How much pothole compensation has Powys County Council paid?

Powys County Council paid out a whopping £61,592.39 in pothole vehicle damage and personal injuries claims caused by road defects over the past three years.

The figures were obtained by Legal Expert after submitting freedom of information requests to councils.

Meanwhile, pothole repairs across Welsh councils have cost almost £30 million in the last three years as reports reach over 100,000.

New data on the state of local roads across Wales reveals that local authorities are spending nearly £10 million annually on pothole repairs, while receiving well over 30,000 reports of road defects each year.

With over 75% of Welsh councils responding, the figures highlight a total of 106,573 potholes recorded, averaging over 35,000 reports annually between 2023/24 and 2025/26.

Legal Expert found that 17 councils across Wales spent a combined total of over £29.2 million on pothole repairs, across the three-year period.

Fixing potholes and maintaining roads is the responsibility of each region’s local council - and the approach and financial fallout vary wildly by region.

To combat the crumbling road infrastructure, responding Welsh councils spent a combined £29,233,724 on pothole repairs over the three-year period, which means a combined cost of almost £10 million per year.

While Powys have paid out compensation, they have no available data for specific pothole repair spending. Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion, Denbighshire, Swansea, and Wrexham also had no data. These councils noted that potholes are repaired as part of broader surfacing work, or that spending is not recorded separately from general maintenance budgets.

The data set provided covers 17 local authorities. Figures for Wales' remaining councils, including Cardiff, are not included.

These figures surface alongside a timely warning from the RAC, indicating that the pothole crisis is likely to worsen.