The legislation has forced local authorities to take on more staff

Journalists, MPs and environmental campaigners were some of the first to start using the act at the beginning of the year.

Local authorities have been subjected to a barrage of requests for information and, in some cases, have struggled to cope with the demand.

Western Mail chief reporter, Martin Shipton, said the act was "a step forward" but it still had "severe limitations".

"In the very early days we were finding that they (public bodies) were releasing material which was very embarrassing to them," he said.

It is so open to obfuscation and delay by those people who are charged with releasing the information Martin Shipton, Western Mail

"What I have found since is that they have become more guarded about what they are prepared to release."

He said the legislation suffered from problems of interpretation by public authorities.

"It is so open to obfuscation and delay by those people who are charged with releasing the information," he said.

"They can play a little game with you and it's whether you can play the game too.

"I would like to see a much stronger Freedom of Information Act where the assumption is that unless there are very serious grounds for not releasing information it will be disclosed.

"The approach adopted here is very restrictive. Why should that be the case in an open society?"

Newport West MP Paul Flynn, who has campaigned for more openness surrounding farmer's subsidies in Wales, said he thought the act had had a big effect on politics.

"It influences everything. There is not the secrecy that there was before," he said.

"It certainly instructs policy. I am sure that before people could act knowing that it could not become public.

"I am sure that it influences decision makers right to the top."

Cardiff County Council's information manager Phillip Bradshaw said the council had initially struggled with the demand for information but now they had better resources.

"There was a prediction that we would have a lot more requests and that it would be easy to deal with them," he said.

When people ask for all the information on a subject, the files can be two feet high Phillip Bradshaw, Cardiff county council

"In fact we have had fewer requests but they have taken longer.

"When people ask for all the information on a subject, the files can be two feet high.

"At the beginning of the year we had the equivalent of two-thirds of a person trying to deal with it, but now we have a full team of four."

He said the council had received over 300 requests for information in 2005 and estimated the cost of processing all the claims was over �100,000.

Most of the requests concerned big local talking points such as the relocation of Cardiff City Football Club's stadium and the building of a new national ice rink.