Ten worst potholes in Britain unveiled - and they're costing councils millions
One single pothole swallowed up £4.25million as councils across England, Scotland and Wales have coughed up more than £32million on ruined roads.
Potholes are the blight of many a driver's day. They can turn a pleasant stretch of road into an eyesore, or, even worse, become a huge hit on the bank account. Driving over one can sometimes cause damage to a car, or even injure a person, be they in a car, on foot, or cycling.
The Mirror has investigated the extent of the toll these horror holes are taking on the country - with things getting so bad even rockstar Sir Rod Stewart has taken things into his own hands. The findings include one pothole that has seen £4.25million sunk into it as the local council were forced to payout for damages.
Pothole Pete could stand in a £4.25million pothole in Maidstone, Kent (Matt Gilley/PlymouthLive)The Mirror sent a freedom of information request every council responsible for roads, asking for their top ten payouts for potholes, be it vehicular damage or personal injury. The results paint a shocking picture of the country’s roads. They show people left with multiple serious injuries, from broken bones and lacerations, to lost teeth and neck injuries, to councils forking out £32,164,629 in damages. The RAC have warned that this "lose-lose situation" will simply continue unless central government steps in to help struggling councils.
From the FOI, asking for top ten payouts from 2010 to present, 139 councils responded with usable figures, while others refused to reveal how much they’d paid out, citing reasons such as data protection concerns. Other local authorities however gave wider information, going beyond the top ten payouts to provide their full expenditure. Not all the payments come directly from council coffers as some have insurance in place that means they pay a premium and the rest - sometimes millions more - is paid for.
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Nonetheless, the £32 million is merely scratching the surface given it covers only the top ten payouts made by local authorities - with the true figure likely to run into millions more. The highest payout, by quite some margin, was made by Kent Council which saw £4.25million swallowed by a pothole in Maidstone. This mammoth payout came just three years after the council had paid out £250,000 in relation to another pothole in the same town.
Many have called on the central government to provide more funding for local councils - Prime Minister Rishi Sunak pictured inspecting a road in Darlington (PA)RAC head of policy Simon Williams said: "These shocking figures could have been far lower if councils had had certainty of funding from government years ago. As it was, the amount of maintenance work, such as surface dressing and complete resurfacing, has suffered leading to roads deteriorating every year. This is a lose-lose situation as drivers suffer expensive damage to their cars and then have to fight for compensation, while councils have to fork out funds – a wholly unnecessary situation that both parties could well do without.
"The Government has now committed to giving local councils £8.3bn over 11 years, so we hope this means they can start to bring at least some of their roads back up to standard. Going forwards, we want to see 2p-a-litre from fuel duty revenue ringfenced for local roads as this would give councils certainty of funding to continue to plan proper long-term maintenance."
Seawick Road in Seawick St Osyth Essex - feared to be one of the country's worst roads as the local council saw nearly £2million sunk into potholes in pay outs (James Linsell-Clark/ SWNS)The City of Doncaster Council's figures give an insight into how the overall tally for UK council pothole payouts will be far in excess of the £32 million. Doncaster officials went beyond our request for their top ten - which was almost £240,000 - to reveal nearly £950,000 had been paid out overall. Amongst the reasons for payouts, some included injuries such as damaging or losing a tooth or multiple teeth, broken bones, fractures, cuts, eye or head damage, neck injuries, and more. Others were down to damage to a vehicle.
Of the next most expensive top ten payouts combined, following Kent County Council, Essex County Council paid out almost £2million and Hertfordshire County Council paid out over £1.5million.
Councils who saw most expensive combined top ten payouts
Kent County Council - £4,902,618
Essex County Council - £1,916,448.06
Hertfordshire County Council- £1,530,850
Surrey County Council - £810,051
Durham County Council - £797,785.50
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Wiltshire Council - £760,332.88
Lancashire County Council - £709,459.43
Staffordshire County Council - £598,148.37
Manchester City Council - £581,100
Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council - £558,489.27
Rocker Sir Rod Stewart stole headlines in 2022 when he filmed himself fixing holes in the road near his home in Harlow after complaining it was too damaged to drive his Ferrari on. Essex County Council later confirmed the road had been fully repaired.
A spokesperson for the Local Government Association warned councils were facing an "increasingly challenging" situation. They cautioned: "Each claim for compensation sent to a council is robustly judged on its own merits and in accordance to the law. Instead of paying for costly compensation claims, councils much prefer to use their budgets to keep our roads in a good condition, in turn reducing the risk of damage to vehicles and personal injuries.
"However, this has become increasingly challenging, with an estimated and growing £14 billion backlog of repairs to bring all local roads across the country up to scratch. All councils need greater, longer-term funding certainty so that they can invest in preventative treatments that help avoid more dangerous potholes developing in the first place."
A Kent County Council (KCC) spokesperson said: "Ensuring the safety of all road users is a top priority and we prioritise defects to ensure the most critical can be repaired as soon as possible. While we are not able to comment on individual settlement cases, we recognise the responsibility we have to make sure our roads are safe to use and keep Kent moving.
"That is why we are spending millions this financial year to repair potholes and other safety critical defects on one of the largest road networks of any local authority in England. Anyone who sees a pothole on our road can report it directly to us at www.kent.gov.uk/highways using our highway fault reporting tool."
A Department for Transport spokesperson said: "We are investing a record amount of funding into tackling potholes and resurfacing roads across the country, which will see highway maintenance funding to local authorities increase by around two-thirds over the next decade.
"Our recent Network North announcement delivers an additional £8.3 billion of redirected HS2 funding for our roads – the biggest ever increase in funding for local road maintenance, enough to resurface more than 5,000 miles of roads, with extra money already being delivered to councils to improve our roads. This is on top of the more than £5.5 billion for highways maintenance that was already being spent."
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