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Councils 'face large pothole payouts'

New figures obtained by the Scottish Conservatives have revealed that councils in Scotland have given out around £1.8 million in compensation to motorists who have damaged their cars due to road potholes.

The figures were uncovered through a Freedom of Information request by the Conservatives and cover the past five years.

Between 2006/07 and 2010/11, local authorities handed out £1,738,966 in compensation for pothole damage, which the party said was "astonishing". It warned that the seven-figure bill was "just the tip of the iceberg".

Glasgow City Council, the largest authority in Scotland, topped the payout list with £355,530 given out alone.

In 2007/08 the city council dished out around £20,000 to drivers, but in recent years this has seen a sharp increase, with the most expensive year in 2010/11 seeing over £197,000 paid out. In comparison, Edinburgh City Council paid out £188,331 in five years, with £21,964 in 2010/11 and around £78,000 in 2006/07.

A spokeswoman for Transport Scotland said: "We will continue to maintain and safely operate our trunk roads and motorways with an extensive programme of works, investing a total of £700 million over the spending review period."

Copyright Press Association 2012

Funnily enough, by a cycling outfit.

What is funny about that? Cyclists are much more likely yo be injured as a result of hitting a pothole that is a motorist

Yes, but over the years many people of a general anti-car bent have praised potholes as a kind of "natural traffic calming".

See, for example, here, and here.

That rather presupposes that cyclists are generally "of an anti car bent" which is not substantiated.


Interesting but don't councils have a duty to keep the road in safe condition for all road users?

It isn't just potholes that show maintenance failure on the part of councils. Some of the road marking are also in an awful state, e.g. centre white line markings and edge of road continuous white line. On some of the roads I drive these are virtually non existent in some places which I think greatly benefit from them. I for one find these markings useful specially in bad driving conditions and more so on unknown roads. These are basic road safety measures and failure to keep them in good order is bound to result in problems.