Pothole drivers claim £2m of Derbyshire council's cash over just one year

Derbyshire residents have claimed more than £2 million for damage to their vehicles caused by potholes this year with some waiting many months for resolutions. In a year that has seen several storms batter the UK with wind, rain and subsequent flooding, Derbyshire motorists have filed a significant increase in compensation claims relating to pothole damage caused to their vehicles.

During 2024, up to the end of October, a total of 3,240 claims were filed to Derbyshire County Council for a combined total of £2.016 million, a Freedom of Information request has shown. This is more than triple the number of claims and double the amount requested in the previous complete year, with November and December requests still to come for 2024.

So far around half of this year’s requests have been processed (1,754) with the council paying out £277,561 in compensation. In 2023 there were 1,020 claims filed for a combined request of £976,554, with the council paying out £115,187 (11.8 per cent of requested amount).

This too was a significant increase on the previous year, but it has now been dwarfed by 2024’s figures. In 2022 there were just 341 claims for pothole compensation for a total request of £121,644 with £33,709 paid out to motorists (27.7 per cent).

The figures show that four claimants from 2022 have yet to have their claims resolved, followed by 39 from 2023. In October, the Local Democracy Reporting Service spoke to Alvaston motorist John Tagg who reported nearly £600 in damage to his Mercedes C220 AMG Sport Plus after driving through a flooded pothole in Littlewell Lane, Stanton, on March 28.

He has yet to receive a response to his compensation claim, filed in April, eight months on. Meanwhile, the council’s phoneline for pothole compensation claimants continues to carry an automated message telling people not to call due to high levels of demand caused by “unprecedented storms and very heavy rainfall”.

A spokesperson for Derbyshire County Council said: “We have to look carefully at each application we receive for compensation, given this is public money, with some cases being very complex, and apply the same criteria for every claim, so that we are fair to all applicants. As we noted in an open letter near the start of the year, last winter was particularly challenging with significant storm and flood damage as well as freezes and record rainfall. This sadly caused significant damage to our roads.

“This then has meant that we have had more applications for compensation, which is comparable to other previous bad winters like the Beast from the East last decade – though it is difficult to exactly compare given price changes. We are doing everything we can to fix as many potholes as possible, and are looking at a variety of innovations, like new materials and machinery to repair potholes.

“We have also been carrying out lots of resurfacing work, prioritising areas where we know potholes are a particular problem with the aim of not having to return to hotspots – as far as we can stretch the funding we receive, which has been less this year so far than previously. Given the increasing extreme and poor weather, as well as historic underinvestment which goes back decades, we do need more funding to pay for more road maintenance to stop potholes appearing in the first place, so we continue to work hard in raising Derbyshire’s case and lobbying Government and the East Midlands Mayor on this issue for long-term and increased highway investment.”

Claire Ward, East Midlands Mayor, had pledged in this year’s inaugural election to “secure better quality road restructuring and hold councils to account for fixing them”. In September, Cllr Charlotte Cupit, highways cabinet member, had called on central Government to increase funding for potholes and other road repairs.

The authority said it received an extra £8 million from the government in 2023-24 to fix potholes but had only received a £6m top-up for 2024-25. Last December, council leader Cllr Barry Lewis had said the Government’s (then led by the Conservatives) funding for potholes and highway repairs “doesn’t touch the sides of the issue for counties”, saying: “Unless we get our network in order we’ll continue to have to use the sticking plaster and patching approach as far as it gets us – not very.”

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