Kirklees pothole damage claims up more than 220 per cent since 2021
Kirklees Borough Council has spent more than £5.2 million on pothole repairs in the last three years (2022-24), according to research by Accident Claims Advice that used Freedom of Information (FOI) requests.
The council has also seen a rise in the number of compensation claims lodged against it for damage caused by potholes in the last three years.
Accident Claims Advice's investigation indicated that claims against the council for pothole damage have increased by 220 per cent since 2021.
572 legal claims were lodged against it regarding potholes in the last three years, with the figure increasing from 92 claims in 2022 to 294 last year.
As well as the £5.2 million spent on pothole repairs in the period, the council paid out a further £13,000 in compensation claims, according to Accident Claims Advice.
According to Accident Claims Advice, Kirklees Council confirmed it has 479 potholes in need of repair.
Also according to Accident Claims Advice, in 2024, the council settled a record number of claims, paying out £7,966 in compensation for 28 pothole claims.
Accident Claims Advice's public liability specialist, Beverly Faulkner, said: "Councils and local authorities have a duty of care to ensure the safety of people using public spaces, such as parks, highways, and footpaths.
"A crucial part of this is making sure the land under their control is properly maintained.
"Failing to do this can put people at risk.
"The damage caused by potholes can be catastrophic, leading to serious injury and/or costly vehicle damage.
"It is vital that roads are properly maintained and councils are held responsible for the roads they maintain."
More information about Accident Claims Advice is available at https://www.accidentclaimsadvice.org.uk/
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I've been caught by Britain's most prolific speed camera – it makes the road no safer
When careful motorist Norman Tate received a letter of intended prosecution for speeding, he could hardly believe it. It told the grandfather, who had had a clean driving licence for more than a quarter of a century before the incident last year, that he'd been caught doing 45mph in a 30mph zone in his Ford Mondeo by a speed camera on a busy junction on the A38 in Sutton-in-Ashfield, Nottinghamshire. 'I'm a straight-up person. My immediate thought was, 'I'm a senior citizen and don't do 45mph in a 30mph area,'' says Tate, now 80. 'I might creep over the limit by a few miles an hour, but not by that much. So I thought I'd investigate.' The chartered civil engineer, with experience of road and bridge design, analysed the signage along that stretch of road. He's concluded that it is 'not fit for purpose' – and argues that motorists should be given better warnings that they are about to enter a 30mph area. It is a view that others who have been caught by that speed camera share – and there are plenty of them. In fact, the little yellow box mounted on a pole is so prolific that it is said to be the 'most lucrative' speed camera in the country, according to a Channel 5 documentary due to be broadcast tonight at 8pm. Speed Cameras: Are They Out to Get You? says that one camera caught 17,498 speeding offences in nine months from when it was installed in August 2023 – at an average rate of 72 per day and potentially costing motorists more than £1.6 million. So, what, you might well ask, is going on with this camera in a Nottinghamshire market town to make it ranked the most prolific – and some claim the sneakiest – in the country? And what happens to all the money it generates? When we visit Sutton-in-Ashfield to meet Tate, from nearby Chesterfield, Derbyshire, he explains how, as you approach the camera from junction 28 of the M1, first there is a 70mph speed limit that suddenly turns to 50mph – with an average-speed camera overhead – then it goes to 30mph about 100 yards from the crossroads where the camera is. There is a 30mph sign as you approach on the dual carriageway and a smaller sign warning of the camera ahead and reminding you it's 30mph. But, Tate says: 'When I started looking into the signage, it became apparent that if there's a high-sided vehicle on the inside lane, there's no way you can see the 30mph sign. There is nothing on the road itself to say it's 30mph. I think there should be. It's too easy to think you're still in the 50mph zone.' Norman Tate | From Speed Cameras: Are They Out to Get You?, courtesy of Lion Television (When we stopped by at a busy 4pm, motorists appeared to be driving carefully, but it was hard to tell whether it was carefully enough – the camera uses infra-red light technology, which means it doesn't flash.) The figures in the documentary come from a survey by Legal Expert, a personal injury, compensation and accident claim solicitor company. To obtain them, the firm made a Freedom of Information (FOI) request to all 43 police forces in England and Wales asking for the number of speeding fines issued in the 12 months to April 5 2024, and the top 20 spots where drivers have been caught speeding. Only 23 replied. If the 17,498 figure for the camera on the A38 in Sutton-in-Ashfield is annualised, it would be 23,331, putting it ahead of the second-placed speed camera, which was on the M25 between junctions 7 and 16 in Surrey (21,989 offences, at a daily average of 60). 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Nottinghamshire Police has stressed to The Telegraph that 47 per cent of those offences were resolved with speed awareness courses as an alternative to prosecution, so no fines will have been paid for those. 'I don't disagree with having speed cameras,' Tate says, 'and this one is there doing the job it should be doing and is designed to do – if the signage was correct. This is a very dangerous junction and the camera is trying to save people's lives. But if there's 23,000 people a year going through there at the wrong speed, there's something wrong – and that's the signage.' His attempts to argue his case saw him locked in what he called a 'David and Goliath' battle with the authorities. In the end, after first electing to go to trial, he pleaded guilty to his speeding offence, committed at 11.09am on February 1 last year. 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