Freedom of Information Act / Environmental Information Regulations Request
Reference: ECC20626329 06 26
Response: 10 July 2026
I can confirm that Essex County Council does hold this information, and where we are able to release this, our response is listed below.
Question 1 - Inspection records for the past 12 months
Question 2 - All reports received about any road defects in the past 12 months, including details of action taken on each report
Question 3 - Specification and criteria for temporary and permanent repairs
Question 4 - Copies of the works orders to identify how the pothole was repaired
Please see the attached site history report, which includes the maintenance history, customer service enquiries as well as defects identified during inspections and their associated risk assessment details.
As shown on the site history report quarterly driven and annually walked safety inspections are carried out, these are in accordance with Highway Maintenance Policy and General Principles and our Maintenance & Inspections Strategies which are publicly available online www.essexhighways.org/roads-strategies#maintenance
Please see page 9 of the Maintenance & Inspections Strategy: Carriageways, Footways and Cycleways document that is publicly available online www.essexhighways.org/roads-strategies#maintenance
Our current Highway Maintenance Policy and General Principles and our Maintenance & Inspections Strategies are publicly available online www.essexhighways.org/roads-strategies#maintenance.
Details of how inspectors risk assess and prioritise highway issues can also be found on our public web site at www.essexhighways.org/how-we-prioritise-highway-issues.
You will notice that some information has been withheld (redacted) this is due to an exception in the Environmental Information Regulations.
The exception applicable to the information is:
EIR Regulation 12(3) & Regulation 13 - Personal data of third parties is exempt if disclosure would breach the principles of the Data Protection Act 2018. We believe that providing you with the information would breach the following Data Protection principles:
- Data shall be fairly, lawfully and transparently processed
- Data shall be collected for specified, explicit and legitimate purposes and not further processed in a manner that is incompatible with those purposes
We are applying this exemption because
a) we do not have the consent of the person who is the subject of the information to disclose it to you,
b) disclosure does not meet any of the Article 6 or 9 conditions that would make it “necessary”, and
c) disclosure of the information to you would not be connected to the purpose for which we have collected and are holding the information.
We further believe that the release of the requested information would cause unwarranted interference to the rights and freedoms and legitimate interests of the data subject(s). Such a disclosure would in our view constitute a breach of Article 8 in the Human Rights Act (the right to privacy and family life).
In accordance with the Regulations this letter acts as a refusal notice.
Your Right to Know
Democracy and Transparency
Essex County Council
Telephone: 033301 38989
Email: YourRight.ToKnow@essex.gov.uk | www.essex.gov.uk
