Drivers claim a pothole payout every 11 minutes
‘Likely to be the tip of the iceberg’
MOTORISTS make a compensation claim for pothole damage to their vehicles every 11 minutes, figures reveal.
Nearly 50,000 drivers made claims against councils costing millions of pounds in the last financial year, according to a report by the RAC Foundation.
But it highlights a postcode lottery in which the number, success rate and size of claims can vary enormously from area to area.
The motoring group questioned how the Government could be spending £50billion on the controversial HS2 high-speed rail project when councils face a £ 12billion backlog of road repairs. The 200, out of a total of 207, local highways authorities in England, Scotland and Wales who responded to Freedom of Information requests by the RAC Foundation dealt with 48,664 compensation claims in 2013/14.
This is the equivalent of roughly one claim being submitted every 11 minutes day and night, 365 days a year. It is also an increase on the 2012/13 figure of 46,139 claims.
However cash-strapped councils refused the majority of claims, agreeing to pay out in only 23 per cent of cases – less than a quarter.
The total value of successful claims was £3.2million. And the average payout for a successful claim in 2013/14 was £286, down from £357 the year before. The average administration cost of each claim – successful or not – was £147.
Surrey tops the league for the highest overall number of pothole claims at 3,912. It also has the highest compensation bill – £250,289 – despite only one in five (21.5 per cent) of claims being paid out in 2013/14.
In second place is Essex with 2,548 claims of which 98 (3.8 per cent) were paid out at a cost of £156,008.
Professor Stephen Glaister, director of the RAC Foundation, said: ‘These figures are likely to be the tip of the iceberg. Many drivers will be put off by the time involved in claiming against a council, and many councils do their best to deter claimants coming forward.
‘But the fundamental problem lies not at the doors of our town halls but with central government. Despite occasional one-off grants related to periods of harsh weather, they are simply not giving councils enough money to keep their road networks up to scratch.’
Last month Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin announced a record £6billion boost to help remove the ‘menace’ of 18million potholes from local roads over the next six years. He said the £1billion a year share-out to town halls will help English local authorities tackle potholes and improve local roads between 2015 and 2021 while giving them time to plan ahead.
The Local Government Association’s transport spokesman Peter Box said: ‘We need longterm funding to tackle the evergrowing £12billion roads repair backlog facing the nation.
‘Our fear is that another harsh winter could be the tipping point for our roads.’
As many as one in six (16 per cent) of drivers have been left with damage to their vehicle in the past 12 months, according to a recent survey from LV Road Rescue.