Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, I would like to request information regarding street lighting maintenance, reports, and replacement timelines within your local authority area.
Specifically, please provide answers and data for the following questions for the financial year 2025/6.
1) How many total individual reports or notifications of non-functioning, damaged, or faulty street lights (or bulbs/lanterns requiring replacement) were received by the council?
11,110 jobs were recorded for general maintenance and emergency work.
2) How many of these reports resulted in a complete bulb/lantern replacement versus a full column (post) replacement?
3,952 assets had an attendance to fit a lantern and / or a column.
Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 makes provision for public authorities to refuse requests for information where the cost of compliance would exceed the appropriate limit, which for local government is set at £450 or 18 hours of officer time.
In order to locate and retrieve this information we would have to manually review 3,952 records in order to determine whether or not it was a column or a lantern. Even if it took only 5 minutes to review each record, this would take more than the 18 hour appropriate limit.
This response acts as a Refusal Notice for this part of your request
3) What was the average time taken (in calendar days or working days) from the initial report being logged to a field technician attending/replacing a faulty bulb or lantern unit?
Devon County Council does not hold this information.
4) What was the longest recorded single delay (in days) to repair/replace a reported street light bulb during this period?
232 days and ongoing is the longest on record for this time period.