Disclosure Log

Section 38 and Section 278 Bonds (FOI/7100)

Message from Nottinghamshire County Council - 21 January 2026

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Dear *********
 
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000 – REQUEST FOR INFORMATION REFERENCE FOI/7100.

Thank you for your request for information relating to Section 38 and Section 278 Bonds:
 
We confirm that we hold this information. The Council is exempt from providing this information under s12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 on the grounds that to do so would exceed the cost limit of £450 (i.e. 18 hours at £25 per hour (as set out in the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004). We do not hold the information in a format that it readily accessible/retrievable.  As an Authority we deal with significant number of S38 / S278 agreements (up to 150 annually).  The Highways Act has been in existence since 1980 and the associated agreements have been in existence since this time.  To fully satisfy the request would potentially require us to review all our records back to 1980. Many of these are held in a number of different areas across the Council including in archives, and some may be held by other local councils (dating from when our older agreements were compiled by the Local District / Borough Councils when they operated local road adoptions on our behalf). 

Assuming  a  time period 1980–2021, to allow for agreement older than 5 years old this would require the Authority to locate and review over 41 years of records (i.e. several thousand). As mentioned, the cost limit is £450 or 18 hours. 1i hours equates to 1080 minutes; optimistically assuming  5 minutes per agreement to locate and check we would only  be able to review 220 records, this would fall well short of what is required.

If you wish to pursue this request you will need to refine it, for example by limiting the time-frame to more recent years, or putting some other limit on what you require. Should you choose to do this it will be treated as a new request.

If you are dissatisfied with the handling of your request, you have the right to ask for an internal review. Requests should be submitted within 40 working days of the date of receipt of the response to your original request and should be addressed to: Complaints and Information Team, Nottinghamshire County Council, County Hall, Loughborough Road, West Bridgford, NOTTINGHAM, NG2 7QP or [email protected] .

If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision.  The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, WILMSLOW, SK9 5AF or https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/foi-and-eir-complaints/

Please remember to quote the reference number above in any future communications.

Your privacy: we use your personal information such as name and address so that we can comply with our legal obligations to respond to FOI requests.  For further details about the use of information about you, please see the information handling privacy notice on our website at https://www.nottinghamshire.gov.uk/media/4323566/informationgovernanceandinformationrightsprivacynotice.pdf

Yours sincerely

Complaints and Information Team
Chief Executives Department
Nottinghamshire County Council

The Council is committed to protecting your privacy and ensuring all personal information is kept confidential and safe. For more details see our general and service specific privacy notices at: https://www.nottinghamshire.gov.uk/global-content/privacy
 

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