Councils refusing to pay-up for pothole damage to cars

27 per cent of drivers suffered pothole damage costing £7.5bn in repairs last year according to a survey, but councils paid out less than £1m compensation

The UK’s pitted, potholed and poorly maintained roads damaged the cars of nearly half the nation’s drivers in the last 12 months according to a new survey. Of the 45 per cent who reported damage to their vehicle 27 per cent blamed potholes specifically for issue they experienced and said it cost an average of £922 to fix.

The total damages bill caused by poorly repaired roads amounts to an estimated £16bn, with £7.5bn attributed directly to pothole damage, according to a survey of 2,000 drivers carried out by Censuswide for Halfords.

However, a freedom of information request also made by Halfords reveals only a tiny proportion of drivers are receiving the compensation they should be entitled to from the councils responsible for maintaining roads in a safe and usable condition.

• Pothole claims: how to claim for pothole damage to your car

According to council responses, around £900,000 in compensation was paid out in the last 12 months, with one – West Northamptonshire – rejecting all but one of the 849 claims it received from drivers and paying out just £148 in the period. 

At the other end of the payout scale Wiltshire County Council covered the repair costs of 42 per cent of the claims it received. Nationally, says Halfords, only 13 per cent of claims receive any kind of payout.
“Motorists are literally paying for the Government’s lack of investment in our highways – at a time when few can afford it,” says Graham Stapleton, Halfords CEO.

“It’s not just about cost, it’s about safety, with nearly a quarter of motorists saying a pothole in the road has led to an accident or a near miss. Few things are more frightening than being presented with a huge pothole when travelling on a motorway at full speed – forcing drivers to make a split-second decision as to whether they can avoid it, or simply have to plough through it and hope for the best. And as the freedom of information request shows – even if they do make a claim, the chances of getting any compensation are minimal.”

Potholes cause a variety of damage to cars, but the most common incidents involve tyres at 46 per cent. Bent or cracked alloy wheels account for 25 per cent of issues, while 21 per cent of problems relate to windscreen damage and 20 per cent to brakes. Of the drivers reporting issues, 18 per cent also say the underside of their cars were damaged, with 9 per cent reporting chassis damage.

How much is your council paying out for pothole damage?

The table below shows the results of the freedom of information request made by Halfords. It gives details, from the councils who responded, of the amount paid out for damage to cars caused by road surfaces in poor condition in relation to the number of claims made. 

Council District/County Council	# of Requests for claims	# Claims Paid	Average £ paid out per claim	Total paid out	% Paid out
West Northamptonshire Council	849	1	£148.48	£148.48	0.12%
Worcestershire County Council	134	‘1-5’	/	£1,370.22*	1.87%*
Durham County Council	116	2	£164.39	£328.78	1.72%
East Riding of Yorkshire Council	126	3	£632.00	£1,896.00	2.38%
Dorset Council	239	4	£246.38	£985.52	1.67%
Gloucestershire County Council	602	10	£214.70	£2,147.00	1.66%
Herefordshire Council	223	17	£556.65	£9,463.05	7.62%
Nottinghamshire County Council	1,228	25	£399	£9,975.00	2.04%
Central Bedfordshire	748	27	£222.22	£5,999.94	3.61%
Cornwall Council	315	35	£237.86	£8,325.10	11.11%
SuffolkCounty Council	348	71	£222.35	£15,786.85	20.40%
Kent County Council	1645	86	£192	£16,512.00	5.23%
NorfolkCounty Council	471	98	£334.00	£32,732.00	20.81%
West Sussex County Council	1045	108	£299.88	£32,387.04	10.33%
Warwickshire County Council	422	114	£388.00	£44,232.00	27.01%
Westmorland and Furness Council	492	133	£310.72	£41,325.76	27.03%
Derbyshire County Council	471	150	£237.92	£35,688.00	31.85%
Hampshire County Council	1,212	152	£257.11	£39,080.72	12.54%
Hertfordshire County Council	1852	181	£352.81	£63,858.61	9.77%
East Sussex County Council	1805	196	£385.00	£75,460.00	10.86%
Lincolnshire County Council	1558	223	£207.12	£46,187.76	14.31%
Devon County Council	1,311	239	£192.00	£45,888.00	18.23%
Cambridgeshire County Council	1789	244	£271	£66,124.00	13.64%
Surrey County Council	3,354	257	£389.61	£100,129.77	7.66%
Staffordshire County Council	1867	258	£226.25	£58,372.50	13.82%
Oxfordshire County Council	1416	285	£203	£57,855.00	20.13%
Wiltshire Council	973	408	£233.56	£95,292.48	41.93%

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