BRITAIN'S CRUMBLING ROADS: Drivers claim for pothole damage 'every 17 MINUTES'
BRITAIN’S roads are crumbling so badly that drivers make a claim for pothole damage every 17 minutes, the RAC Foundation revealed yesterday.
The poor condition of British roads is resulting in very high damage claim numbers
In the last financial year drivers made at least 31,483 claims against councils for vehicle damage caused by poor road conditions.
The total was 9 per cent up on the previous year, said the analysis of data from 204 out of Great Britain’s 207 local authorities.
Motorists claimed for damage including punctures, wrecked wheels and broken axles.
Tens of thousands of claims around pothole damage were made last year
But councils paid out only in one in four cases, with the average pay-out worth £306, substantially less than the £432 average claim.
These figures are symptomatic of the inadequate funding available for local road maintenance
The councils with the most claims were Hampshire, Surrey and Hertfordshire while in Scotland Glasgow received the most.
The only council in Great Britain to receive no claims for vehicle damage caused by potholes in 2015/16 was the Isles of Scilly while Orkney and the City of London received just one claim each.
Government fund should be able to fix four million potholes
Councils have only paid out for around a quarter of the claims
Earlier this year the Asphalt Industry Alliance put the cost of getting all roads in England and Wales up to scratch at £11.8billion and said it would take 14 years.
RAC Foundation director Steve Gooding said: “These figures are symptomatic of the inadequate funding available for local road maintenance.
“A pitted road surface isn’t just a problem for motorists – for those on two wheels it can be life threatening.”