Interested in the cost of an exorcism? You’re not alone
INTERESTED in the cost of exorcisms signed off by your town hall, or the number of licences issued for wild boar owners? If the answer is yes, then you’re not the only one.
Both are genuine requests sent to one Greater Manchester council under Freedom of Information (FOI) laws.
Other queries fielded by officers at Wigan town hall recently include how many trips were permitted for officers to visit Russia during the World Cup.
The answer is zero to all three, the town hall is keen to highlight. One resident also requested information on who ‘owns’ the local authority.
The details of the requests have been released by bosses as although the motives behind them may be genuine, each one takes up officer time as public authorities are legally obliged to provide an answer where possible.
Wigan has received 1,518 FOIs so far this year, working out at almost six per working day.
In 2014, the council also received a request about what plans are in place to protect the town from a dragon attack.
Brendan Whitworth, assistant director for legal, said: “We are committed to being open and transparent about how we work, our decision-making process and the services we provide.
“We treat all requests with the seriousness they deserve, however they can take up a lot of time to process and each FOI costs us money.
“There is a whole host of open data freely available on our website which the public can access if they have a question about the council.”
The query about exorcisms was submitted at the end of 2016 and asked: “How much money has been paid to exorcists over the past 12 months for properties owned or operated by your organisation?” Requests about who ‘owns’ the council, licences issued under the Dangerous Wild Animals Act in order to keep wild boar and World Cup trips were all submitted this year.