Council delays

19th September 2011

At the end of February my son suffered damage from an unmarked pothole in the southern Oxfordshire area. A claim was submitted and acknowledged on April 15. At that time the letter said the Council "are required to make a decision on liability within three months" We heard nothing until August 3 at which time we were told the area engineer had inspected the road on 30/11 /10 and a works instruction was raised to install uneven warning signs on 7/12/10.The claim was refused on the grounds the County Concil had provided warning signs.
Whilst I have followed the guidance to issue a Freedom of Information Request I have two questions I hope you can help with. If the Council failed to respond within their required three month decision period is there a presumption they should meet the claim? Also if the road was deemed dangerous in Ddecember should it not have been repaired by 27/2/11? At the time of the damage there were no warning signs.Thanks in advance for any comments.

Replies (2)

simmonsad     posted : 22/09/11 at 10:51 am

Thanks for the comments. I assume the 90 days referred to is not statutory but an internal criteria. In my FOI request I have asked the authorities policy if they fail to meet their criteria as well as asking for confirmation of their criteria for responding to claims. If it is an internal policy I guess I can ask the Chief Executive for his view on internal failures?
The stated reason for not meeting my son's claim is because a warning was provided there is no evidence the County Council acted negligently! The Area Engineers report of 30/11/10 apparently identified "defects" along the road. In fact the warning signs were not in place in February although the only evidence for this is personal observation.
Subject to details of the Councils defect intervention criteria in the FOI request my concern is that if the pothole(s) warranted warning signs repairs should have been undertaken in less than 3 months from identification. As they apparently were not repaired prima face there was negligence?
May I also thank you for this site. It is most helpful to have such a point of information and advice.

Potholes.co.uk Expert     posted : 22/09/11 at 9:22 am

You could raise the 90 days issue and also mention it if and when you go to Court, but it doesn't automatically mean a win for you.

I'm not sure how uneven road signs relate to a pothole? If the pothole was there in November 2010 then ordinarily it should have been repaired by the end of February. However, the suggestion seems to be that the road was uneven in November. I think you need to clarify exactly what they are asserting