Thousands of drivers denied pothole compensation by councils

Thousands of drivers denied pothole compensation by councils
Thousands of drivers denied pothole compensation by councils

Councils are routinely refusing to pay compensation for car damage caused by potholes, analysis by The Telegraph suggests.

Authorities in charge of roads received almost 66,000 claims from motorists in the three years to March last year, but only paid out in approximately 10,000 cases, meaning more than five in six claims by motorists were rejected.

Car owners whose vehicles are damaged by poor-quality road surfaces can request compensation from the council responsible.

But a controversial loophole in the Highways Act allows authorities to reject claims if they can show they have taken reasonable steps to inspect and maintain the highway or did not know of the pothole.

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The Telegraph has launched a nationwide campaign, Fix Our Potholes, to demand authorities start fixing their roads and improve conditions for motorists, businesses and the emergency services.

Readers are encouraged to share pictures and stories of the worst potholes they have encountered so the councils responsible can be encouraged to repair them.

On Monday, The Telegraph exposed the scale of the crisis across the country, revealing that pothole-ridden roads were being left unrepaired by councils at record levels.

It submitted Freedom of Information requests to the 179 councils in England, Scotland and Wales that are responsible for roads maintenance, out of 317 in total. The 63 councils that responded said they paid out a collective £9.1 million over the three years between 2021 and last year.

The authorities received 65,996 claims from motorists in that time, but only paid out in 10,365 cases.

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Drivers who did receive a payout recovered an average of £880 in compensation from councils after claiming their cars were damaged by driving over poor road surfaces.

The most common damage caused by potholes includes punctured tyres (57 per cent), damaged suspension (35 per cent) and damaged tracking (32 per cent), according to data from Confused.com

Motorists in SNP-led Glasgow City council were the most likely to claim for damage to their cars, with 4.2 claims being made for every mile of road in the city. Last year, Glaswegian taxi drivers mounted a protest in the city centre over damage to their cars caused by potholes.

Glasgow is followed by the Labour council of Cheshire East, where the figure is 1.7 claims per mile, while both the Labour-run London Borough of Brent and the Conservatives’ Surrey County council have 1.6 claims made per mile of road in their respective areas.

Drivers wanting to claim compensation must write to the council in the first instance. They can also launch small claims court action if they are unhappy with the council’s response.

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Kerry Costello, 77, a Salford-born author and Telegraph reader, said: “I damaged my car’s suspension driving over a deep pothole on Warwick Road Hale, so I made a claim against Trafford council.

“They messed me about for weeks and failed to respond, so I made a claim in the small claims court. The council eventually responded, and their defence is that they maintain the roads to a reasonable standard.”

Mark Morrell, a roads campaigner who styles himself Mr Pothole, said: “Highways authorities have become experts in not paying out on pothole claims.

“This is because the system is stacked against road users. Section 58 of the Highways Act gives highway authorities a special defence to reject claims if they didn’t know the defect was there or [if] it was scheduled for repairs. In my opinion, many highway authorities are abusing the system.”

Mark Morrell, known as 'Mr Pothole', says highways authorities 'have become experts in not paying out on pothole claims'
Mark Morrell, known as ‘Mr Pothole’, says highways authorities ‘have become experts in not paying out on pothole claims’ - John Lawrence

There were around 11.5 million road defects plaguing the nation’s highways last year, according to estimates from Stan The App, an AI-powered pothole detection programme.

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Before Christmas, Sir Keir Starmer pledged to hand councils £1.6 billion in ring-fenced money for road repairs.

Simon Williams, the RAC’s head of policy, said: “These findings are a reminder that the poor condition of the UK’s roads is burning holes in the budgets of local authorities and drivers. We have long argued that councils need greater certainty of funding, which is why the Government allocating £1.6 billion to pothole repairs is very positive news.

“It’s vital that this money is used by councils to carry out preventative maintenance – by surface dressing roads at regular intervals to stop them falling apart in the first place. Roads beyond reasonable repair should be resurfaced.”

Cllr Adam Hug, the transport spokesman for the Local Government Association, said each compensation claim received by authorities was “robustly judged on its own merits and in accordance with the law”.

He said: “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 £16.3 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.”