Staffordshire Police have refused to release documents on plans for a controversial £19 million firing range.

Details of the plan – which is currently at the 'business case' stage – emerged at a meeting of the Staffordshire Police, Fire and Crime Panel in February.

Its approval will ultimately be a decision for the county's new police, fire and crime commissioner as the incumbent, Matthew Ellis, is due to leave office following the election on May 6.

Using Freedom of Information laws, the Local Democracy Reporting Service asked the force: "Please could I have all documents relating to plans for a new firing range for the force, including all business case documents and tentative plans?"

But the police refused to hand over any information at all, believing the request to be "vexatious" and would require too many resources to vet.

The force's refusal letter stated: "The key question to consider is whether the request is likely to cause a disproportionate or unjustified level of disruption, irritation or distress based on the impact on the authority, weighed against any evidence about the purpose and value of the request. We are also entitled to take into account the context and history of the request where this is relevant.

"Staffordshire Police is treating this request as vexatious because to provide the requested data would cause an unjustified and disproportionate burden on the force because the amount of documentation which would need to be read through and, where necessary, redacted. There are hundreds of pages of documentation which would need to be read and sanitized.

"It would entail a second member of the Freedom of Information team to read and check the records to ensure there are no data breaches with disclosure and all tactical information etc. has been redacted.

"A third person, whose area of business this belongs to, would then need to read the sanitized documentation to ensure all sensitive etc information has been redacted. To carry out this work would cause a significant burden on the department."