How sneaky councils are ducking payouts for pothole damage

CASH-STRAPPED town halls are using legal loopholes to get out of compensating drivers whose cars are damaged by potholes.

Councils are dismissing drivers’ claims by saying the road was scheduled to be repaired. The tactic is letting them off the hook for damages, even if they had known about the pothole for months but not fixed it.

It has helped them slash their compensation bill by just under 80 per cent in less than a decade.

Figures released following a Freedom of Information request reveal Kent County Council has used the tactic to dismiss more than a third of claims in two years.

Councils are also wriggling out of paying compensation by saying they did not know about the pothole which caused the damage.

AA president Edmund King said the system was ‘rigged’ against drivers. Councils were ‘looking for more ways to avoid paying out for damage’, he added.

This includes giving themselves longer to fix the roads, and relying on more relaxed government guidelines on how big a divot needs to be to qualify as a pothole.

The row comes as rival recovery group the RAC said the number of callouts for breakdowns triggered by potholes or defective roads has doubled over the past six months. The latest annual report by the Asphalt Industry Alliance found that one in five local roads – equivalent to more than 40,000 miles – will become unfit to drive on within five years.

Councils say it would cost £9.3 billion and take them 14 years to complete a backlog of repairs.

Separate figures released by the Department for Transport show potholes contributed to the deaths or serious injury of 390 cyclists over the past decade. The toll of four cyclists dead and 60 seriously injured in 2016 was the worst since 2007.

But the amount paid out by councils for pothole-related damage has slumped by almost 80 per cent in less than a decade. Just £7.3 million was paid out last year – down from £35.2 million in 2009. Town halls spend far more (£21 million) processing the claims.

Councils claim they are paying out so little in damages because they have made it easier for drivers to report potholes – and have become more efficient at fixing them.

But according to motoring groups, they have also become more adept at avoiding paying compensation. Section 58 of the Highways Act 1980 allows a council or highways agency to defend claims on the basis that they had taken reasonable measures to ensure that problems such as potholes are found and dealt with swiftly.

The FoI figures show that of 995 claims about potholes logged against Kent council in the past two years, 342 were turned down on the grounds they were scheduled for repair ‘within a reasonable time’. A spokesman told the Mail: ‘In simple terms (the council) is not liable to pay compensation if it is not aware of the problem nor liable if the problem is programmed to be fixed.’

Mr King said: ‘The state of local roads is appalling and getting worse. Potholes appearing more quickly than daffodils in spring are causing considerable damage to vehicles and are a fatal threat to the safety of those on two wheels.

‘But drivers can be forgiven for thinking the system is rigged against them as they try and recoup the costs for new tyres.’

Councils are also able to rely on more relaxed government guidelines regarding pothole repairs.

Previous Highways Authority rules required that potholes deeper than 40mm – around 1.5in, or about the diameter of a golf ball – should be automatically repaired. But new guidelines in 2016 set 40mm as the level at which potholes are investigated, with councils then deciding whether to make repairs.

The Local Government Association said: ‘The LGA has been calling on the Government to reinvest a portion of existing fuel duty into local road maintenance which would generate much-needed funding for councils.’

‘System is rigged against drivers’