I will be grateful if you would please provide answers to the following questions under the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act.
1) Please identify the various street gullies around the head of the creek in Lower Batson and along the residential part of the highway from Lower Batson to Balls Cross.
This information can be found at the following link Report Cards.
This information is exempt from disclosure under Section 40(2) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (Personal Data). Devon County Council cannot disclose personal information if releasing it would contravene any of the provisions in the Data Protection Act 2018. In this instance release of this information would contravene the first data protection principle and therefore names have been withheld.
2) For each gully, please state the last date on which it was pumped out to clear the accumulated silt and debris.
The three gullies on the hill were treated as follows (note, the reference number at the start is our reference number for each gully, individual maps can be found on the report cards at question 1):
450023630 – 02/11/22 (Reactive) Cover OK, not cleaned, not jetted.
450023630 – 04/08/22 (Cyclical) Cover OK, cleaned, operational on arrival (75% silt), operational on leaving.
450023629 – 02/11/22 (Reactive) Cover OK, not cleaned, not jetted.
450023629 – 04/08/22 (Cyclical) Cover broken, not cleaned, not operational on arrival, not operational on leaving.
450023628 – 23/05/22 (Cyclical) Cover OK, not cleaned, not jetted.
3) Please advise the frequency with which these gullies are pumped out on a repeating routine maintenance basis.
All of the gullies on the hill are on the annual cleaning cycle, i.e., they are cleaned once per financial year.
4) Please advise the next date scheduled for pumping them out.
450023630 – Hand clean and Jetting requested by the Neighbourhood Highways Officer (NHO), but current priority is our winter gritting routes.
450023630 – Drainage structured cyclical clean between 3 April 2023 and 31 March 2024.
450023629 – request put in for broken gully lid to be replaced.
450023629 – Hand clean and Jetting requested by NHO, but current priority is our winter gritting routes.
450023629 – Drainage structured cyclical clean between 3 April 2023 and 31 March 2024.
450023628 – Hand clean and Jetting requested by NHO, but current priority is our winter gritting routes.
450023628 – Drainage structured cyclical clean between 3 April 2023 and 31 March 2024.
5) If they are not pumped out on a regular scheduled basis, how do you establish when they need clearing of silt and debris?
We inspect the gullies annually.
6) Your highway map refers to ‘attendance’ at these gullies on an annual basis. Is that part of your annual safety inspection of the highway or are they inspected as a separate exercise?
It is a separate exercise, undertaken as a part of our cyclical programme.
7) If what you define as attendance at the gullies is done at the same time as and part of the general annual highway safety inspection, does your survey vehicle stop and inspect each gully individually and report on its condition? Please provide a copy of the report in respect of the state of the gullies in Lower Batson at the time of the last annual inspection.
Yes it does, please see the link in question 1 for report cards for each gully.
8) If there is no regular maintenance or individual inspection of the state of these gullies, how do you satisfy your obligations to maintain the highway drainage systems in a condition which mitigates against flood damage?
These gullies are inspected on our cyclic programme.
9) With the network now totally blocked and discharging water on to a steep narrow public highway serving all classes of traffic (vehicular, equestrian and pedestrian) without a separate footway, what steps have you taken to mitigate against dangers arising from ice on that steep surface with mixed traffic?
The NHO has requested cleaning and jetting, but currently we are prioritising our gritting network.