We acknowledge receipt of your request to Manchester City Council,
concerning:

Pothole information

If your request comes under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) or
the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (EIR), we will aim to
respond as promptly as we can and by no later than 20 working days.
Sometimes an extension to that timescale will apply and we will let you
know if that is the case.

If some or all of your request needs to be considered under processes
other than those provided by FOIA or EIR, different timescales may apply.
In particular, any part of your request that concerns your own personal
information will be considered in line with your rights under data
protection legislation (including the right of access) and we will aim to
provide you with a response in respect of that part of your request
without undue delay and by no later than one calendar month, unless an
extension to that timescale applies (we will let you know if that is the
case).

 

The reference number for your request is FOI/11014.

 

Should you have any further inquiries concerning your request, please
reply to this email leaving the subject line unchanged.

Yours sincerely
Manchester City Council

Your personal data is very important to us. Please refer to our privacy
notice at [1]www.manchester.gov.uk/privacy for further information.

References

Visible links
1. http://www.manchester.gov.uk/privacy

 

Date: 22/11/2023

 

Dear Liam Edwards

 

Re: Request for Information – Pothole information – Reference
Number: FOI/11014

 

Thank you for your request for information, which was received by
Manchester City Council on 25/10/2023 and has been considered under the
provisions of the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (“the EIR”).

 

Please see below the details of your request and the Council's response:

 

1) How many potholes were recorded for every area in Manchester for the
years 2021, 2022, and 2023?

 

 

The Council’s CRM system does hold information on the number of
perceived potholes reported, however, it should be noted that multiple
requests may be generated reporting the same defect and a single report
may contain more than one report of a defect. The number of requests
received does not necessarily mean there is an actual pothole and many of
these prove to be non-actionable. Likewise, repairs reported and recorded
may relate to multiple potholes, therefore, to obtain the information you
are requesting would require a manual search of each CRM report.

While there is no fixed cost limit under the EIR (unlike the Freedom of
Information Act (FoIA) where there is a statutory cost limit of £450
(which is calculated as being approximately 18 hours or 2.5 days of a
Council officer's time to determine whether the Council holds the
information, locate, retrieve and extract the information), Regulation
12(4)(b) of the EIR provides that the Council may refuse to disclose
information to the extent that “the request for information is manifestly
unreasonable”.

 

Although the EIR also provide that a reasonable charge may be levied for
answering EIR requests, public authorities have been encouraged to align
their FoIA and EIR charging policies to ensure consistency and avoid
unfairness. The Council has therefore decided that EIR applicants should
be treated the same as FoIA applicants and that no charge should be levied
if a request is capable of being serviced under the FoIA cost limit.

Conversely, where an EIR request would exceed 18 hours of Council
officer’s time, the Council has decided that the criteria for triggering
the manifestly unreasonable exception in Regulation 12(4)(b) of the EIR
should be interpreted consistently with the cost limit under FoIA
(referred to above).

 

In assessing the level of costs that might be incurred in responding to a
request, the ICO suggests that public authorities use a rate of £25 per
hour for any staff time involved. Using an average time of 3 minutes per
report, it is estimated that the locate, retrieve and extract the
requested information would exceed £450.

 

We therefore consider that on cost grounds, the manifestly unreasonable
exception is engaged.

Accordingly, we have gone on to consider the public interest test.

 

Public interest factors in favour of disclosure:

• The general public interest in transparency.

• The Council is aware that Regulation 12 (2) of the EIRs specifically
states that a public authority shall apply a presumption in favour of
disclosure and has taken this into account in deciding where the balance
of the public interest test lies.

 

Public interest factors in favour of maintaining the exception:

• Complying with your request would be too burdensome to deal with.

• Compliance would expose relevant officers to an unjustified level of
disruption affecting their ability to carry out day to day duties and
operations that the Council cannot reasonably be expected to comply.
 

Taking the above factors into account, and having applied the presumption
in favour of disclosure, we have determined that the public interest
favours maintaining the exception. Normally, the Council would explore
with you how you might be able to narrow down your request so that it did
not exceed the fees limit, however, in this instance we cannot see any
scope for doing this.

2) What was the average time to fix these potholes per region for the
years 2021, 2022, and 2023?

 

Due to a change of systems the Council can only provide the following
figures - 

 

From September 2022 to September 2023, on average pothole repairs were
completed within 28 days. 

 

3) How many accidents were reported due to potholes in every area for the
years 2021, 2022, and 2023?

 

The Council's Audit and Risk team are processing this and will respond to
this in due course.

4) What is the amount of money spent by the council on fixing potholes for
the years 2021, 2022 and 2023?

 

Manchester Highways has a blended budget for all aspects of highway
work. This means there is no single budget for road maintenance, and it is
not possible to dis-aggregate spend to the level of detail requested.

5) What is the total amount of money paid out in compensation due to
potholes for the years 2021, 2022 and 2023?

 

The Council's Audit and Risk team are processing this and will respond to
this in due course.

6) What was the budget to repair potholes for each region for the years
2021, 2022 and 2023?

 

Manchester Highways has a blended budget for all aspects of highway
work. This means there is no single budget for road maintenance, and it is
not possible to dis-aggregate spend to the level of detail requested.

 

 

Information about the re-use of council information is available
at [1]https://secure.manchester.gov.uk/info/10...
If you wish to re-use this information, please follow the application
process described.  Your request will be considered in accordance with the
Re-use of Public Sector Information Regulations 2015.

 

Please note if you are not satisfied with this response you may ask for an
internal review. If you have received this response by email the best way
to submit a request for internal review is to respond directly to the
email, leaving the email's subject line unchanged. Alternatively, you can
contact the Council's Information Compliance Team
at [2][email address] or Democratic Services Legal Team, PO Box 532,
Town Hall, Manchester, M60 2LA. A copy of the Council’s information rights
complaints procedure can be downloaded
from: [3]http://www.manchester.gov.uk/downloads/d....
If you do not have internet access and require a paper copy, please let me
know. 

 

If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review process,
you have the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a
decision.

 

You should primarily contact the Information Commissioner on the following
link:   

 

[4]www.ico.org.uk/foicomplaints

 

Alternatively the Information Commissioner can also be contacted at:

 

Information Commissioner's Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

 

Tel: 0303 123 1113

Fax: 01625 524510

[5]www.ico.org.uk

 

 

The Information Commissioner will generally expect that you have exhausted
the Council’s Information Complaints Procedure before she will consider a
complaint.

 

If you have any queries about this letter, please contact me. Please
remember to quote the reference number above in any future
communications. If you have received this response by email, please leave
the email's subject line unchanged when responding to it. 

 

Yours sincerely

 

 

Cieran Cassidy

Legal Officer

 

References

Visible links
1. https://secure.manchester.gov.uk/info/10...
2. mailto:[email address]
3. http://www.manchester.gov.uk/downloads/d...
4. https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlo...
5. http://www.ico.org.uk/

Mr Edwards
Please find attached supplementary response to your FOIA request , FOIa
11014, specifically in respect of compensation claims in respect of
highways.
Regards
Lisa Richards
Corporate Insurance & Claims Manager
Internal Audit and Risk Management
Manchester City Council
Tel: 0161 234 5295
Internal: 801 35295
[mobile number]
email: [email address]
Address:  Internal Audit & Risk Management, 
Manchester City Council, 
Level 3 (Library Walk Elevation), Town Hall Extension, Albert Square, PO
Box 532, Manchester, M60 2LA

show quoted sections

References

Visible links
1. http://www.manchester.gov.uk/emaildiscla...
2. http://www.manchester.gov.uk/privacy