kaberett | adventures with freedom of information

Lo these many years ago (April 2016, good grief) I acquired for Adam, from King's Cross, a poster depicting a rabbit contoured in brightly-coloured Tube-map-style lines on a black background (Google image search result and blog post showing much of the rest of the series; scroll for rabbit). We finally managed to get it hung in January 2023 (according to my tadas, thank you tada posts and Dreamwidth search), and then in January 2024 I found the poster Come out at Easter, which I decided I wanted to obtain a copy of as a companion piece.

(Today I actually got as far as clicking on the Rabbits category on the LTM online collection. I do not think any of the others are, for our purposes, as good.)

Alas the LTM shop did not and does not offer posters in the appropriate size off-the-rack. I e-mailed them to ask if there was any chance they could do me a custom print, got back a "... we'll ask our supplier", and have heard nothing else since. Somewhere in the year elapsed between then and now I found someone on the internet cheerfully explaining that if you submitted a freedom of information request to TFL they'd usually provide you with print-quality PDFs.

Just under three weeks ago, in a bit of an "oh no I haven't got A anything for his birthday???" panic, I... submitted a FOI to TfL.

A few days after his birthday, I got a response: as I was clearly aware, this design was available for sale from the LTM so they weren't going to give me the PDF because it would be prejudicial to the commercial interests (or something). Here, they said, was the information on how to appeal.

I looked at this response. I grudgingly conceded that it seemed fair enough. I contemplated the likely results of attempting a formal appeal. And then, at 1.03 a.m. on the 11th, I sent an e-mail that was in no way shape or form a reasonable FoI request or follow-up, but that I judged was most likely to achieve my desired outcome. (Had it been less far past my bedtime I might have written a slightly more polished e-mail, but such is life.)

Greetings!

Further to this -- the reason I made the FoI request rather than purchasing a poster directly from the LTM is that I have another TfL poster (check before you travel at Easter -- the sort of neon lines outlining a rabbit, from a few years ago) that I was very kindly given by station staff a few years ago after Easter had taken place.

That was a gift; I'd like the "Come out at Easter" poster to make a matched set. Unfortunately the sizes the LTM offers off-the-rack don't include the standard size of poster used throughout the TfL network (which I think is Double Crown?) -- I wrote to them in January last year asking if there was any way they might be able to supply a copy of the poster at the same size, and have heard nothing back since the initial acknowledgement on 22/01/2024.

I would be delighted to give you money (and not have to organise getting things printed myself) but I really do want them to match. I'd be happy to pay the cost of a standard LTM poster for the file (and to promise to delete said file once printed). Can you give me any further response at this point or would I need to formally appeal?

Best wishes,

Alex

... so er yes today I got a reply that radiated "... you GIANT NERD" off the screen, but which boils down to "okay fine you're actually not taking the piss as much as we thought, so I've asked the LTM if they can do you your special custom print ~~you NERD~~".

WATCH THIS SPACE, etc.