Drivers win £127,000 in roads compensation

Apr 10 2008 By Graham Fraser

SOUTH Lanarkshire Council has paid out more than £120,000 in compensation over the past five years to motorists whose vehicles were damaged by road defects in the area.

A recent investigation found the authority paid out £127,522.99 to drivers — the third highest figure in Scotland.

Only Edinburgh City Council, who paid a staggering £637,947, and Aberdeen City Council (£196,580) had higher compensation payments.

Neighbouring North Lanarkshire Council, meanwhile, coughed up £101,221.

The survey asked each of Scotland’s 32 local authorities how much they paid to the public in compensation due to claims arising from road defects.

Glasgow City Council were the only authority who were unable to provide figures.

A 47-year-old driver from the Strathaven area, who has had his vehicle damaged on the A723 in the past, commented: “It is a lot of money but it is not a horrendous figure over a five-year period. My main concern is cars need to be damaged before anything is done about a road and when potholes are filled there appears to be very little monitoring to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

A spokesperson for South Lanarkshire Council said: “We have a carriageway network in excess of 2200 kilometres.

“A high proportion of our rural roads were poorly constructed and not built to carry today’s traffic volumes and loads.

“In addition, much of our urban network was built within a relatively short time span and is requiring attention at the same time, so a figure of just above £25k per annum does not seem high.

“We have robust inspection regimes in place to identify carriageway defects.

“For claims to be successful, any claimant must prove the council has been at fault by either not implementing an appropriate inspection programme or have failed to respond to complaints about road defects within a reasonable timescale.

“The council has allocated funding well above our Grant Aided Expenditure allocation from government for road maintenance and has now identified improvements to the road network as one of our top priorities under the Council Plan for 2007 until 2011.”