Potholes are set to cause half a million disruptions by 2024 so far, while AA says it has reached its highest number of calls in seven years

By Liam On Oct 7, 2024

The AA has attended almost half a million pothole-related breakdowns in the first nine months of 2024 – and Britain’s crumbling road epidemic is set to worsen due to heavy rain in recent weeks.

The emergency services alone responded to 480,000 calls from stranded motorists after hitting potholes between January and September.

Last month, patrols attended 50,244 incidents, an increase of 4 percent year-on-year and the highest record since 2017.

With the crisis expected to worsen in the remaining three months of the calendar following flooding across the country last month, the automotive group has called on the government to increase funding for permanent road repairs rather than providing ineffective patchwork solutions .

The AA says the number of breakdown-related car breakdowns has risen by 4% in the first nine months of the year – and worse is set to happen as temperatures start to drop after a spate of wet weather.

The AA, Britain’s largest breakdown service, says it has responded to 479,656 pothole-related breakdowns so far this year.

According to the monthly Pothole Index, this is 10,000 more than in the same period in 2023.

The latest update suggests that 2024 is on track to surpass last year’s total calls of 631,852, which was reportedly the highest in five years.

With the RAC – the second largest patrol – also attending around 8,000 pothole damage calls per quarter, more than 500,000 British motorists are likely to have fallen victim to the poor condition of the country’s road surfaces.

And there are fears that the recent spell of bad weather in Britain will worsen an already major problem.

After weeks of flooding the AA says that potholes are disguised as they fill with water.

Falling temperatures and increased rainfall will also increase the number of potholes, causing damage to tires, wheels, steering and suspension for those who can’t stay out of them.

Even more vulnerable are cyclists, with the AA claiming that as many as 118 deaths have occurred due to potholes in the past four years.

In March the Asphalt Industry Alliance (AIA) said it would take 11 years for local authorities to repair every crumbling road in England and Wales, up from nine years in 2022, and would cost as much as £16.43 billion.

The AIA’s ALARM (Annual Local Authority Road Maintenance) report also shows that 8,000 fewer kilometers of roads were classified as ‘good’ compared to last year – a decrease of 4 per cent.

The RAC had previously estimated that there were around a million potholes in Britain at any given time, with as many as 2.2 million repaired by 2023.

Transport Secretary Louise Haigh had pledged during Labour’s election campaign to reallocate £8.3 billion of available funding from the scrapped HS2 budget to tackle the pothole epidemic and “provide councils with long-term funding schemes so that roads for can be repaired in the long term’.

With the autumn budget looming this month, the AA has worked with the likes of British Cycling, the National Motorcyclists Council, road safety group IAM RoadSmart and JCB – which has developed a specialist PotholePro repair vehicle – to create what it calls the ‘Pothole Pro’ to form. Partnership’.

It warned that road users are ‘fed up’ with current conditions and called for a new wave of funding and guidance for local authorities to carry out necessary repairs and help them maintain good condition.

“(The government) has the opportunity to make an incremental change to the spiral of decline by adopting and advocating measures to permanently solve the problem, rather than the patchwork approach of the past,” said AA President Edmund King.

Last month, Ms Haigh declared war on potholes and vowed to use advanced repair technology to combat the ‘plague’.

During a visit to Blackpool, the Transport Secretary met with road workers and councilors to learn about high-definition imaging technology.

The city’s Project Amber program uses an advanced imaging system that takes high-definition photos of roads to detect potholes and collect data on areas most in need of repair.

It is hoped that similar systems can be replicated across the country.

Mrs Haigh said: ‘This country has suffered from a plague of pits for too long.

‘Blackpool Council is already doing fantastic work to make the most of new technology to fix potholes faster.

“This should be a model that every community can learn from and help deliver the roads their drivers deserve.”

How to claim pothole-related compensation: our five-step guide

1. Gather the evidence

If you are a motorist wanting to make a claim for a repair bill for damage related to a pothole, or a cyclist making a claim for damage or personal injury after hitting one, the first thing you should do is note where the pothole is located, the time and date of the incident, and take a photo of the pothole.

A hole must be at least 5 cm deep to be considered a hole in the eyes of the municipality.

And it’s not just the depth and size of the hole that municipalities will try to use to refuse to pay out compensation.

Local authorities can defend a claim if they successfully argue that the pothole did not pose an obvious hazard – or if they were unaware of it, despite having a reasonable system of inspection and repair.

To increase your chances of a successful claim, it is will help show whether the pothole was an obvious hazard or not.

Where possible, take photos on site, in case the council repairs the pothole before you can return to take them.

If you did not do this at the time of the incident, you can return to the scene to take photos.

You should also take a photo of the damage the pothole caused to your vehicle (or to your person, if you were injured).

If possible, take your car to a garage and ask for a written mechanic’s report for the expected costs to fix the problem caused. If your engine is no longer drivable, call a reputable repair center and ask for a quote.

2. Find out who is to blame

In order to claim compensation, you must first know who must pay for the damage.

If the pothole is on a motorway or main road, there is a good chance it is a National Highways (formerly Highways England) problem.

For local roads you must investigate which municipality is responsible.

Once you have identified the party you need to contact, request a copy of the highway maintenance schedules and the number of reported incidents on the road in question over the past 14 days as evidence that the road has not been properly maintained or that there is a pothole in the road surface. t addressed.

3. Make the claim

You will need to make a formal claim with your local authority or national highways authority and most responsible parties will have a template that you can request from them.

4. What to do if you do or do not receive a compensation offer

After you file the claim, you should be notified whether damages will be awarded.

Although you can still reject the value of the offer if you think it is not sufficient, especially if you have proof that the pothole has already been reported but the responsible party has not acted to correct the problem.

If the municipality refuses compensation, you can seek legal advice or take a case to court.

A word of caution, however, is that this can be a time-consuming process and is probably only worth it if the repair costs are significant.

5. Last option: File a claim through your insurance

If you have comprehensive coverage, you can claim the pothole damage on your insurance policy.

However, it’s worth considering the cost of the damage, your deductible and whether this action will affect your No Claims bonus.

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