Council's pothole compensation nearly £200k

Lancashire County Council has paid out £194,000 in compensation to motorists whose vehicles have been damaged by potholes and other highway defects over the past three years.

The authority says it carries out routine inspections of the more than 4,000 miles of road in the county for which it is responsible, in order to defend itself against claims that it has failed to maintain the highway network adequately.

However, County Hall has still had to pay out in some cases brought against it.

The figures, obtained by the Local Democracy Reporting Service, show a recent peak in payouts of £77,918 in 2021/22. The total fell to £45,973 during 2022/23, before rising again to £70,265 last year, 2023/24.

It is not known how many individual claims were successful over the three-year period, nor the number that were lodged in total.

The compensation tally covers all types of carriageway defects, including damaged gullies and grid and manhole covers that have become raised from the road.

The frequency of road inspections is determined by the road type – with the highest priority routes checked monthly and others every three, six or 12 months, according to both classification and the type of traffic carried.

Councillor Rupert Swarbrick, cabinet member for highways and transport at Lancashire County Council, said the authority would need "upwards of £160m" just to address the backlog of repairs across its patch, which excludes Blackpool and Blackburn with Darwen.

He added:  "Lancashire's roads support more than 4.6 million journeys every day and maintaining 4,300 miles of road is a huge challenge.

"We understand that potholes are a major concern for all road users. That's why we've invested £17m of Lancashire County Council additional funding this year for safety defect repairs and highway maintenance.

"We've also recently announced that we would be investing a further £4.2m for permanent repairs across the county."

Listen to the best of BBC Radio Lancashire on Sounds and follow BBC Lancashire on Facebook, X and Instagram. You can also send story ideas to [email protected] and via Whatsapp to 0808 100 2230.