Spiralling compensation claims from road users are eating up nearly all the extra money local authorities have received for road maintenance in the last year, according to the Annual Local Authority Road Maintenance (ALARM) Survey.
The report claimed that across England, the number of claims against local authorities has doubled in the last ten years, with English local authorities paying out £85m in claims last year, a 50% rise on the previous year.
Jim Crick, chairman of the Asphalt Industry Alliance, which conducted the ALARM survey, said the £85m claims bill could be the tip of the iceberg as it does not include the staff and administration costs of dealing with the claims.
“Each local authority is spending over 400 working days a year defending or dealing with claims, an increase of 75% on the previous year,” said Crick.
“Averaged out, this is almost equivalent to two full-time solicitors sitting in each local authority throughout the country spending all their time dealing with compensation claims relating solely to the state of the road network. Now, 230 full-time solicitors won’t come cheap.
He added: “Local councillors must wake up and see that by not allocating adequate funds for road maintenance they are throwing taxpayers’ hard-earned money down a pothole of ever-increasing compensation claims.
