Under the Freedom of Information Act, I would like to request the following information regarding potholes:
a. What was the total number of potholes recorded within your Council’s jurisdiction in the 2023/24 financial year?
53,549 (this includes from routine safety inspections and following reports from members of the public).
b. When assessing the seriousness of a pothole, how many categories of seriousness do you divide potholes into?
Please refer to Section 5 of our Highway Safety Policy which can be found at the following link Highway Safety Policy.
c. Can you provide a breakdown of how many potholes fell into each category of seriousness in the 2023/24 financial year?
| Category | Count of Defects |
| 1 | 644 |
| 2 | 17691 |
| 3 | 32800 |
| 4 (non – Safety) | 4690 |
d. How long, on average, did it take for the Council to categorise the seriousness of a pothole from the point the pothole was first reported to the Council during the 2023-24 financial year (or the most recent year for which records are available)?
| Days to Assessment | Average | Median |
| 2023/24 | 6.47 | 5 |
Based on working days and 55,967 assessments made during that time period.
e. How long, on average, did it take for the Council to fill a pothole from the point it was categorised on a scale of seriousness during the 2023-24 financial year, and what were the different average response times for potholes in different categories of seriousness?
| Category | Average | Median |
| 1 | 3.62 | 1 |
| 2 | 5.32 | 4 |
| 3 | 5.96 | 4 |
| 4 (Non Safety) | 9.55 | 5 |
Note: The averages and medians are calculated based on the number of days between the instruction for a pothole and a repair being made.
For Cat 1 Potholes this is based on working days (i.e. weekends and holidays are excluded)
For Cat 2 Potholes (and above) this is based on Calendar days (i.e. weekends and holidays are included)
The median shows the middle value of the dataset and is representative the overall trend as it is less skewed by outliers within the data.
f. If time scales for (d) and (e) cannot be isolated, how long, on average, did it take for the council to fill a pothole from the point the pothole was first reported to the Council during the 2023-24 financial year?
N/A.
g. What is the average cost to the council of filling potholes in different categories of seriousness?
We are not able to provide this information, only an average cost associated with pothole repairs up to 0.5sqm for all response categories, which to date in 2024/25 is £115.60 per pothole.
h. What was the highest cost the Council paid in the 2023-24 financial year for filling a specific pothole?
The cost reimbursable payment mechanism we use for our term maintenance contract means that we cannot provide this information. We do not pay for each individual pothole repair individually but instead costs incurred generally for plant, material and labour.
i. What was the lowest cost the Council paid in the 2023-24 financial year for filling a specific pothole?
Please see response to question h.
j. Did the Council have a contract in the 2023/24 financial year with a company to fill their potholes?
Pothole repairs as undertaken as part of our term maintenance contract with Milestone Infrastructure Services Ltd.
k. If yes, what is the name of the company and has the Council retained the services of this company into the current financial year?
Yes.
l. If yes, what is the duration of the contract with that company?
The current contract arrangement expires in March 2027.
m. If yes, what is the annual value of the contract?
There is no annual retainer paid to Milestone Infrastructure Serviced Ltd. The contract with them is a NCE Term Service Contract in which they are contracted to provide the highway maintenance service until 31 March 2027 and are paid for work undertaken.