Pothole damage claims see council pay out thousands

A local authority has had to pay out almost £24,000 in three years to motorists who have had their cars damaged by potholes.

Despite that, the vast majority of such damage claims made to Worcestershire County Council were unsuccessful, according to figures from a Freedom of Information request.

They showed that 618 claims were made to the authority across the past three financial years, with only 22 resulting in compensation being paid.

"Most claims are unsuccessful because the council can demonstrate a statutory defence," a spokesperson said.

They said the authority had a duty to maintain roads that were open to public traffic, but that did not mean they were automatically liable for every instance of damage.

"Authorities can defend claims where they can show that roads were inspected and maintained in line with an approved, risk‑based inspection regime, and that any defects were identified and repaired within appropriate timescales," the spokesperson said.

The figures, obtained by the Local Democracy Reporting Service, showed a total of £23,860.26 was paid out by the council on the successful claims.

The data also revealed the road prompting most damage claims in the county over the past two years was Worcester Road in Ombersley.

A total of 25 claims have been made since April 2024 over the stretch of carriageway, which also notched up the highest number of claims in 2024/25 (10 claims) and 2025/26 (15 claims).

In 2023/24, however, Hewell Lane in Redditch had the record - with 12 claims.

Council leader Jo Monk said new highways chief Nik Price was ready to "transform" the authority's highways department, with fixing potholes a priority.

"I handed the running of highways over to our cabinet member for strategic DOGE so that he can really transform how the directorate operates, reviewing contracts, driving down costs and bringing in new technology to improve performance," she said.

"We've already visited JCB to try out their state-of-the-art machinery for repairing potholes."

This news was gathered by the Local Democracy Reporting Service which covers councils and other public service organisations.

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