SuffolkNews reveals the number of successful highways insurance claims to Suffolk County Council covering potholes

Making a claim over road defects such as potholes has been described as a ‘waste of time’ after figures for Suffolk reveal just under six per cent were successful last year.

A total of 221 highways insurance claims were made to Suffolk County Council (SCC), the highways authority, for incidents in 2022, but only 13 were successful and saw payouts, according to data provided to the Bury Free Press using Freedom of Information. The previous year saw 400 claims and 43 payouts – 10.75 per cent.

Great Barton resident Adrian Graves, who ran his own consulting practice for more than 40 years that specialised in areas including transport and infrastructure, last month called for an urgent and transparent review of the highways and infrastructure maintenance system across Suffolk.

He said the number of highways insurance claims was probably ‘but a fraction’ of the actual incidents and experiences of road users ‘because they have come to realise that trying to make a claim and pursue it with Suffolk County Council is an utter total waste of time’.

He said: “If only 10 per cent of claims have been met then that says the bar is absolutely set at an unrealistic and unacceptable level and that leads on to the huge number of people that have experienced tyre damage, wheel damage etc but who gave up trying to pursue legitimate recompense.”

He had looked into making a claim for a tyre blowout caused by a pothole near Rougham about a year ago, but decided not to pursue it as he says the response he got from SCC was ‘so dismissive’.

Mother-of-two Karleigh Francis has been trying to pursue a claim after hitting potholes in Great Barton, near Bury St Edmunds, wrote off her car, an incident that ‘ruined’ the family’s Easter and left her out of pocket by about £1,000.

Birmingham-based Karleigh, who used insurance money to help pay for a new car, had contacted SCC via email, but has been told to go through the formal claims process and provide the necessary evidence.

According to the SCC website, claimants must contact customer services who will send out a leaflet.

Karleigh, who had already provided SCC with images of the potholes and damage to her car and evidence of the value of her written-off car, said: “What more do they need for evidence?” She said her insurance costs would rise significantly when it came to renewal if SCC did not take responsibility.

Speaking of the low number of successful claims, she said: “It’s awful. It’s not fair really.”

What does Suffolk Highways say in response?

Suffolk Highways said while an incident may take place on the highway due to a pothole or other issue, this did not necessarily mean that Suffolk County Council was liable.

The spokesperson said: “The council is only liable to pay compensation if evidence is submitted that shows that we have been negligent in our inspections, maintenance, or repairs of the roads.

“We are working to repair the roads as quickly as we can, following a challenging wintry season.

“This involves bringing in additional resource to help us repair potholes quicker and starting on our annual surface dressing and resurfacing programme.

“The Highways Act 1980 (specifically section 58), provides all local highway authorities with a statutory defence to defend claims for damage or injury caused by highway defects, including potholes. This defence can be used providing the local highway authority took reasonable steps to maintain the highway.”

The figures provided to us also show there have been 211 highways insurance claims this year so far, for incidents up to May 8, of which 26 – 12.3 per cent - were successful.

The data is in relation to all damage and injury for carriageway surface defects, potholes, verge defects and edge of carriageway defects.

Payments made could include compensation, claimant legal costs and defence legal costs.

We also obtained the number of road defects identified that meet the intervention criteria over the past three years: 18,789 in 2021, 14,289 in 2022 and 8214 in 2023 up to May 15.

For each year, a higher number than has been identified have been repaired due to non-intervention defects in the immediate vicinity also being tackled.