Road to ruin: £2.7m paid in pothole compensation

COUNCILS IN Tayside, Fife and Forth Valley have spent more than £350,000 compensating drivers whose cars have been damaged by potholes over the past five years.

Across Scotland £1,600 ispaid out every day in compensation to drivers for pothole damage, figures released yesterday by the Scottish Conservatives show.

In 2012/13 drivers received compensation of £584,745, bringing the five-year total up to more than £2.7 million.

In Courier Country, Perth and Kinross Council paid out the most compensation — £80,329 — over the five-year period.

Fife Council paid out £31,957 over five years, while Dundee’s total bill came to £63,639.

AngusCouncilpaidout£33,183 todrivers in compensation, while Falkirk and Stirling Councils had to hand over £58,493 and £49,701 respectively.

Clackmannanshire Council paid out just £3,364 — but the bill for some councilsoverthefive-yearperiodstretchedto six-figures, with Edinburgh, Glasgow, South Lanarkshire and Renfrewshire all paying in excess of £100,000.

In Renfrewshire Council’s case, the five-year bill ran to nearly £250,000, with the local authority paying out total compensation of £235,936 — the largest amount of all Scotland’s 32 local authorities.

The statistics were obtained by the Scottish Conservatives through a Freedom of Information request.

The party’s transport spokesman, Alex Johnstone, said: “The state of roads both in the city and the countryside are a matter of real concern for motorists.

“We need to make sure surfaces are kept in good condition, because investment in that would very much reduce the cash paid out in future.

“The true damage caused by potholes is likely to be far higher than this, because many drivers can’t face going through the official channels to try and recoup the money paid for repairs.

“Perhaps if the Scottish Government took more of a lead in properly investing in our road network and supporting motorists, it would encourage more councils to do the same.

“Only when the overall standard of roads areimprovedwillweseethesecompensation figures come down,” he added.

The Convention of Scottish Local Authorities development, economy and sustainability spokesman Councillor Stephen Hagan said: “The bottom line is that in the modern world we now occupy, there is far more of a compensation culture and people are often actively encouraged to pursue claims but councils only pay compensation when instructed to do so by their lawyers. To suggest we pay it willy-nilly would be wrong and misleading.

“There is no doubt councils have been actively addressing the general condition of roads across Scotland despite reduced budgets over the last few years through the implementation of road asset management plans,” he added.

The Scottish Conservatives say investment is badly needed.