Britain’s pothole hell revealed as councils pay out millions - see full map
A Mirror investigation has revealed the shocking extent to which the UK's roads are riddled with dangerous potholes, as councils spend millions on compensation payouts.
All across England, Scotland and Wales, motorists are plagued by potholes. Whilst most amount to little more than an eyesore and an uncomfortable drive, some cause further complications, damage and even lead to people suffering serious injuries - which then lead to claims and expensive payouts.
Off the back of a freedom of information request, the Mirror can reveal that council payouts for damage and injury caused by potholes since 2010 is well over £32million - just for council's biggest payouts alone. From the FOI, asking for the top ten most expensive payouts from 2010 to present, 139 councils responded with usable figures. Others that refused for a number of reasons including data protection concerns.
Whilst some councils have insurance schemes to cover some of the costs, millions have been sunk into the everyday problem and now the dangerous and damaging potholes have been mapped so you can see just how bad things are in your local area.
The figures revealed by the Mirror only scratch the surface of the true cost because under the FOI councils turned over their top ten most expensive pothole payouts. In reality, pothole costs rocket far beyond these ten claims. For example, the City of Doncaster Council provided figures in full for its entire payouts - with almost £240,000 covering the top ten while the total for payouts was nearly £950,000.
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Reasons for these payouts include personal injury such as damaging or losing a tooth, broken bones, fractures, cuts and more, and damage to vehicles. The single most expensive payout was made by Kent County Council, due to a pothole related incident in Maidstone in 2014 that saw the claimant receive £4.25million. This was the very highest payout by quite some margin.
Experts the Mirror spoke to said that dwindling local government funding was one of the reasons roads across the UK were in such dire conditions.
Potholes are a blight to motorists and cyclists alike across the UK (Ayrshire Post)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.”
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
Wiltshire Council - £760,332.88
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Lancashire County Council - £709,459.43
Staffordshire County Council - £598,148.37
Manchester City Council - £581,100
Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council - £558,489.27
Rishi Sunak inspecting a pothole in Darlington - there have been calls for central government to provide more funding (PA)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."
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