“Under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act, I write to request data pertaining to the upkeep and maintenance of all roads maintained by Devon County Council.
Namely the following:
1. How much money did the council spend on repairing roads in the 2017/18 and 2018/19 financial year respectively?
Annual spend on road repairs is as follows:-
2017/18 £51.1 million
2018/19 £62.7 million
2. How many requests and/or complaints did you receive asking for damaged road surfaces/potholes to be repaired in 2017/18 and 2018/19 respectively?
The below figures represent official complaints made to the Council:-
Potholes:
63 Complaints received 2017-2018
65 Complaints received 2018-2019
Other Road Condition Complaints:
59 Complaints received 2017-2018
72 Complaints received 2018-2019
The figures below represent the number of customer requests relating to roads:-
2017/18 38,920
2018/19 30,817
3. How many claims – successful or otherwise – were made for vehicle damage as a result of potholes/damaged roads/pavements in 2017/18 and 2018/19 respectively?
2017/18 – 795 claims received as a result of potholes/damaged roads/pavements, 117 of those are classed as ‘more information required’. This is where we have written to the claimant for further information and they have not come back to us.
2018/19 – 756 claims received as a result of potholes/damaged roads/pavements, 101 of those are classed as ‘more information required’ (as above).
4. How many of these claims were successful, and what is the total amount paid out (for 2017/18 and 2018/19 respectively)?
Financial Year Value of Claims Settled Number of Claims Settled
2017/18 £57,247 88
2018/19 £30,176 158
5. Which road in the borough had the highest number of complaints made regarding any damage to the surface in 2017/18 and 2018/19 respectively?”
Complaints about roads are recorded against teams responsible for a geographical area. 354 complaints about roads were logged in 2018. Even if each one took only five minutes to identify if a specific road was mentioned, the total time needed to locate, extract and collate the information would be approximately 30 hours. Therefore, this information is exempt under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 Section 12 Cost of compliance, which specifies a time limit of 18 hours. If you wish to refine your request to relate to a smaller geographical area, we would be happy to reconsider.