My freedom of information flight of fancy was shot down in flames. Having spent months trying to get some data from the town hall as a councillor I thought I’d give the Freedom of Information Act a try.

I should have known better.

The story started (as quite a few of my recent ones do) at the Shaftesbury Let’s Talk meeting. During the meeting a comment was made by one of the officers who:

informed the meeting that a full inspection was carried out on pavements across the Borough; the Council is currently undertaking a 5-year programme of repairs, spending had been increased by £2m and the works were being prioritised to deal with the worst cases first.

I thought this was interesting. For a while I was reporting a lot of road and footway faults, but these often went unrepaired for months. Aside from wanting an overview of the state of the pavements, I also thought it might help me form a better picture of what repairs would be completed, since not much in Shaftesbury Ward ever got prioritised and perhaps I was reporting problems that just weren’t bad enough.

I never got the details of the inspection since—I was told—it had to be cleared by the leader of the council before it could be shared with me.

I tried a few more times before, at the beginning of the year, trying a freedom of information request. Surely, I reasoned, something that announced in a public meeting, detailing defects that are in full view of the public, should be information available to the public, if not a lowly councillor.

I was wrong. The response to my request was that the data is incomplete and releasing such information “may be misleading to the public” (imagine the horrors of people knowing about potholes and uneven pavements they can already see every day on their street) and because “the council needs to be able to consider and fully explore all the options available to them and exchange views within a safe place”.1

Of course, some might think that referring to a document as complete that has not been finished some three months later is misleading. But maybe it’s a case of two wrongs making a right, because it turns out the evidence base that doesn’t exist informs a five-year programme that doesn’t exist either.

It is, of course, symptomatic of a council lost in its own arrogance and right to rule.

I missed last night’s council meeting—attending a school governor training session and only making the town hall in time to see people leaving—but I’m rather glad. Having read the questions, followed it on Twitter and heard about it from people who were there it seemed to be a meeting with similarly weak foundations as the council’s street maintenance plan: the council may be long on self-love but it’s desperately short on self-awareness.


  1. Having wasted many hours of my life in those safe places, I can imagine the considerations; they were usually a debate about how far they could let the state of roads and pavements decline before the pain of complaints outweighed the saving on council tax. 

There aren’t many places in Wandsworth you don’t notice the poor state of our streets, but the Shaftesbury Park Estate has, I think, some of the worst with the road surface starting to crumble at an alarming rate.

I have reported defects when I see them, but sadly the turnaround on these has lengthened from hours to weeks and occasionally months. However, at least some of the roads are now due for resurfacing and letters should go out to residents in the affected streets today.

The roads due for resurfacing are:

  • Sabine Road (due to start on 10 July with works for four days),
  • Tyneham Road (due to start on 14 July with works for five days ) and
  • Elsley Road (due to start on 19 July with works for four days).

I will continue to report other street defects (and you can also report them via the council’s website or services like FixMyStreet or even just let me know).

We are, of course, less than a year from the council elections, so there’s usually a bit more investment suddenly available making it a great time to get those all those faults rectified.


View Grit bin locations in a larger map

Following last night’s snow-fall I thought it might be worth re-publishing the locations of grit-bins in the borough.

The Google map details where they all are (roughly, but they are big yellow things, so I’m confident it gives more than enough information for you to find them) but if you want more information you can find it in the council’s winter service plan (PDF).

The roads have been a big issue recently. There’s no getting away from it, the two cold snaps earlier this year (along with last year’s cold weather) have taken their toll.

The council’s teams have been out systematically repairing the borough’s roads and evidence of their work is visible across the ward; take a look at Lavender Hill, for example, which has seen extensive repair work.

But it’s worth repeating that you don’t have to wait for the council to see the problem and repair it. If you know of any potholes let the council know (you can report them at wandsworth.gov.uk/streets).

To show how it works I noticed and reported the pothole on the left while campaigning in Sugden Road one night. By 10am the following morning it had been inspected to assess the repair needed and by the afternoon it had been repaired. Not all repairs can be completed in 24 hours, but we always try and get to them as quickly as possible.


The shiny new road surface on Theatre Street

The state of the roads has been a big concern for everyone, and not just in Wandsworth – following the two cold snaps earlier this year roads across the country developed faults. One of the chief problems is that we have to wait until the cold weather has gone before repairs can start; there’s no point wasting time and money repairing a hole in January when another freeze is a few weeks away and will undo all the work.

The council is now systematically inspecting and repairing all the roads in the borough and this week is Shaftesbury’s turn. Hopefully in a few more days all the potholes in the ward will have been fixed. Additionally, one road, Theatre Street has been totally resurfaced because the surface was beyond patching.

The cause of the problems are largely beyond the council’s control. Obviously the weather plays the biggest part, but often the problems occur because water has been able to penetrate and freeze at the joins where utility companies have been digging up the road. Certainly in the case of Theatre Street I seem to regularly report water leaks, and cannot help but speculate that leaky pipes under the surface have played their part in the break up of the road.

If you know of a pothole you can report it directly via the council’s street faults reporting page.

Resurfacing worksThe council is currently undertaking a thorough inspection of the borough’s roads. You may have noticed the condition of some roads has significantly deteriorated. This is largely down to the severe weather we suffered all the way back in February.

You might think this was a long time ago, but in some cases the effects are only just starting to be noticed.

Essentially, the weather weakened the road surface by weakening the bond between the road’s constituent parts. The extent of this damage varied from road to road – some roads were more sheltered so suffered less, others, where the surface was already coming towards the end of its natural life-span were damaged more.

The time is took for this damage to become apparent also varies, roads that only have light traffic may still appear to be in fine condition while those that get heavy traffic broke down much more quickly.

The council is systematically inspecting each road over a period of around three months. Where it is possible repairs are patched (and the council can do this fairly quickly). Where the damage is more severe the entire road has to be resurfaced. In Shaftesbury Ward Thirsk Road is currently being totally resurfaced.

If you know of any potholes you can report them to the council. Repairs can normally be carried out fairly promptly. Faults can be reported online at wandsworth.gov.uk/streets. Faults on Transport for London roads (usually identifed by the red lines on the sides) cannot be repaired by the council, but can be reported via the TfL roadworks and street faults page.