10th September 2026
Mr Paul Arnold
Chief Executive (currently holding the Commissioner’s responsibilities)
Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Wednesday, 9 September 2026
Dear Mr Arnold
Re: Unanswered correspondence of 2017 concerning Alex Ganotis and Stockport Council’s handling of my Freedom of Information and Data Protection rights, and the ICO’s own failure to respond
I am writing to formally complain that two letters I sent to your office in November 2017 have never received a substantive reply, from either the then Information Commissioner or her successor, and to ask that this office now address the matters they raised.
Background
On 9 November 2017 I wrote to Elizabeth Denham raising serious concerns about Alex Ganotis, at that time a Group Manager employed by the ICO while simultaneously serving as Leader of Stockport Council. My concern was that Stockport Council, under his leadership, was continuing to fail to respond to Freedom of Information Act/Environmental Information Regulations 2004 requests going back to April of that year, and that it was inappropriate for an ICO employee to be presiding over such conduct. That letter was copied to your predecessor as Deputy Chief Executive.
On 23 November 2017 I wrote again, this time directly to Councillor Ganotis as Council Leader, setting out that the Council’s repeated public branding of me as a “vexatious” complainant was itself an offence under the Data Protection Act, since it amounted to holding and disseminating inaccurate personal data about me. I set out, point by point, that every substantive claim I had made about the Harcourt Street/Vale View Primary School development — that the school was being built too small, that the site was contaminated, that it would flood, that it would create a dangerous traffic situation, that the promised replacement playing fields would not materialise, and that the project’s costs were rising in a way that raised questions — was subsequently proved correct, and that my requests to have the “vexatious” label withdrawn were nonetheless refused. That letter was copied to your office, among others.
I received no reply to either letter. I do not recall ever receiving so much as an acknowledgement.
I have separately written in the same vein to your office on more than one occasion over the years, both before and after 2017, without any substantive response.
What I am asking the ICO to do now
1. Investigate and respond substantively to the Data Protection Act complaint set out in my letter of 23 November 2017: that Stockport Council held and disseminated inaccurate personal data about me — the “vexatious” label — over a period of years, refused to correct it when the underlying claims were vindicated, and that this continued after my complaint was made.
2. Address the conflict of interest inherent in an ICO employee simultaneously serving as Leader of a council that was, at the same time, failing to meet its own statutory obligations under the FOIA/EIR to me as a requester.
3. Explain why neither of my 2017 letters, nor my earlier correspondence, received any response from this office, and confirm what safeguards now exist to ensure that a complaint of this nature does not simply go unanswered for the better part of a decade.
I appreciate that a great deal has changed at the ICO since 2017, including the change in leadership you now oversee, and I do not for a moment suggest that you personally bear responsibility for how this was handled at the time. But the underlying complaints were never resolved, and I would be grateful for confirmation that they are now being looked at, together with a substantive response within a reasonable period.
I have retained the original correspondence and the supporting documentary evidence referred to above, and can supply copies on request.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Yours sincerely
Mrs Sheila Oliver
