--- title: The Weirdest FOIA Requests English City Councils Fielded This Year description: From dragons to roundabouts. canonical: https://time.com/3131512/weird-foia-uk/ author: Bijan Stephen article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-08-17T20:19:12.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:12:31.133Z og:title: The Weirdest FOIA Requests English City Councils Fielded This Year og:description: From dragons to roundabouts. og:url: https://time.com/3131512/weird-foia-uk/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Weirdest FOIA Requests English City Councils Fielded This Year twitter:description: From dragons to roundabouts. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # These Are Some of the Weirdest FOIA Requests Fielded This Year in the UK by [Bijan Stephen](https://time.com/author/bijan-stephen/) ## Bijan Stephen Aug 17, 2014 8:19 PM UTC by [Bijan Stephen](https://time.com/author/bijan-stephen/) ## Bijan Stephen Aug 17, 2014 8:19 PM UTC Freedom of Information Acts are a powerful transparency tool between governments and constituents. But they can also yield to some pretty freaky inquiries–as we found out Saturday when an organization of local governments representing more than 350 councils in England and Wales released a list of the most unusual requests [they had received ](http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-28814829)so far this year Of that list, we present here–David Letterman style–the Top 10 Weirdest Petitions English Councils Have Had to Field in 2014, along with some snarky answer suggestions for the council-members: --- > “” --- --- > “” --- --- > “” --- --- > “” --- --- > “” --- --- > “” --- --- > “” --- --- > “” --- --- > “” --- --- > “” --- ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3131512/weird-foia-uk/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3131512/weird-foia-uk/"},"headline":"These Are Some of the Weirdest FOIA Requests Fielded This Year in the UK","datePublished":"2014-08-17T20:19:12.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:12:31.133Z","description":"What's your dragon attack plan?","url":"https://time.com/3131512/weird-foia-uk/","keywords":["Newsfeed","england","weird"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Bijan Stephen","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/bijan-stephen/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3131512/weird-foia-uk/","name":"These Are Some of the Weirdest FOIA Requests Fielded This Year in the UK"}}]}] ```