28 METRO Wednesday, September 24, 2014

the FBI to Essex County Council

X - F i l e s project.’

Information about action

against viral pandemics and

zombie attacks were also given

short shrift.Essex County Council

explained the light-hearted letter by saying it had spent nearly £250,000 on about 700 FOI requests last year and had received 750 during the first three months of this year.

Luxury flatsare named and shamed A LUXURY harbour housing development will have to be called ‘Millionaire’s Row’ if town councillors get their way.

Dartmouth town council says the six soon-to-be-finished homes, costing £640,000 to £1.35million, are way beyond the means of people in the area, where homes already cost 14.8 times the average wage.

And they told developer Environ it can’t call them its preferred name of Sails.

Cllr Stephen Smith persuaded colleagues to back his idea to highlight the housing crisis.

‘My own children have moved outside the area because they can’t afford to live here,’ he said. ‘No one will be able to afford these flats, aside from millionaires.’

Environ chairman Tony Drowse is threatening to take legal action against the authority if sales suffer.

‘It’s flippant, and wastes everyone’s time,’ he said. ‘Who in their right mind wants to live on Millionaires Row?’

Who you gonna call at thecouncil? Er, Ghostbusters...by phil haRRisOn

LETTERS from the council are often dry, boring missives on recycling, road closures or finance.

So it could be seen as a bonus to find a sense of humour in a reply to a Free-dom of Information request about paranormal cases being dealt with by Essex county council.

A wag advised the anonymous council taxpayer: ‘For all investiga-tions concerning paranormal activity, please contact 555-2368 Ghost-busters and ask to speak with Dr Venkman, Dr Stants [sic] or Dr Spengler.’

Those are the characters who were played by Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis in the 1984 comedy blockbuster.

The FOI request also concerned other supernatu-ral events – which were given a similar response.

An appeal for details about flying saucer incidents was met with: ‘For information regarding UFO sightings please contact Fox Mulder or Dana Scully, who have been seconded from

Spooked out: The Ghost-busters and, above, the replyPICTURE: EAST NEWS