Moray Council revealed as kings of the road for pothole actions

Potholes – Moray faced less than £1000 in damages claims

Councillors in Moray have been revealed to have been ahead of the game in Scotland by taking early action to make repairs to roads riddled with potholes.

And that, according to a recent national study into the costs of damages claims from motorists, has saved the local authority thousands of pounds.

While neighbouring Aberdeenshire paid out over £43,000 resulting from insurance claims from motorists over the last five years, in Moray the bill over the same period has been just £905.69.

Throughout Scotland the bill for councils was £2.7million with Glasgow accounting for around half the payments made. The figures have been revealed by a study conducted by the Scottish Conservatives, who are calling for a ‘pothole fund’ to be created by the Scottish Government.

However, such a fund would have no great need in Moray where the deputy chair of the infrastructure service committee, Councillor Gordon Cowie, said that the local authority had “clicked early” that repairing potholes as soon as possible would make savings in the long run.

Other parts of the country have not been so quick and that has resulted in heavy bills with Renfrewshire facing the second highest insurance payouts at just short of £200,000.

The Scottish Conservative transport spokesman, Alex Johnstone, said: “A pothole fund would be a major step forward in helping Councils to finally get our roads up to a better standard to benefit motorists across the country.”

In a recent answers to a Freedom of Information requests, it was revealed that insurance claims because of damage by potholes in Moray fell dramatically from 76 in 2010/2011 to just 12 the following year. Moray made an investment of over £3million in resurfacing and patchwork on roads in the region in 2012/2013 and a little under £3million the following year.

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