B4224 - Site History Reports/Pothole Data
Case reference EIR2025/00462
Received 4 March 2025
Published 1 April 2025
Request
In writing, may I request some further information from you under the Freedom of Information Act 2005 to include;
1) A copy of your inspections process and procedures for the county.
2) Reports and observations in relation to the above, including any reviews of the policy and recommendations.
3) The number of identified potholes in the last 3 months (within 5 miles in both directions of the site of the pothole that caused the damage to my vehicle)
4) The number of potholes reported in the last three months (within 5 miles in both directions of the site of the pothole that caused damage to my vehicle) reported by the public and other road users.
5) The number of claims for damage relating to potholes and poor road conditions brought against you/the council within 5 miles of the pothole that caused the damage to my vehicle in the last 3months up to and including today's date. To confirm, please could you make it a circular radius for point 5.
6) The percentage of claims paid out and rejected by you acting on behalf of the council, in relation to potholes within 5 miles of the pothole that damaged my vehicle in the last calendar year to today's date.
7) The number of claims brought before the small claims court (incl group litigation orders) and the outcome of such actions in the last calendar year to today's date. Point 7, please could you include both the 5 mile radius as per point 5, AND the whole of the county of Herefordshire.
8) Information pertaining to the discovery, logging and remedy process of the pothole that damaged my vehicle.
9) the number of claims made for pothole damage (in total for the county) in each if the previous 5 years.
10) the number of reported and identified potholes in the county in each if the last 5 years those both notified about from the public and separately, those picked up by Balfour Beatty and their own monitoring.
11) Traffic and vehicle data pertaining to overall volume and type ie, domestic, commercial and agricultural vehicles, using the road network system (limited to A and B roads) in totality per annum in the last 5 years. It is accepted that precise data may not be available in areas where official monitoring hasn't taken place, the data I am seeking is the trend in vehicle usage of the roads (the type specifically) during this period.
Response
In writing, may I request some further information from you under the Freedom of Information Act 2005 to include;
1) A copy of your inspections process and procedures for the county.
2) Reports and observations in relation to the above, including any reviews of the policy and recommendations.
3) The number of identified potholes in the last 3 months (within 5 miles in both directions of the site of the pothole that caused the damage to my vehicle)
4) The number of potholes reported in the last three months (within 5 miles in both directions of the site of the pothole that caused damage to my vehicle) reported by the public and other road users.
5) The number of claims for damage relating to potholes and poor road conditions brought against you/the council within 5 miles of the pothole that caused the damage to my vehicle in the last 3months up to and including today's date. To confirm, please could you make it a circular radius for point 5.
6) The percentage of claims paid out and rejected by you acting on behalf of the council, in relation to potholes within 5 miles of the pothole that damaged my vehicle in the last calendar year to today's date.
7) The number of claims brought before the small claims court (incl group litigation orders) and the outcome of such actions in the last calendar year to today's date. Point 7, please could you include both the 5 mile radius as per point 5, AND the whole of the county of Herefordshire.
8) Information pertaining to the discovery, logging and remedy process of the pothole that damaged my vehicle.
9) the number of claims made for pothole damage (in total for the county) in each if the previous 5 years.
10) the number of reported and identified potholes in the county in each if the last 5 years those both notified about from the public and separately, those picked up by Balfour Beatty and their own monitoring.
11) Traffic and vehicle data pertaining to overall volume and type ie, domestic, commercial and agricultural vehicles, using the road network system (limited to A and B roads) in totality per annum in the last 5 years. It is accepted that precise data may not be available in areas where official monitoring hasn't taken place, the data I am seeking is the trend in vehicle usage of the roads (the type specifically) during this period.
A. Herefordshire Council holds the information requested above, including the number of claims for damage relating to potholes and poor road conditions brought against Herefordshire Council within a 5 mile radius.
This information is held by Balfour Beatty on Herefordshire Council’s behalf.
Whilst the team could provide this data for a 5 mile distance along the B4224, the Service Area do not have a programme to filter out all the road names. Therefore in order to provide this information for a 5 mile radius, staff would have to zoom into each area of the map and pick out the relevant road names. Some roads may then have several USRNS (Unique Street Reference Numbers) on them, as the B4224 does in this case. A 5 mile radius would include several roads and staff would need to manually review the area to record all Unique Street Reference Numbers and then investigate any associated claims. The breakdown of time it would take to answer each question is below:
Q1 – 5 minutes
Q2 – 15 minutes
Q3 – 2 hours
Q4 – combined with Q3
Q5 – 16 hours
Q6 – 2 hours
Q7 – 30 minutes
Q8 – 15 minutes
Q9 – 1 hour
Q10 – 2 hours
Q11 – 5 minutes
Under the Environmental Information Regulations 2004, public authorities can make a ‘reasonable’ charge for staff time and costs in such requests. Due to the complexity and volume of the information which needs to be searched through, there will be a fee payable for this information to be retrieved, collated and provided to you. The fee is in accordance with Regulation 8 of the Environmental Information Regulations 2004, and with our information requests charging policy.
The Information Commissioner’s Office suggests that public authorities use a rate of £25 per hour for any staff time involved. This in line with the rate applicable under the Freedom of Information Act by virtue of The Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limits and Fees) Regulations 2004.
The fee payable is £602.50
This has been calculated as follows:
Officer time to retrieve, collate and provide information at rate of £25 per hour (24.1 hours @ £25 per hour) = £602.50
Please therefore take this letter as a charging notice under Regulation 8 of the Environmental Information Regulations 2004.
Payment may be made online via the council’s website using the council’s 24 hour secure payment service, which accepts most major debit or credit cards. Please select ‘Information Requests’ from the list of services.
If you are unable to make payment online, and require an alternative payment option, please let me know.
You have 60 working days in which to pay this fee. The information will be sent to you following receipt of this fee and the work being carried out as specified above. If remittance is not received during this time we will consider the request closed.
Please note that, even if the fee is paid, this does not automatically mean that you will be provided with the information requested. The information will still need to be checked to see whether any exceptions apply, for example, whether any information is the personal data of a third party, or whether any is commercially sensitive, etc. If it is considered that any exceptions do apply, then this information may be withheld in part or in its entirety. If that is the case, you will be advised of the reasons for this and given details of your right to appeal.
However, the service area have advised me that they could easily provide the detail for 5 mile either side of your incident location on the B4224, without a fee being payable. They can also answer the remaining questions within the limit, it is only the need for the information in Q5 for a circular radius that will take an excessive amount of time. If you would like this information please let me know and I can provide this for you.
Documents
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