1. In the last financial year (2019/20)
a) how much money was paid as compensation for property damage and personal injury caused by potholes (please include legal expenses), and
(b) how many individual claims did this represent?
a) £180,571
b) 176 claims
2. Please tell me the value of the biggest claim settled in 2019/20, and the location of the pothole that caused the incident. Please provide a brief description of the incident (e.g. cyclist fell off bike going over pothole and broke their leg). If possible, please break up the cost of the claim between compensation paid and legal expenses.
The highest compensation payout in that financial year was £10,000 with the claimant’s legal fees an additional £3,384.
To provide a description of the incident would risk identifying the individual(s) concerned and disclosing their personal data. This would be a breach of the first data protection principle and this information is therefore exempt from disclosure pursuant to s.40(2) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000
3. How many potholes did you repair in (a) 2018/19 and (b) 2019/20?
| Year | Number of Pothole repairs |
| 2018 | 72338 |
| 2019 | 50309 |
| 2020 | 60,202 |
4. What was your budget spend on repairing potholes in (a) 2018/19 and (b) 2019/20?
There is no specific budget for fixing potholes, this is an element of the Highway Safety Defect Budget allocated by financial year.
2018/19 & 2019/20 = £5.25m each year
For further information on Highway Safety Inspections is detailed in the Highway Safety Policy
5. Do you have a current estimate for the cost to your authority of repairing an average pothole? If so how much is this estimate?
The current estimated cost in 2020/21 is £80 per pothole, however this may vary considerably on individual potholes due to issues such as traffic management and traffic sensitive streets requiring out of hours works
6. Please provide me with any figure you have for the number of potholes that require repair as of the date of this e-mail, or nearest convenient date.
There were 1594 potholes with our contractor for repair on 26th March 2021
7. (a) What was your budget for the repair of potholes in the 2020/21 financial year? (b) Please provide me with a current estimate of how much over or under budget you expect to be at the end of the financial year in relation to your spend from your pothole repair budget for 2020/21?
As per our response to question 4, however the annual budget was £5.6m and this overspent by approximately £100k (final figures not yet confirmed)