1. Between 1st January 2023 and 31st December 2023, how many enquiries received were related to potholes?
There were 55,420 recorded pothole enquiries.
2. Between 1st January 2023 and 31st December 2023, of the enquiries received relating to potholes, how many required a written response back to the customer?
Compliance with this request would exceed the appropriate cost limit under Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 which is £450 or 18 hours of officer time. We would have to check each individual enquiry in order to check this and at 2 minutes at a time this would take over 1800 hours.
In the interests of providing advice and assistance, the Council can confirm that the majority of enquires recorded through our on line reporting system with a customer email address receive an automated response and update when assessed / repaired.
3. Between 1st January 2023 and 31st December 2023, of the enquiries received relating to potholes, how many required inspections by your highways managing agent contractor, or your direct workforce if you do not sub-contract out highways maintenance?
54,916 pothole enquiries were assessed by our contractor’s inspectors.
All public reports of potholes to the County Council are inspected and assessed by our term maintenance contractor, Milestone Infrastructure.
4.Between 1st January 2023 and 31st December 2023, of the enquiries received relating to potholes, how many were considered not to be potholes? i.e the defect reported did not meet the council’s pothole specification relating to depth and width.
17,193 where assessed as not a defect in accordance to the Highway Safety Policy.
5.Between 1st January 2023 and 31st December 2023, how many customer enquiries did you receive in total?
There were 104,673 recorded highway enquiries.
6. What communications channels can your customers use to contact you about potholes?
Customers may contact our Highways Advisors in the Customer Service Centre by phone on: 0345 1551004 , email us on: csc.roads@devon.gov.uk, or log the issues directly via our website Report a problem – Roads and transport.
In 2023, we also had a live chat available for part of the day on our website, however this has since been temporarily removed from our site.
If an issue arises outside of our Customer Service Centre’s opening hours (08:30-17:00, Monday to Friday) then the emergency out of hours team may be contacted separately.
Contact details are available on our contact us page: Contact us – Devon County Council.
7. Do you have a dedicated customer service team and if so, how many employees does this include?
Devon County Council has a Customer Service Centre comprising of 36 Advisors, 22 of which are trained in taking Highways calls.
8. When receiving notification of a pothole and/or safety critical defect, how quick do you inspect and repair this?
The average time to inspect a report is 4.7 days, and the subsequent average time to repair is 4.0 days.