she probably has done the *normal* route of asking the councillor and i expect theyve refused or ignored.. as they often do!
That's pretty unlikely in this case. Think about it: if they had been asked whether they were being paid for being Directors of Solutions SK, and had refused to reply, everyone would have assumed that they had something to hide - i.e. that they were being paid. But as they actually have nothing to hide (they aren't paid a penny), then we can be fairly sure that if Ms Oliver had popped the question, she would have received an answer.
On the wider issue of FOI in general, it's interesting that even Tony Blair, in his recently published memoirs, confesses that the FOI Act was a mistake. It may have been well-intentioned, but it triggered an avalanche of largely frivolous and time-wasting enquiries. The main effect was to cause public bodies to waste large amounts of time and money. I know - I used to run one.
