Potholes

Five thousand motorists and other road users are claiming a total of £10 million in compensation for injuries and damage allegedly caused by potholed roads in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire.

Figures obtained by Inside Out using the Freedom of Information Act show that over the last two years, 20 councils have paid out £1 million damages.

Claims for a further £9m, including some cases involving serious injury, are pending.

Poor state of repair

Inside Out's investigation revealed that some roads are now in such a poor state of repair that they subject motorists to vibration levels that would be illegal in the workplace.

The programme team fitted an accelerometer designed to measure vibration to the driver's seat of a Ford Focus as presenter Morland Sanders drove down the rutted surface of Clarendon Road in Leeds.

Expert Simon Bull, of the safety assessment company Castle Group said:

"If you were exposed to these sort of readings for a living, your employer would have to do something about it. That's the law."

Alan Parsons, from Barnsley, bought David Beckham's 150mph BMW X5, but a pothole outside the Rother Valley Country Park damaged the wheel and tyre so badly that repairs cost £450.

"The council promised they'd resurface the road but it just hasn't happened," he said.

His compensation claim is still outstanding.

Bigger bills in long run

Statistics released by local councils reveal that fewer than one in 10 damage claims have been settled without dispute.

But Inside Out discovered this policy can lead to a bigger bill for the councils in the long run.

Cyclist Jason Bottomley fell off his bike after he hit a pothole on a road near Huddersfield.

His right ear was almost severed and his racing cycle was badly damaged.

Although he only claimed £250 to cover the cost of repairs, the council refused to pay out.

When he involved a solicitor, he won £6,000 for personal injuries as well as the repair bill.

Jason says, "I would have been happy with the £250 but it became a bit personal."

Bad state of repair

The AA's Edmund King says:

"As the roads get worse and worse, people are claiming compensation and quite rightly so.

"Now we're in a spiral of decline as the more people claim, the more councils have got to pay out and the less they have to spend on repairs."

The local councils responded after Freedom of Information requests were made by Inside Out.

Each local authority was asked for the number of claims made against them from claimants alleging damage to vehicles or personal injury due to damaged or defective road surfaces.

The following table summarises the statistics for damage and injuries made to councils in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire over a period of two and a half years.

Damage/injury caused by defective roads - value of claims made to councils in Yorks/Lincs (1 January 2004 and 1 July 2006)
Area	Claims (paid, unpaid and pending)	Value (paid, unpaid and pending)	Value (paid)
Lincolnshire	626	£802,000	£52,000
Hull	27	£7,736	£2,736
Doncaster	191	£915,923	£19,444
Barnsley	134	£39,494	£13,609
East Riding	284	£335,668	£39,237
Kirklees	415	£686,169	£124,076
Leeds	1066	£2,825,808*	£225,808
North Yorkshire	426	£366,848	£70,025
Sheffield	343	£232,209	£19,559
Bradford	342	£978,938	£118,790
Highways Agency	7	Not known	NK
Calderdale	414	£1,264,459	£218,733
Rotherham	87	£19,592	£1,261.84
York	179	£111,870	£15,387
Scarborough	38	£66,010	£122
North Lincs	252	£1,719,709	£51,710
TOTAL	4,831	£10, 372,433	£972,498

*This figure includes an approximation of the value of claims that were unpaid by Leeds City Council in 2004/2005 and 2005/2006.

This figure represents the total value of claims received by Leeds City Council.

Leeds' response

In response to our report, a Leeds City Council spokeswoman, said:

"We are committed to providing roads in good repair and that is why we are investing an additional £45million into local road maintenance over the seven years from 2004 to address the backlog of repairs that have built up over a number of years...

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Source: bbc.co.uk