Freedom of Information Request Regarding Road Defect Policies and Requests

Dear Mr Stevenson

 

Request for Information RFI-10476-24 Re: Road Defect Policies and
Requests

 

Thank you for your request for information relating to Road Defect
Policies and Requests which was received on 15 November 2024.

 

In accordance with the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 2000
the council will respond to your request within 20 working days, saying
whether we have the information that you want, and if there will be any
charges. 

 

If, for any reason, we cannot provide you with the information, we will
tell you why.

If we need to clarify your request, we will contact you again.

 

In the meantime, if you need to contact me about your request, please do
so quoting the above reference number.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Fakhara Qanwal

Assistant Assurance Officer

Walsall Council 

0800 0856018

[1]www.walsall.gov.uk 

 

[2]Walsall Council, Proud of our past, our present and for our future 

 

Disclaimer: The information in this message should be regarded as
confidential and is intended for the addressee only unless explicitly
stated. If you have received this message in error it must be deleted and
the sender notified. The views expressed in this message are personal and
not necessarily those of Walsall Council unless explicitly stated. Emails
sent or received from Walsall Council may the subject of a request under
data protection, freedom of information or environmental information
legislation and therefore could be disclosed to third parties. We strongly
advise you not to email any information, which if disclosed to unrelated
third parties would be likely to cause harm or distress. If you have an
enquiry related to your confidentiality or data protection, please visit
the council data protection pages on our website

 

 

References

Visible links
1. http://www.walsall.gov.uk/

Dear Mr Stevenson,

 

Freedom of Information Request RFI-10476-24 Re: Road Defect Policies and
Requests

 

Further to your request for information about Road Defect Policies and
Requests, I can tell you the following:

 

1. Definition and classification of Road Defects

a) A definition, a copy of your current policy or a summary of your
current policy on what constitutes an actionable defect on the highway
that requires inspection, intervention or repair.

See page 7 and page 8 of Walsall Council’s Highway Safety Inspection
Manual as published online. Follow the link below to the main page for
Roadworks and Road Maintenance, then scroll down to the link for the
Highway Safety Inspection Manual.

Note that in accordance with the latest code of practice, Walsall works to
investigatory levels.

[1]https://go.walsall.gov.uk/roads-parking-...

b) A definition, a copy of your current policy or a summary of your
current policy setting out the classifications of defects on the highway
that requires inspection, intervention or repair

See page 9 of Walsall Council’s Highway Safety Inspection Manual as
published online. Follow the link below to the main page for Roadworks and
Road Maintenance, then scroll down to the link for the Highway Safety
Inspection Manual.

Note that in accordance with the latest code of practice, Walsall works to
investigatory levels.

[2]https://go.walsall.gov.uk/roads-parking-...

2. Timeframes for Addressing Road Defects o The timeframes set by your
authority to (a) respond and to (b) repair for each classification of
defect on the highway set out in reply to 1 (b) above o Your
success/compliance rate with regard to timing of repairs in line with your
own policy for each classification of defect on the highway

(a) Response times depend on the nature of the defect, for non-urgent
defect reports a safety inspector will investigate same working day or
next working day, for safety critical defects the Council’s highway
maintenance contractor is dispatched immediately to site without any prior
investigation or inspection.

(b) See page 10 of Walsall Council’s Highway Safety Inspection Manual as
published online. Follow the link to the main page for Roadworks and Road
Maintenance, then scroll down to the link for the Highway Safety
Inspection Manual.

Note that in accordance with the latest code of practice, Walsall works to
investigatory levels.

Compliance rate over the past 12 months is 19 defects not attended to
within timeframe compared with 4,519 orders issued. 0.42% compliance.

[3]https://go.walsall.gov.uk/roads-parking-...

3. Reporting defects

a) Please confirm all means by which you accept reports of Highways
defects eg by phone, email, online portal, third party apps etc

Online portal, email, phone, handwritten letter, social media managed by
Walsall’s Communications team, Fix My Street.

b) From which third party apps do you accept reports of Highways defects
eg Fill That Hole, Fix My Street, Stantheapp, Love Clean Streets etc

Fix My street,  There are several other 3^rd parties that are managed by
fix my street including love clean streets and my society. 

Though we are taking steps to enable the reports to be linked directly to
those parties in the future.  We will also enable same for the highways
processes through CRM development.

4. Number of Road Defect Requests Received o Please provide the total
number of defect reports received by the local authority between :- o

A) 1 January 2022 – 31 December 2022 inclusive  430

B) 1 January 2023 – 31 December 2023 inclusive  569

C) 1 January 2024 – 31 October 2024   582

See Table 4 page 9 of Walsall Council’s Highway Safety Inspection Manual

[4]https://go.walsall.gov.uk/roads-parking-...

 

Most of the information that we provide in response to Freedom of
Information Act 2000 requests will be subject to copyright protection.  In
most cases the copyright will be owned by Walsall Council. The copyright
in respect of other information may be owned by another person or
organisation, as indicated.

 

You are free to use any information supplied to you in response to this
request for your own non-commercial research or private study purposes.
The information may also be used for any other purpose allowed by a
limitation or exception in copyright law, such as news reporting.
 However, any other type of re-use, for example by publishing the
information in analogue or digital form, including on the internet, will
require the permission of the copyright owner.

 

 

I hope that the information provided is useful to you. However, if you are
dissatisfied, you should set out in writing your grounds for complaint and
send to: Corporate Assurance Manager, Resources & Transformation, Civic
Centre, Darwall Street, Walsall, WS1 1TP.

 

If you are not content with the outcome of your complaint, you may apply
directly to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) for a decision.
Please remember that, generally, the ICO cannot make a decision unless you
have first exhausted the complaints procedure provided by the council. The
Information Commissioner can be contacted at: The Information
Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9
5AF. [5]https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/

 

Yours sincerely,

Yvonne Jackson

Assurance Officer

Walsall Council 

0800 0856018

[6]www.walsall.gov.uk 

 

[7]Walsall Council, Proud of our past, our present and for our future 

 

Disclaimer: The information in this message should be regarded as
confidential and is intended for the addressee only unless explicitly
stated. If you have received this message in error it must be deleted and
the sender notified. The views expressed in this message are personal and
not necessarily those of Walsall Council unless explicitly stated. Emails
sent or received from Walsall Council may the subject of a request under
data protection, freedom of information or environmental information
legislation and therefore could be disclosed to third parties. We strongly
advise you not to email any information, which if disclosed to unrelated
third parties would be likely to cause harm or distress. If you have an
enquiry related to your confidentiality or data protection, please visit
the council data protection pages on our website

 

 

References

Visible links
1. https://eur01.safelinks.protection.outlo...
2. https://eur01.safelinks.protection.outlo...
3. https://eur01.safelinks.protection.outlo...
4. https://eur01.safelinks.protection.outlo...
5. https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/
6. http://www.walsall.gov.uk/