Pothole D243836042 – Lyme Road, Uplyme

1) Please provide the full log that you hold, to include any photographs/reports upon pothole D243836042 – Lyme Road, Uplyme. 

The information requested can be found in the following folder Pothole report and photos.

Personal information has been greyed out as it is exempt from disclosure under Section 40(2) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (Personal Data). 

Devon County Council can confirm the requested information is held; however, the Council cannot disclose personal information if releasing it would contravene any of the provisions in the UK General Data Protection Regulation. In this instance release of this information would contravene the first data protection principle and therefore the information is withheld.

2) Your website stated at 21:00hrs, 1 March 2024,  that this pothole had a log of 10:29hrs the same day and a comment ‘Pothole – Non-safety, with contractor for repair.’ Please confirm that you had inspected it at that time and deemed a repair was required. Please also clarify what is meant by ‘non-safety’.

The defect was logged by an inspector on the 1st March 2024 10:29. The defect did not meet safety criteria and was therefore logged as a non-safety pothole which has an extended 90 day repair time. It was subsequently fixed on 7th March 2024 14:17.

A non-safety pothole is essentially a pothole that doesn’t meet the criteria in our highway safety policy to be considered a safety defect, but one that we see the benefit in repairing anyway before it worsens and becomes a safety defect.

3) Please confirm concrete was used in repairs previously and why; indeed, is this common practice?

We do not routinely use concrete for pothole repair. Please find the policies and procedures for the standard repair of carriageway defects by patching at the following link Carriageway Patching.

4) Four other holes were inspected along the road, being D243836059 – 10:38hrs; D243836110 – 11:10hrs; D243836120 – 11:15hrs and D243836197 – 12.01hrs. Please confirm these were also inspected at the times given and what the outcome was.

Please see the following folder for information on potholes along Lyme Road Uplyme  Defect and enquiry reports.

Personal information has been greyed out as it is exempt from disclosure under Section 40(2) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (Personal Data). 

Devon County Council can confirm the requested information is held; however, the Council cannot disclose personal information if releasing it would contravene any of the provisions in the UK General Data Protection Regulation. In this instance release of this information would contravene the first data protection principle and therefore the information is withheld.

5) Please advise why you believe you are entitled to ask for extensive documentation for a vehicle, and kindly provide details of the law or legal precedent that requires documentation to be produced. 

Documents are required in order to establish the vehicle’s legitimacy and roadworthiness, which are important factors in determining liability for pothole damage. Having sight of these documents helps authorities assess whether the vehicle was in a suitable condition to be on the road and whether the owner has fulfilled their legal obligations regarding vehicle maintenance and compliance.

This information is requested at the outset to ensure that anyone making a claim against the Council is the owner of the vehicle and was driving legally at the time of the incident. Unfortunately Devon County Council, along other Authorities, do receive fraudulent claims, so these measures have been put in place to ensure that our time is dedicated to investigating genuine claims, in order to make the best use of public spending. This practice aligns with other Local Authorities.

6) You make it clear that as a claimant, chances of success are limited to 1 in 5. Please provide evidence to support your claims that the success rate for the years given on your website, together with those since, are genuine. 

Where the Council can demonstrate that it had a reasonable system of inspection and maintenance in place, the majority of highway claims received will be defended using the special defence afforded under Section 58 of the Highways Act 1980. This information is therefore displayed in order to manage the expectations of the person making the claim. The table below provides further information.