Less than 15% of pothole compensation claims are being paid out by Flintshire County Council

One claim every 11 minutes is being made against UK councils across Great Britain for damage caused to their vehicles by potholes in the last financial year.

Almost 50,000 drivers made claims against councils across Great Britain a new report by the RAC has found.

The total value of successful claims was £3.2 million last year however, councils are refusing to pay out the majority of claims, across Britain the average number of claims councils do pay out on is around 23%

Council’s in Wales appear even less likely to offer any compensation with only 18% of claims paid out across Wales last year, in Flintshire the number is even lower at 15% -the average payout though last year was £286

The average administration cost of each claim – successful or not – was £147.

The number of claims received by Flintshire County Council (FCC) for damage to vehicles caused by pot holes on the counties roads in 2014 was 55 – just seven of those claims submitted were successful, in the previous two financial years FCC has paid £3500 out to road users for pothole damage to vehicle’s.

The total value of successful claims across the whole of Britain was £3.2 million.

A Welsh Government report, published in December said Flintshire had the best roads in Wales in terms of condition, while Wrexham’s has the worst roads out of all the 22 Welsh councils, a statistic reflected to a degree in the RAC data (below) – it shows Wrexham received the most compensation claims in north Wales, and fourth overall with 92 claims last year, paying out on a slightly more generous 21.2% claims vs Flintshire.

Professor Stephen Glaister, director of the RAC Foundation, said:

“These figures are likely to be the tip of the iceberg. Many drivers will be put off by the time involved in claiming against a council, and many councils do their best to deter claimants coming forward.

“But the fundamental problem lies not at the doors of our town halls but with central government.  Despite occasional one-off grants related to periods of harsh weather, they are simply not giving councils enough money to keep their road networks up to scratch.”

Flintshire County Council are currently undertaking £1.8m worth of road surface improvements to 40 roads across Flintshire including the current work on Shotton Lane. 

You can report any potholes or poor road surfaces through an interactive mapping tool: here