"Is Sunderland a City?" "Dunno. We can't find the paperwork."

Documents released in a Freedom of Information request regarding Sunderland City Council's decriminalised parking enforcement (DPE) application to the Department for Transport reveal another 'clanger.'

Copies of e-mail correspondence between the Department for Transport and Sunderland Council reveal the following:

e-mail 27th August 2002
DTLR to Sunderland:

"I am the solicitor drafting the order under the Road Traffic Act 1991 to designate Sunderland as an area in which parking offences are decriminalised. There are a few minor points that I need clarified before I can finalise the draft order.
Sunderland is a metropolitan district but I note that you use the term 'City of Sunderland' to refer to the administrative area and the term 'The Council for the City of Sunderland' to refer to the Council itself.
I am happy to use these terms in the order but I need confirmation of when the metropolitan district was granted the status of city."

e-mail response 28th August 2002
Sunderland Council to DTLR

" Further to our telephone conversation, our Legal department cannot find the document that confirms our city status..."

The name of the official has been obscured.

...and they wanted us to believe that all the paperwork was correct in relation to their Traffic Orders?