More than £350k of pothole claims

Lincolnshire County Council paid over £350,000 to drivers whose cars were damaged by potholes in 2018, it’s been revealed.

Between December 18 2017 and December 17 2018 the authority paid out £367,882.22 in compensation claims a Freedom of Information request has revealed.

Council officials are blaming last winter’s unusually cold weather creating more potholes than usual.

In July it was revealed that the council had received 23,438 complaints about potholes in the 12 months preceding June 1.

Over the same period a year earlier the number of pothole complaints was just 9,034.

Coun Richard Davies, Executive Member for Highways, said: “Last winter was one of the worst we’ve had in recent years, and as a result we saw an unusually high number of potholes form on the county’s roads.

“Even though we brought in additional repair crews, it understandably took us some time to fix the damage, and we have had to deal with a number of compensation claims as a result.

“Obviously, we would much rather to see that money going into our roads, which is why we do everything we can to repair potholes quickly. Dangerous defects are often dealt with within 24 hours, while more minor defects can take a few weeks.

“That way we can minimise the risk of any future compensation claims.”