REQUESTS for data under the Freedom of Information Act cost Liverpool council more than £68,000 during Capital of Culture year.

Figures revealed to the Daily Post show the number of applications rocketed by almost 400% in 2008 compared to the previous year.

They show that applications went up from 203 in 2007 to 889, at a cost of £71.77 per request.

Liberal leader Cllr Steve Radford last night said if the city ended its “culture of secrecy” and made more information freely available, the cost to the taxpayer of getting answers from public bodies would be reduced.

He was forced to invoke the Act to get information that he had helped to compile in the Stormbreak research project into homophobic hate crime.

Cllr Radford added: “It is not acceptable that people – not just journalists – but members of the public and their elected representatives are having to throw the law at this council in order to access information kept in their name and at their expense.”

City ethical governance executive member Cllr Paula Keaveney says it is one of her “political priorities” to sort the council’s FoI record out – which includes the fact that up to 20% of requests are not answered in the statutory 20-day period.