Labour councillor Mary Montague made the comment during a cabinet meeting at the council headquarters in Eastwood.

Councillors were presented with a report which showed that East Renfrewshire Council (ERC) received 1024 requests for information in 2014, an 11 per cent increase on the previous year.

Cllr Montague, who represents Netherlee, Stamperland and Williamwood, was one of several elected members who expressed concern about the amount of time and money the process of responding to FOI requests was costing ERC.

Reported by Barrhead News. You can read the full story here.

I am a journalist and author. I am a journalist at the UK edition of WIRED magazine. In 2015, my first book Freedom of Information: A Practical Guide for UK Journalists, was published. My second book Reed Hastings: Building Netflix, was published in March 2020. I created FOI Directory in 2012 and have maintained it in my spare time ever since.