Nearly £500,000 was spent fixing potholes across East Lothian last year – a drop of more than 10% on the previous year’s bill.
East Lothian Council has revealed it spent £485,120 repairing 5,358 potholes on county roads last year.
However it revealed that despite the thousands of road defects only 47 claims for compensation were made by drivers who struck them.
The latest repair bill for the roads was revealed after an Environmental Information Request was submitted by the Local Democracy Reporting Service.
It revealed that in 2019/20 the cost of repairing potholes in the county was lower at £460,688 falling even further during the first year of Covid and lockdowns to £422,445.
In the year after lockdown in 2021/22 the cost rocketed to £597,110.
During that same year the council received 42 claims for damages from drivers who said their vehicles were damaged by potholes. Despite the number of claims it paid out less than £100.
At the time the council revealed it had hired an external claims assessor to handle bids for compensation, which vastly reduced the amount paid out.
Last year however it faced a higher bill, paying out £2719 for 47 claims.
By Marie Sharp Local Democracy Reporter
The Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) is a public service news agency. It is funded by the BBC, provided by the local news sector (in Edinburgh that is Reach plc (the publisher behind Edinburgh Live and The Daily Record) and used by many qualifying partners. Local Democracy Reporters cover news about top-tier local authorities and other public service organisations.
