THE poor state of roads across the Vale has meant the Vale Council is ranked the second-highest payer of compensation for road surfaces in the UK.

Figures obtained by insurance company LV = Road Rescue, through a freedom of information request, show the authority has paid more than £150,000 so far this year to drivers to compensate them for damage to their car caused by the roads.

LV = Road Rescue contacted the Vale Council in August this year about roads in 2012, 2013 and 2014, and figures show the authority had shelled out £152,045.28 to drivers in compensation due to the poor state of the roads in 2014.

Compensation payouts, for the same reasons, totalled £237,814.25 in 2013 and £34,605.53 in 2014.

The Vale Council said it spent £1.8m on resurfacing works in each of the three years with £51,312.71 allocated to fixing potholes in 2012, £40,028.13 in 2013 and £34,176.52 in 2014.

Drivers, the council stated, had lodged 176 compensation claims in 2012, 298 in 2013 and 148 so far in 2014 – due to damage to their cars as a result of the poor state of roads.

Pendoylan and Llancadle Roads were identified as having the most claims over a year - five each.

The council said, on average, a road was fully resurfaced every 72 years.

A Vale Council spokesman said: “The figure quoted is based on an FOI for all claims as a result of all carriageway defects. This definition covers a wide range of highway issues such as uneven road surfaces, water pooling, damaged or stolen manhole covers and damaged kerbs, in addition to just potholes.

“Claims for vehicular damage as a result of potholes submitted in 2013/14 amount to £18,295.04.

“In the same year the council filled in over 5,000 holes in roads across the Vale. Around 800 were what are officially classed as potholes - holes more than 90mm deep - and around 4,500 additional holes in roads were filled as part of The Big Fill campaign. In the last financial year the Vale of Glamorgan Council spent approximately £550k repairing our roads.”

Vale Council director of Visible Services, Miles Punter said: “Several bad winters have caused damage to Vale roads, as is the case across the country, and keeping up with the road surfacing and pothole problems is a great challenge for all councils. However, we know this is an important issue for our residents and so are doing a huge amount of work to tackle the problem. As part of The Big Fill campaign we now have our officers working on Saturdays and Sundays to fill holes and we have filled more than 5,000 in the last year alone."

Wiltshire Council ranked first for pothole compensation in 2013/14 having paid out £154,871.72 for 770 claims and Surrey County Council third with £134,304 for 3,024 claims.

Vale MP Alun Cairns said potholes were a very common problem raised on the doorstep.

He said: “People are weary of seeing yellow lines painted around what can be dangerous potholes just to protect the local authority. Some of the potholes are left untouched for up to a month and worsen rapidly – these timescales should be reviewed.

“The local authority has a more targeted operation maintaining our roads but with the weather turning, we could face the perfect storm of bad weather combined with more potholes forming and a bigger compensation bill for the authority.”

Managing director of LV= Road Rescue, Peter Horton said: “Persistently heavy rain and flooding earlier in the year created the perfect storm for Britain’s pothole epidemic. Councils therefore face difficult choices in the roads they prioritise for repair this winter.”

The Vale Council urged residents to report potholes via its website or by calling 01446 700111.