Reports of Obstruction from Private Land - Find a freedom of information request

Reports of Obstruction from Private Land:

1. How many reports or complaints regarding overgrown vegetation and foliage obstructing footways, originating from private land were received by your authority in the past two years (2023 and 2024)?

Reports of Obstruction from Public Land:

2. How many reports or complaints regarding overgrown vegetation and foliage obstructing footways originating from public land were received by your authority in the same period?

Actions Taken by the Authority Enforcement or Intervention on Private Land:

3. For reports concerning overhanging vegetation and foliage from private land, how many led to: * The landowner being contacted?

* Formal enforcement action?

* Direct intervention by the authority to remove or address the vegetation?

* Penalty fines issued?

Length of time for action to be taken

4. On average, how long did each report take to action, from the moment the complaint was received, to the point which the issue was dealt with?

5. What is the usual timeframe you state you will deal with overgrown vegetation and foliage in?

Maintenance of Public Land:

6. What actions were undertaken to address complaints about overgrown vegetation and foliage obstructing footways on public land? Please provide details of:

* The number of cases resolved per year (2023 and 2024).

* The nature of the interventions (e.g., pruning, clearing, etc.).

Best Practices and Guidance Policies or Guidance on Overhanging Vegetation:

7. Does your authority have any specific policies, procedures, or guidance documents on preventing or addressing overgrown vegetation and foliage obstructing footways?

If so, please provide copies or links to these documents, ensuring they are in an accessible format for blind and partially sighted people.

Examples of Good Practice:

8. Can you provide examples of good practice adopted by your authority to effectively manage overhanging vegetation and foliage issues (e.g., community engagement, educational campaigns, partnerships with landowners, or consultation with disability groups)?

Coordination with Other Authorities:

9. Has your authority worked with neighbouring councils or external organizations to share resources or best practices for tackling overhanging vegetation?

If so, please provide details.

Accessible reporting

10. What is the process of reporting overgrown vegetation and foliage, how many steps are there, and how accessible/easy to find are these processes on your website?

(By accessible, we mean how easy is it for a blind or partially sighted person using assistive technology or person with low vision, to access and report it.)

11. How many reports of overgrown vegetation and foliage did you receive from blind and partially sighted people did you receive in the past two years?

Spending and Budget Allocation Expenditure on Addressing Vegetation Issues:

12. What was the total expenditure allocated and spent by the authority on tackling overhanging vegetation and foliage affecting footways during the past two years?

Please break down this spending by:

* Addressing vegetation from public land.

* Addressing vegetation from private land (including enforcement and direct intervention costs).

Additional Budget for Vegetation Management:

13. Has your authority allocated any specific budget or additional funding (e.g., grants, subsidies) to manage overhanging vegetation and foliage?

If so, please provide details of the amounts and their use.

I can confirm that the information requested is held by Lincolnshire County Council. I have detailed below the information that is being released to you.

Reports of Obstruction from Private Land:

1. 2336 reports of overgrown vegetation we received were considered third-party responsibility or subject to enforcement action on third-parties

Reports of Obstruction from Public Land:

2. 3791 Actions Taken by the Authority

3. LCC do not hold the information requested broken down to this level of detail in a reportable format, it would require the manual checking of all 2336 reports which would put us significantly over the FOI time/cost limits.

Length of time for action to be taken

4-5. LCC do not hold this information in a recorded format, as some enforcement takes place outside our asset management system and dates of final action aren't available.

We do not have a stated usual timeframe as cases can be complex and require court action which is not within our power to determine court dates for. If something is considered a genuine safety issue we will attempt to make the situation safe within 2 hours and resolve the cause within 7 days.

Maintenance of Public Land:

Please see attached table of the 3791 enquiries and their current status showing what action was taken.

More detailed information of the jobs completed or currently issued isn't reportable without significant manual checking of each job which would put us over the cost/time limits for FOI.

Best Practices and Guidance

7. There are no specific policies, procedures or guidance documents however our Highways Infrastructure Asset Management Plan is publicly available online.

Examples of Good Practice:

8. Examples of good practice are:

- Online fault reporting system which allows the public to report concerns about overhanging vegetation

-Walked safety inspections of footways which takes into account available width for all users

-There has been engagement over numerous years with Parish and Town Councils and representation of local communities through the local County Councillors who cover all of Lincolnshire.

LCC have not done educational campaigns, partnerships with landowners or consultation with disability groups over management of overhanging vegetation but work to national best practice such as Well Managed Highways Infrastructure to set our Policies such as our Highways Infrastructure Asset Management Plan (both available publicly).

Coordination with Other Authorities:

9. No Accessible reporting

10. Fix My Street is our preferred reporting method however for those who are blind or partially sighted we have a highways customer service centre available on 01522 782070 where an advisor will record details of the problem on behalf of the customer via conversation.

Fix My Street is a national charitable organisation but it does have avenues to suggest improvements to its platform to make it more inclusive. Unfortunately this is not directly controlled by LCC.

11. Lincolnshire County Council does not hold this information Spending and Budget Allocation

12. Lincolnshire County Council are not able to provide this information. Much of the work done on overhanging vegetation and foliage is done by gangs on a time-charge basis so it is not possible to break this down into a value for specific tasks.

Likewise enforcement action is done by generic officers who perform a multitude of roles. Whilst we do record average time spent on enforcement action on enquiries, and number of these per officer,

LCC do not hold information to show how much these specific parts of their roles would cost and to extrapolate this would take us over the cost/time limits under Section 12(1) of the FOI Act 2000. Additional Budget for Vegetation Management:

13. No.

Section 12(1) of the Freedom of Information 2000 does not oblige a public authority to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying with the request would exceed the appropriate limit. The appropriate limit is currently £450 or 18 hours at a cost of £25 per hour. The exemption under section 12 is not subject to the public interest test Any refined request will be treated as a new request under the Freedom of Information Act.