Revealed: amount of compensation paid out for pothole-damaged vehicles in West Sussex

It says it has paid out a total of nearly £38,000 and has received 1,072 claims which, it says, are only settled if there is clear evidence that the council has been ‘negligent’ or breached its duty to maintain the county’s roads.

And it says it is now earmarking more funds to be spent on road repairs this year and next. It follows mounting anger among the public about the potholed state of roads in West Sussex.

A spokesperson said: “Claims for damage are processed in the order they’re received, with each being considered on its own merit.

“Where public funds are being used to settle claims, we must ensure that those claims being approved meet the criteria and clearly evidence that the council had been negligent or breached its statutory duty to maintain the highway.

“In the current financial year, we have paid £37,983.22 in compensation for repairs to vehicles following pothole damage as of March 20 2024. In the same time period, we have received 1,072 claims for compensation.

“In the last few years, we have experienced more extreme weather events resulting in heat damaged roads, wide-scale flooding, wind damage and an increase in the number of potholes being reported.

"The council has approved an additional £4 million as part of its revenue budget in 2024/25 to support highway maintenance activities and repairs. This additional budget helps to mitigate the continued pressures on the reactive services and allows for proactive activities to reinforce the road network against the impacts of extreme weather.

“Recognising the importance of road condition to our residents, the council is also investing an additional £7 million of capital funding in the next financial year which will increase our carriageway resurfacing and treatments programme to over £20 million, enabling us to deliver one of our largest programmes of works to date.

"A further £10 million has also been committed for 2025/26 to continue the work needed to provide a resilient highways network for the county.

“We regularly inspect the county's roads to identify potholes and other problems. The frequency of the inspections depends on the type of road. “We also encourage road users to report potholes to us online and when potholes are reported an inspector visits the site and decides on its repair depending on size, location and severity.”