![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/0_rbp_mai230323potholes14633JPG.jpg\")
Pothole claims have risen sharply(Image: WalesOnline\/Rob Browne)<\/p>\nThe RAC said the findings show it is ‘a huge task’ to keep roads at a respectable standard<\/p>\n
10:54, 30 Dec 2025Updated 13:26, 31 Dec 2025<\/p>\n
Pothole claims have risen sharply(Image: WalesOnline\/Rob Browne)<\/p>\n
A Welsh council turned down 99% of claims received in 2024, it has been revealed. The RAC submitted Freedom of Information Act requests to 207 councils across Wales, England, and Scotland finding that pothole compensation claims has risen significantly over three years.<\/p>\n
For 177 local authorities the claims jumped by 91% in just three years, from 27,731 in 2021 to 53,015 in 2024, data analysed by the car insurance and breakdown specialists revealed.<\/p>\n
And it found that Gloucestershire, Worcestershire, Medway, Carmarthenshire<\/a>, and Telford all turned down 99% of claims received in 2024 equating to totals of 534, 146, 142, 113, and 76 requests refused.<\/p>\n Bridgend County Borough Council says it paid out nine out of 54 claims, estimated to bee around 16%.<\/p>\n In Wales Wrexham<\/a> paid the most at \u00a32,026 for each of its 38 claims amounting to an estimated \u00a376,991 in total.<\/p>\n RAC<\/a> head of policy Simon Williams said: \u201cThe massive three-year rise in pothole compensation claims made by drivers shows what a huge task it is returning the roads to a respectable standard. But it\u2019s far from an even picture across the country with just a handful of councils receiving the lion\u2019s share of claims from beleaguered motorists.<\/p>\n \u201cDrivers are still suffering the consequences of years of neglect to Britain\u2019s local road network. But even if you submit a compensation claim the odds aren\u2019t good with around 40,000 requests for reimbursement turned down in 2024 alone.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd with some councils not responding to our request for data there\u2019s every chance that we\u2019re only seeing the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the claims that have been settled.<\/p>\n “But. positively, councils received slightly fewer pothole compensation claims in 2024 than they did they year before.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re now hopeful the dial will really begin to shift as highways authorities in England were this year given a record \u00a31.6bn by the [UK] Government for road maintenance.<\/p>\n “And for the first time they\u2019ve been required to show how much vital preventative maintenance they\u2019ll be carrying out to stop potholes forming in the first place.<\/p>\n \u201cOn top of this the [UK] Government has now announced multi-year settlements which will give councils the certainty they need to plan and deliver better maintenance programmes.<\/p>\n “This can only be a good thing.<\/p>\n \u201cSo while the figures we\u2019ve analysed are a cause for concern we hope pothole compensation claims will begin to decline as local authorities increase the amount of preventative surface dressing work on their roads.\u201d<\/p>\n Overall Derbyshire County Council reported the sharpest rise in claims increasing from 224 in 2021 to 3,307 (up 3,083) in 2024.<\/p>\n Glasgow City Council took second place, where claims more than doubled from 1,140 in 2021 to 2,794 in 2024 (up 1,654), with Oxfordshire County Council third with claims jumping from 488 in 2021 to 1,941 in 2024 (up 1,453).<\/p>\n Get daily breaking news<\/strong> updates on your phone by joining our WhatsApp community here<\/a>. We occasionally treat members to special offers, promotions and ads from us and our partners. See our Privacy Notice.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The RAC said the findings show it is ‘a huge task’ to keep roads at a respectable standard…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":665473,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[21132,51,1146,1229,760,16,15,18833],"class_list":{"0":"post-665472","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-bridgend","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-carmarthenshire","11":"tag-motors","12":"tag-traffic-and-travel","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-wrexham"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115816307498969317","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=665472"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665472\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/665473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=665472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=665472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=665472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}