Disclosure Log
Potholes (FOI/5129)
Message from Nottinghamshire County Council - 08 January 2025
Dear ***** *****
Provision of requested information – Ref: FOI/00005129
Thank you for your request for information about potholes, which we received on 9th December 2024. Your request has been considered under the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (EIR). The response to your request is provided below.
In your request you asked:
a. What was the total number of potholes recorded within your Council’s jurisdiction in the 2023/24 financial year
62,288
b. When assessing the seriousness of a pothole, how many categories of seriousness do you divide potholes into
4 categories – Emergency defects, Category 1 defects, Category 2 defects and Category 3 defects.
c. Can you provide a breakdown of how many potholes fell into each category of seriousness in the 2023/24 financial year
26,560 category 1/emergency defects
35,728 category 2/category 3
d. How long, on average, does it take for the Council to categorise the seriousness of a pothole from the point the pothole is first reported to the Council
This information is not recorded as a figure.
e. How long, on average, does it take for the Council to fill a pothole from the point it is categorised on a scale of seriousness, and what are the different average response times for potholes in different categories of seriousness
Cat 1 – 1.47 days
Cat 2 – 14.92 days
Cat 3 – 27.6 days
f. If time scales for (d) and (e) cannot be isolated, how long, on average, does it take for the council to fill a pothole from the point the pothole is first reported to the Council
Not applicable
g. What is the average cost to the council of filling potholes in different categories of seriousness*
h. What was the highest cost the Council paid in the 2023/24 financial year for filling a specific pothole*
i. What was the lowest cost the Council paid in the 2023/24 financial year for filling a specific pothole*
*These costs are not individually recorded and form part of the overall carriageway maintenance budget.
Did the Council have a contract in the 2023/24 financial year with a company to fill their potholes
Nottinghamshire County Council has a contract with Via East Midlands for all highway maintenance in Nottinghamshire.
If yes, has the Council retained the services of this company into the current financial year
Yes
If yes, what is the duration of the contract with that company
The contract is in place until 2031.
If yes, what is the annual retainer being paid to the company for the lifespan of the contract
Via East Midlands are not paid an ‘annual retainer’, they are paid monthly for the provision of their works and services
Your privacy: we use your personal information such as name and address so that we can comply with our legal obligations to respond to EIR 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.
If you are unhappy with the way the authority has handled your request you may ask for an internal review. Please contact: Complaints and Information – Team Manager, Nottinghamshire County Council, County Hall, Loughborough Road, West Bridgford, NOTTINGHAM, NG2 7QP or [email protected], who will arrange an internal review of your case.
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/.
If you have any queries about this letter please contact me.
Yours sincerely
The Complaints and Information Team
Nottinghamshire County Council