Dear Sir/madam

I acknowledge receipt of your request which is receiving attention.

I shall contact you again when I am in a position to respond more fully to your request.

Yours sincerely

Angelene Kirkpatrick
For Freedom of Information Co-ordinator
North Lanarkshire Council
Civic Centre
Windmillhill Street
Motherwell
ML1 1AB

Working from home
Please contact via email

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Dear Ms. Ostrolenk

Request for Information

I refer again to your e-mail of 31 August 2021 seeking information in
relation to potholes and road defects.

Having investigated my response to your five enquiries is as follows:-

(1)/(2)     Please find the table below which sets out indicative numbers
of reported and fixed defects from 2019 to date:-

  Indicative No. of Reported & Fixed Defects*
Month 2019 2020 2021 Grand Totals
Jan 199 393 333 925
Feb 273 597 488 1,358
Mar 389 444 468 1,301
Apr 185 153 298 636
May 168 174 315 657
Jun 179 225 266 670
Jul 167 168 172 507
Aug 146 191 166 503
Sep 210 135 - -
Oct 228 133 - -
Nov 194 133 - -
Dec 284 194 - -
Grand Totals 2,622 2,940 - -

*N.B. For the purposes of the response, all reported defects are
considered to have been fixed.

(3)          Please find the table below which sets out the indicative spending
on defect repairs from 2019 to date:-

  Indicative Spending on Defect Repair (£K)
Month 2019 2020 2021 Grand Totals^
Jan 64.7 106.1 82.9 253.6
Feb 82.9 144.4 202.6 429.9
Mar 147.3 117.0 125.7 390.0
Apr 56.8 31.0 97.5 185.3
May 57.9 0.3 74.7 132.8
Jun 51.4 5.5 73.5 130.3
Jul 32.7 39.2 32.7 104.6
Aug 29.7 37.0 30.1 96.8
Sep 57.7 30.9 - -
Oct 34.6 25.2 - -
Nov 43.5 34.4 - -
Dec 81.6 39.0 - -
Grand Totals^ 740.8 609.8 - -

^N.B. Grand Totals (rounded) are based on un-rounded data from the
principal dataset.

(4)          The following table sets out the amount of money paid out in
compensation due to potholes and/or road defects from 2019 to date:-

Year Compensation Paid
            £
2019 49,753.19
2020 14,401.42
2021 to date 5,351.18

(5)          I regret to advise you that the information sought is not held and
in terms of Section 17 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 I must
advise you of this.

By way of some explanation, the amount of time taken to fix a single
pothole can be extremely wide ranging, with each instance being based on
its individual circumstances.  By way of examples:-

At one extreme a minor pothole on a lightly traffic road can be afforded a
repair (temporary or otherwise) on a timescale measured in minutes,
whereas, at the other extreme, a major pothole on a heavily traffic route
might require excavation and resurfacing (localised or otherwise)
necessitating a road closure, on a timescale measuring hours or, in some
cases a day or more.

I can advise that North Lanarkshire Council, having regard to the
provisions of Section 21 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act
2002, has established a procedure whereby any person who has requested
information and is in any way dissatisfied with the decision on that
request, can within forty working days require a review of that decision
by writing to the Head of Legal and Democratic Solutions, Civic Centre,
Windmillhill Street, Motherwell ML1 1AB.  Accordingly, if you are
dissatisfied with this decision and seek such review please write to the
Head of Legal and Democratic Solutions.

I would advise, also, that in terms of Section 47 of the Act a person who
is dissatisfied with a notice given by the local authority under Section
21 of the Act - ie. a notice following a review of a decision by a local
authority, or by the failure of a local authority to give such a notice -
may make application to the Scottish Information Commissioner for a
decision as to whether, in any respect specified in that application, the
request for information to which the requirement relates has been dealt
with in accordance with the Act.  Such an application must be made within
six months of the review decision and be in writing or in another form
which, by reason of it having some permanency is capable of being used for
subsequent reference. The application must state the name of the
applicant, and provide an address for correspondence. The application must
also specify the request for information to which the requirement for
review relates, the matter which gave rise to the applicant’s
dissatisfaction with the original decision of the local authority and the
matter which gives rise to the applicant’s dissatisfaction with the
decision on review by the local authority or the failure of the local
authority to issue such a decision.  The Scottish Information Commissioner
can be contacted as follows:-

Scottish Information Commissioner

Kinburn Castle

Doubledykes Road

St. Andrews

KY16  9DS

email: [1][email address]

Appeals to the Scottish Information Commissioner can also be made online
via the following link: -

[2]www.itspublicknowledge.info/Appeal

I hope this information is sufficient for your purpose.  If, however, you
require further information – or I can assist in any other way – please
let me know.

Yours sincerely

Angelene Kirkpatrick

For Freedom of Information Co-ordinator

North Lanarkshire Council

Civic Centre

Windmillhill Street

Motherwell

ML1 1AB

Working from home

Please contact via email

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