Potty pot-hole culture has a cost for drivers

08 October 2008

Councils are paying out more in pothole compensation claims than they are spending on repairing roads, according to the Local Government Association, which is pressing for new legislation to curb no-win, no-fee claims.

The LGA said £53M was paid out to motorists in compensation claims last year – money which could have repaired 946,429 potholes, more than one-quarter of the estimated 3.5M potholes in English and Welsh roads.

Council staff also spent 40,801 days dealing with compensation claims, or the equivalent of 111 years.

David Sparks, chair of the LGA’s transport and regeneration board, said: ‘There’s a real fear that no-win, no-fee lawyers are clogging-up the system with spurious claims. Tightening the law would help put a stop to this. ‘These figures show the extent to which our efforts are being hampered by the compensation culture that exists nowadays.’

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