in renting one contact Edinburgh Council to put yourself on waiting list.

The list shows that the waiting lists are not that big in many places, where vacant garages even exceed those on waiting list, and most of those on the waiting list only want particular garages.
There is a disabled rate of 59.65 pounds a quarter and then the lowest normal rate £99.45 which had gone up several times in past couple of years after many years that was stable at £75

I am not surprised they can not give me admin costs as these merged in with general department admin, and to break down would be more admin overhead and difficult to get true reflection of shared costs.

But I think it shows that council housing department are getting a good income from garages, which given the utility of garages is due to housing around them seems fair enough.

I personally think they should remove rule that need to be used for cars, and invest in much more secure doors.

Edinburgh Garages 05/07/11 (PDF)

It is pity information is in form of a pdf not in csv or actual spreadsheet so I could more easily work out percentages.

here is extract from their reply:

Thank you for your request for information which has been dealt with under the terms of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002. Unfortunately, the Council is able to meet only part of your request, namely the information on the attached spreadsheet (sic). A detailed explanation of this is as follows;

Appendix A
Garage statistics – this includes the quarterly charge, the number of garages per location, the number of occupied and unoccupied garages and of those unoccupied garages which are not lettable.

Appendix B
The income and repairs financial information currently available.

Appendix C
A full list of all unoccupied and unlettable garages.

The garage charge is set annually and is agreed by the Housing & Regeneration Management Team prior to going to Council committee for approval

The Council does not hold the following items of information which you requested.

- Reason why the garages cannot be let
- Time taken to let out a garage
- Number of days in any given year the garages are occupied
- Cost of administering garages (although cost of garage repairs has been supplied)
- Future plans for garages

Please note that this letter constitutes a formal refusal notice under section 17 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002.