Pothole damage costs UK motorists £7.5bn a YEAR – and councils are rejecting most claims

A survey and Freedom of Information request by Halfords details the extent of road damage to cars in the UK, with councils not paying up.

We’ve always had potholes on roads, but in recent years, as local councils embarked on expensive ‘Green’ policies and ‘business’ ventures eating up funding, the state of our roads has now reached epidemic proportions, with drivers spending much of their time scanning the roads for holes.

Now, the extent of the damage, and the cost to motorists, has been revealed by Halfords thanks to a new survey and a Freedom of Information request.

According to Halfords, 45 per cent of motorists reported damage to their cars in the last 12 months caused by poorly repaired roads, with potholes alone accounting for £7.5bn of the total overall cost of £16bn, with the average pothole repair costing £922.

That’s bad enough and, you might have thought, councils would prioritise road repairs to save them from forking out for the damage caused. But it seems not.

Just £900,000 was paid out by councils in the last year for damage caused, but some councils were better than others in accepting blame.

The worst of the bunch was West Northants Council which received 849 claims and paid out on just one (yes, one) for a total of £148.48, with all but one council failing to pay up on 80 per cent of claims or more.  

The one outlier was Wiltshire Council which received 973 claims and paid out on 408, spending £95,292.48.

Graham Stapleton, Halfords CEO, said:

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.