Potholes and ‘claims culture’ blamed for insurance spike

The deteriorating state of the roads and a “claims culture” has been blamed for the escalating cost of claims for slips and trips, which so far this year have cost a Yorkshire council more than £600,000.

Hull Council has paid out £611,000 for insurance claims for injuries and damage to car tyres to date over the year to April, more than a third up over last year’s £381,000 and still significantly up on £492,000 paid out in 2010-11.

Coun Martin Mancey, portfolio holder for transport, said the trunk roads leading into Hull, the A63 and Castle Street, which are the responsibility of the Highways Agency, were “in the worst condition” he could remember, while roads within the city, maintained by the council, were in a poorer state than they had been 10 years previously.

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He is urging taxpayers to support organisations like the AA, which is campaigning for more funding for roads maintenance.

Coun Mancey said: “While I cannot defend the state of roads in the city I cannot, unfortunately, give any assurances that they will be restored to the condition motorists rightly deserve and expect.”

He said the council needed £8 million for resurfacing to maintain the status quo, but only had been given £2.3m.

Every pound paid out in insurance was a pound which could have been spent filling a pothole, he said.

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He said: “(The upward trend in claims) is partly due to the fact that the state of the roads is deteriorating, because we haven’t got enough money for the status quo, and partly to the claims culture.”

Although the cost of claims has leapt, the number of road defects reported to the council is on the decrease, down to 5,642 last year.

Coun Mancey said this probably reflected the council now taking a different approach to potholes, examining the surrounding areas, as well as the pothole, and resurfacing where necessary.

The AA said: “The simple fact of the matter is that the chickens are coming home to roost.

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“Prior to the bad winters we‘ve had over the past five years there simply wasn’t enough investment in roads to maintain them properly.

“Consequently what we keep on seeing is that these potholes get filled in, then they open up again and it becomes a big money-wasting merry-go-round.”

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