Request ID: FOI-0536-2122 Date published: 12 July 2021
You asked
Bus Stop 56522 is at Prince Regent Lane, London E13 8SG and used by southbound buses 147, 276, 300, 473 and 262. A drain gulley at entrance to the ''Bus Stop'' marked area is collapsing and concrete has fallen away; the gulley cover and frame see-saw rocks when buses drive over it. There is also a deep rut 12.5 metres further into the Bus Stop area (i.e., in front of the bus shelter), with displaced tarmac pushed up to the side of the rut. Both defects are significant, likely to be hazardous to road users on two wheels and ought to have been seen and felt by bus drivers. Bus supervisors, revenue inspectors and bus stop maintenance staff are also likely to have noticed the defects. I understand reports of damage such as this will often be submitted to Centre COMM (aka CentCom, NMCC (Network Management Control Centre) by radio.
**Kindly supply a list of all defective carriageway reports relating to this location that have been received during years 2019, 2020 and 2021 to date, whether by radio or by other means. Please include exact location of defect, its nature, full description, date, and time report was received, log number, and action taken and when**
NB. Streetcare declined my report of this damage and referred me to FixMyStreet, which passed me to Newham where I have now submitted a damage report. But I am keen to identify previous reports. I will also contact individual bus companies as I understand some reports are made at garage.
Operators of buses 147, 276, 300, 473 and 262 are private companies, albeit contracted to TfL and they have reminded me that FOIA is not applicable to such companies. Grateful if you could consider obtaining records of reports made at depots and letting me have those as well.
Thank you.
We answered
Thank you for your request which we received on 15 June 2021, asking about reports of road defects at Prince Regent Lane, E13 8SG.
Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act and our information access policy. I can confirm that we hold some of the information you require. You asked:
Streetcare declined my report of this damage and referred me to FixMyStreet, which passed me to Newham where I have now submitted a damage report. But I am keen to identify previous reports.
The report was rejected by Streetcare and passed to the London Borough of Newham as Prince Regent Lane is not on the Transport for London Road Network (TLRN) and we are not responsible for repair damage at this location. The highway authority is Newham.
Indication of action taken on each would also be appreciated, ie reported to Newham Council (ie date, reference number). The road defect was reported to Newham to make them aware of the issue after you raised it with Go-Ahead London on 11 June. Kindly supply a list of all defective carriageway reports relating to this location that have been received during years 2019, 2020 and 2021 to date, whether by radio or by other means. Please include exact location of defect, its nature, full description, date, and time report was received, log number, and action taken and when.
Unfortunately, to provide the information you have requested above would exceed the ‘appropriate limit’ of £450 set by the Freedom of Information (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004. Under section 12 of the FOI Act, we are not obliged to comply with a request if we estimate that the cost of determining whether we hold the information, locating and retrieving it and extracting it from other information would exceed the appropriate limit. This is calculated at £25 per hour for every hour spent on the activities described.
Our Network Management Control Centre (NMCC) receive on average over 1000 calls/reports per 24h period. All our reports from 2019-2020 have been archived and we currently don’t have a reporting tool within the NMCC to access them. In order to locate any defective carriageway reports related to the location in question for the period 2019 to date, someone would have to manually trawl through all the reports in the system. It would take several days to retrieve and compile this information.
We are in the process of acquiring a reporting tool, however, it’s in early stages and we have no timeline when the work will be completed.
To help bring the cost of responding to your request within the £450 limit, you may wish to consider narrowing its scope so that we can more easily locate, retrieve and extract the information you are seeking. You might consider limiting your request to a shorter period of time. For instance we could search for information that was reported from January 2021 to a date.
Please note that we will not be taking further action until we receive your revised request.
In the meantime, if you have any queries or would like to discuss your request, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Please see the attached information sheet for details of your right to appeal.
Yours sincerely Eva Hextall FOI Case Management Team General Counsel Transport for London
