Scots roads are the worst by miles for potholes, says car insurer

Published on Monday 6 April 2009 21:42

HALF of the worst ten areas of Britain for car damage caused by potholes are in Scotland, according to an analysis of claims handled by an insurer.

And Ayrshire is named today as Britain's pothole capital, according to Warranty Direct.

The firm said more than one in seven of its policy holders there had made claims for axle and suspension failures.

Renfrewshire was in third position, with Angus – which includes Dundee –fourth, Aberdeenshire – including Aberdeen – sixth and Lanarkshire – including Glasgow – ninth.

Midlothian – including Edinburgh – was in 12th place.

The figures were compiled from claims made by Warranty Direct's 50,000 policy holders over the past eight years.

Motoring groups blamed council spending cuts for the results. A former Scottish local authority roads worker whose fiance's car suffered 100 damage from a pothole said the state of the roads was deteriorating.

Ormonde Fyfe, who worked on roads in the Borders for 30 years, said: "Scotland's roads are getting into a diabolical state. Too much money is being diverted into maintaining motorways rather than other roads.

"The A68, one of the main roads in the Borders, is in a horrendous state."

Mr Fyfe said Gertrude Rushton had hit a pothole while driving her Honda Jazz on the A721 near Kilncadzow, between Carluke and Carnwath in Lanarkshire, last month.

He said: "She could not avoid it because of the amount of traffic on the road. There was a loud crack and she knew the pothole had caused serious damage."

Neil Greig, director of policy and research for the Institute of Advanced Motorists' Motoring Trust, said: "There is very little official data on the problem, but minor rural roads tend to be in the worst condition. This report just highlights the huge backlog in road maintenance."

Philip Gomm, a spokesman for the Royal Automobile Club Foundation, said increased road maintenance spending benefited everyone in the long term.

He said: "We all know councils are under considerable financial pressure, but failing to fix potholes is a false-economy.

"If ignored, a damaged road surface very quickly gets to a point where it cannot be repaired and has to be completely replaced – at much greater expense.

"Motorists already pay a significant amount of money through fuel duty and road tax for the privilege of driving. They should not have to tolerate bad roads which increase their costs even further."

The Convention of Scottish Local Authorities, whose members are responsible for non-trunk roads, admitted the problem would take years to solve.

A spokesman said: "Councils do their utmost to tackle the problem of the condition of Scotland's roads in a planned, strategic long-term way.

"We acknowledge there is a real problem and the difficulty of catching up. The bottom line is this is a long-term problem that requires a long-term solution. It will not and cannot be resolved overnight."

A report by Audit Scotland, the public spending watchdog, three years ago, calculated it would take 1.5 billion to bring the country's non-trunk roads up to standard.

It said extra money had been provided by ministers to help tackle the problem, but noted that spending had fallen sharply during the mid 1990s and was still struggling to catch up.

Duncan McClure Fisher, managing director of Warranty Direct, said: "It's incredible how clear a north-south divide these figures appear to show. Whether this is due to colder weather causing more northern roads to crack, or just poor maintenance, it seems to underline a clear difference in the condition of highways across the country."