Dumfries and Galloway Council has paid out a “vast sum” of more than £500,000 to drivers as a result of potholes in the last five years.
In total 61,196 potholes were reported to the council since 2017/18 of which 31,782 were repaired with £543,035 being paid out by the authority’s insurers.
The figures, revealed as part of a Freedom of Information request to the council from The Standard, have been criticised by motorists who say the compensation process is too convoluted.
Samantha Garden was driven up the wall after three separate run-ins with the council because of defects on the B723 Lockerbie to Annan road.
As a resulted she compiled a dossier of more than 700 potholes along the 10-mile stretch as part of her complaint to the council.
She said: “Those are shocking figures. I think the council make it impossible to claim as well. So many people I have spoken to either didn’t know they could put in a claim for damages or were so disheartened from having it refused that they gave up.”
There were 16,932 potholes reported to the local authority in the last financial year of which 7,423 were repaired.
On the compensation payments, independent councillor David Slater said: “It’s quite a vast sum of money, there’s no doubt about that.
“If the roads were in a better state you’d not have as many claims and then there wouldn’t be as much money paid out.
“It’s disappointing seeing our roads being listed as some of the poorest in Scotland.
“I’ll be perfectly honest I think over the years it looks as if there’s been a lack of general maintenance on roads and eventually it catches up with you and I think that’s what’s happened here.
“It’s going to take a long time to repair our roads to a reasonable standard. I think the estimate is something like £200 million to fix all of our roads which shows the size of the job.”
The local authority received 2,737 claims in five years of which 1,024 were paid out, a rate of 37 per cent.
In the last year just a quarter of the 827 claims were paid out (217) for a total of £86,295; 2021/22 saw 525 claims with 237 of them being paid for a total of £172,533, the highest in the five year period.
MSP Finlay Carson said: “There are cases of motorists being left thousands of pounds out of pocket when it comes to repairing their vehicles after they have clattered into a pothole.
“Apart from the cost of repairing tyres and alloy wheels, which isn’t cheap, there are often knock-on costs towards addressing steering issues.
“It is grossly unfair that drivers are expected to pick up the bill because the councils are unable to repair potholes.”
A council spokesperson said: “In February this year the council allocated more than £30 million of additional funding over the next five years and we are growing our team to be able to undertake more repair work and to fix more potholes.
“So while the council is making important additional investment it will still be necessary for us to carefully prioritise repair work to ensure we target the areas of greatest need.”
