A weekly newspaper editor has called for the Information Commissioner’s office to “get some fire in its belly” after he withdrew a complaint concerning the Freedom of Information Act.

Harry Whitehouse and his newspaper, the Newark Advertiser, tried to use the FOI Act to get details of proposals that companies had submitted to a local council for the development of a large area in the town centre.

But after being refused the information he withdrew his complaint to the Information Commissioner because he feared the outcome might set a precedent and harm future cases.

He said: “We withdrew the complaint after the Information Commissioner’s office said they were minded to dismiss it.

“The information we were seeking is provided to some newspapers by more enlightened councils as a matter of course.

“If we had gone ahead and it had finally been rejected my concern was that it would set a precedent and other councils that had been happily handing out the information for years would decide they didn’t need to.”

The newspaper wanted to publish stories on the plans so that readers could have their say, but Newark and Sherwood District Council claimed that making the details public would harm the commercial interests of the council and other landowners.

Despite complaining to the council, the newspaper still had its request turned down, and so it complained to Information Commissioner Richard Thomas.

Instead of adjudicating the complaint the Information Commissioner’s office told the council to reconsider the application under the Environmental Information Regulations, but this was not successful either.

The Information Commissioner’s office then informally told the Advertiser that it was minded to reject the complaint and invited further representations – but Harry decided to abandon the complaint.

He said experience had shown that the value of the FOI Act was “strictly limited”.

He said: “The main difficulty is that the people you require the information from are the ones who make the initial judgement on whether they give it to you, and they are primed with a dozen excuses not to.

“The Information Commissioner’s Office should get some fire in its belly and implement a freedom of information regime that other countries take for granted.”