Council forks out £100,000 to drivers for pothole compensation in Milton Keynes

Milton Keynes City Council has spent more than £100,000 on compensating motorists for damage caused to their cars by potholes, a Freedom of Information request has revealed.

The cash has been forked out over the past two years, with the majority of it – £82,000 – paid in 2022.

Last year saw only £22,000 paid out.

Now opposition Conservative councillors in the city are calling for improved action to tackle potholes on city roads.Tory councillor and transport spokesperson Liam Andrews said: “The consistent disregard for taxpayers money by our Labour-led Council is clear for all to see.“We have called on the Council to take a more strategic approach to pothole repairs but we’ve seen no plan, and individual pothole repairs have fallen dramatically.”He added: “The Conservative Government has committed an additional £25million for our roads over 10 years, on top of existing funding, but Labour seem to be wasting it.“If the Council was more focused on getting the work done, residents wouldn’t have to go through the stress of getting their cars fixed and having to claim. And taxpayers money could actually be spent on the city’s priorities.”The Freedom of Information requests were made by two members of the public in February 2024 and April 2023.

Last month Labour and Lib Dem leaders on MK City Council announced that potholes on city roads were currently being filled at the rate of one every 12 minutes.

Their figures showed more than 15,000 potholes have been filled since the start of the council year. This means equivalent of 59 repairs per working day were carried out between April 2023 and March 2024.

Labour’s Cllr Jennifer Wilson-Marklew told the Citizen: "Our teams are out in all-weather, all year round working hard to reduce the impact on residents.”

She added: "We are not able to fix every pothole, but Milton Keynes has been recognised for having some of the best quality roads in the country and this is despite receiving less money from central government year on year.”

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