Highways experts are drawing up revised guidelines to assist local authorities facing spiralling compensation claims from road-users and pedestrians.
The group – comprised of the UK Roads Board, CSS (County Surveyors’ Society), and the Institution of Civil Engineers municipal expert panel – aims to help councils reduce the amount paid out in highway claims, which is said to be between £100M and £500M a year.
The guidelines include advice on safe and durable highways design, regular safety checks and maintenance programmes, and legal training for staff on how to best minimise costs.
Matthew Lugg, chair of the UK Roads Board and the CSS engineering committee, said the first guidelines in 11 years provided authorities with the very latest advice and notification of changes in legislation.
‘It is essential that local authorities are aware of the importance of following the “well maintained highways” approach – if maintenance is cut back to below code standards, then liability cases will be harder to defend, and funding set aside for highway maintenance will be lost to expenditure on lawyers and compensation.’
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