Claims for property damaged on Cambridgeshire roads double over past five years

The number of claims for property damaged on Cambridgeshire roads has doubled over the past five years. The number of claims submitted reached a five-year high between April 2023 and March 2024, according to data from a Freedom of Information request.

In the year from the beginning of April 2019 to the end of March 2020, 841 claims for property damage regarding highways defects were submitted to Cambridgeshire County Council. Between April 2023 and March 2024, that figure more than doubled to 1,779.

People can submit claims to the county council if they think defects on highways maintained by the authority have caused personal injury or damage to vehicles. Claimants must include information about the date, time, and location of the incident, as well as details of the injury or damage sustained.

Claims can either be accepted or refuted by the county council and the amount of compensation can vary. The number of claims for property damage settled by the authority also increased from 267 in 2019-20 to 426 in 2023-24.

Settling claims for property damage on the highways cost the county council £353,697 between April 2019 and March 2024, with the 2023-24 year seeing a five-year high of £102,889 spent. The average payment for a claim has decreased from £340.37 in 2019-20 to £241.52 in 2023-24.

One driver, who did not want to use his name, said he made a claim to the county council after his tyre was punctured after he hit a pothole in early 2023. It cost him about £140 to repair and his claim for property damage was rejected – but the pothole he hit had been fixed about a week later.

The number of personal injury claims submitted has remained relatively static over the past five years to April 2019, with approximately 56 claims made per year – the total amount spent on settling claims in the same period was £373,709. The average payment has decreased from £13,655.82 in 2019-20, when 11 claims were settled, to £18,708 in 2023-24, when 10 claims were settled.

A Cambridgeshire County Council spokesperson said: “It is important to assess each claim on its own merits, as we’re dealing with taxpayers’ money. As a general rule, the council would be liable for compensation if we have failed to meet specific duties as set out in the Highways Act around maintaining the public highway.

Most of the property damage claims are in relation to potholes and damage to cars. This is due to many factors such as the deterioration of our roads, extreme weather and soil affected roads, which are all having an impact.

“We know how important our roads are which is why we identify defects and repair them as quickly as we can. We’re also investing £43m over the next two years into highways, this includes delivering improvements which both repair and prevent potholes.”