The Welsh Government has paid out more than £1m in compensation to a motorist who was injured after driving over a pothole. The cost of the compensation was revealed through a freedom of information request.
The driver, who has not been named and was injured in 2018, fought a four-year court battle over the “pothole-caused personal injury”. And it was well worth the wait with the total payout amounting to £1,188,565.25, The Mirror reports.
The Welsh Government is responsible for maintaining large trunk roads in Wales while local authorities are responsible for all other roads. Authorities paying out significant sums in compensation over potholes isn’t uncommon. Last week it emerged that Cardiff council paid out £435,000 in just four years to May 2023.
Read more: Locals force council to fill in potholes by drawing penises around them
Figures from the freedom of information request show that the Welsh Government settled 11 claims for pothole-related damage to vehicles over the last five years. RAC head of roads policy Nicholas Lyes warned of a “perfect recipe” for potholes this year. “The wet weather we’ve had both before and after the coldest starts to winter in 12 years in December is the perfect recipe for potholes to start peppering the roads,” he said.
Welsh people sick of potholes near their homes have recently turned to innovative ways to draw attention to them. In north Carmarthenshire a group of disgruntled homeowners created a sign on a rural road between the villages of Brechfa and Pontynswen which reads: “Caution: Remove dentures, adjust bras, secure your nuts. Welcome to the worst maintained road in the county – courtesy of Carmarthenshire County Council.” In response the council pointed to a limited budget and cost pressures.
Residents in Dinas Powys told WalesOnline last month that potholes had become so bad in the village that they were filling them in themselves. Dinas resident Marilyn Godfrey said: “"The past three or four years it has been really bad and there was one lovely gentleman who was repairing potholes himself at the bottom of the hill. A resident was actually out with a bucket of tarmac and gravel trying to repair it himself."
Meanwhile Dan Munford has taken to using toy construction equipment to highlight the "frankly dangerous" potholes in Llanrhaeadr-ym-Mochnant in Powys. He said he wanted to shock the council into action and set up a miniature roadblock alongside a mini excavator, roller, and flatbed truck on the damaged roads near his house because they can't get the full-size ones to fill their potholes.
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