Stirling Council pays out more than £4,000 in three years to drivers for cars damaged by potholes

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Fewer than 11 per cent of claims to Stirling Council for compensation for damage caused to vehicles by potholes have been successful in the last three years, according to latest statistics.Since 2020, the council has received 157 claims for expenses incurred as a result of damaged vehicles on the region’s crumbling roads.

Of the number of claims received since then, just 17 have been successful, with a total of £4,369.75 paid out from the public purse.Stirling Council publishes its figures for claims received and settlements paid out for each financial year, dating back to 2014/15.Since then, a total of more than £22,750 has been shelled out to motorists, with 99 claims being settled out of 564 received.So far in the 2022/23 financial year to date, 17 claims have been received, with just two successfully settled.

A total of £637.37 has been paid to drivers.In the 2016/17 financial year, the council received 20 claims, all of which were rejected.Payouts peaked in 2017/18, when £8670.26 coughed up for 37 successful claims.

A further 84 claims were rejected.Click here for more news and sport from the Stirling area.A Stirling Council spokesperson this week told the Observer: “Each claim the council receives is considered on an individual basis and goes through the appropriate channels, with liability assessed in accordance with appropriate legislation.“Stirling Council has responsibility for maintaining more than 1000km of roads, with more than £4.5million allocated to road and footway infrastructure in the 2022/23 financial year.“We would ask members of the public who spot a road defect to report it via our website.”The Scottish Conservatives had submitted Freedom of Information (FoI) requests to all of Scotland’s councils.