YOUR REF:
OUR REF: FOI/271067 /
Mr Michael Guinney
Email: / Date: 09 September 2013
Dear Mr Guinney,
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST 271067
Thank you for your recent request received 12 August 2013 and actioned under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) in which you requested the following information:
- Can I know how much money was spent on repairing 'potholes' and weather damage on Liverpool Roads in each year for the past 5 years and what is planned to be spent in the forthcoming years?
RESPONSE:
I can confirm that Liverpool City Council holds some but not all of the information you have requested
· Please see the table below. Note that the information based on full calendar years and relates to carriageway repairs. Additionally the figures provided are based on the number of repairs and one large repair may cover a number of potholes.
YEAR / APPROXIMATE SPEND ON POTHOLE REPAIRS (£)2008 / 806,570
2009 / 1,083,000
2010 / 832,500
2011 / 1,060,174
2012 / £1,108,765
· With the regard to information relating to weather damage the information you have requested is not held in an easily retrievable format and, as such, would require extensive manual reconciliation to provide the information you have requested
To clarify; when the City Council receives notification (via inspection or otherwise) that a repair is required this recorded on our system under the heading of ‘pothole’, as potholes are by far the most common repair we undertake.
We do not record repairs under specific headings which would enable us to provide the information you require. We would need to examine every repair we have recorded under the heading of pothole for the last 5 years in order to ensure we capture all relevant information.
Section 12(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 stipulates that Local Authorities are not obliged to comply with a request for information if we estimate that the cost of compliance with the request would exceed the Act stated appropriate time and cost limit. The appropriate limit is considered 18 hours.
In accordance with the above we are unable to provide the information you have requested within the parameters of Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
· As for the planned spend in the forthcoming years; the Highways Act 1980 places a duty on Local Authorities to carry out inspections on the adopted highway. These Inspections are normally undertaken at frequencies that reflect the characteristics of the particular highway and its use, in accordance with the code of practice for highway works. It is therefore envisaged that the spend on pothole repairs will be similar to previous years although as alluded to in the question this may vary depending on weather conditions and condition of the network.
A pothole in the carriageway is classed as a category 1 defect (i.e. to be repaired within 2 hours) if it is greater than 100mm.
A pothole in the carriageway is classed as a category 2 defect (i.e. to be repaired within 25 days) if it located where pedestrians are likely to cross and is greater than 25mm.
If a pothole is less than 25mm, but the carriageway safety inspection identifies the pothole as posing a risk to the public, then the pothole would be repaired under a Category 2 defect.
As we have not provided all of the information you have requested under section 12(1) we are required to serve you with a section 17 notice, please treat this letter as notice.
Section 17:
The City Council will consider appeals, referrals or complaints in respect of your Freedom of Information Act 2000 requests and you must submit these in writing to within 28 days of receiving your response.
The matter will be dealt with by an officer who was not previously involved with the response and we will look to provide a response within 28 working days.
If you remain dissatisfied you may also apply to the Information Commissioner for a decision about whether the request for information has been dealt with in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
The Information Commissioner’s website iswww.ico.gov.uk and the postal address and telephone numbers are:-
Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, CheshireSK9 5AF. Fax number 01625 524 510, DX 20819, Telephone 01625 545745.Email – (they advise that their email is not secure)
Yours sincerely
Ms. Fatima Sharif Ali
Information Officer