Cash-strapped Scots councils fork out £2million in pothole compensation payouts

By CLAIRE ELLIOT, SCOTTISH GENERAL NEWS REPORTER Published: 20:16, 15 May 2026 | Updated: 20:16, 15 May 2026 Scotland's pothole epidemic has cost councils more than £2million in compensation payouts in the last five years. New figures show that since 2020/21 more than 18,600 motorists have lodged claims for vehicle damage caused by the country’s poor roads. Critics last night blamed the ‘eye watering spend’ on ‘savage SNP cuts to council budgets’ that has left authorities unable to fix ‘crumbing roads’. It comes just weeks after it was claimed that potholes had left parts of Scotland looking like a ‘third world country’. Of the 25 councils which provided figures, Highland Council paid out the highest amount - £579,160 - equating to more than a quarter of Scotland’s total for almost 1,500 claims. The area attracts thousands of visitors from the UK and abroad each year and received more than 2,000 claims in total over the five years, though not all were successful. Scottish Conservative finance spokesman Craig Hoy MSP said: ‘Savage SNP cuts to council budgets are to blame for this eyewatering spend on pothole compensation claims. Cash-strapped councils just don’t have the cash to properly repair Scotland’s crumbling roads.’ He added: ‘Hard-pressed motorists should be compensated when their car is damaged by a pothole, but this could be avoided if the SNP adopted our common-sense plan for kerb-to-kerb resurfacing. According to new figures, more than 18,600 motorists have lodged claims for vehicle damage caused by potholes in the last five years  ‘Alongside our National Pothole Action Fund this would help to properly repair local roads, rather than them being ignored or cheap patch-up jobs being carried out.’ The figures obtained by the BBC using freedom of information laws revealed that councils paid out more than £2million. But that amount is likely to be much higher as complete data was only provided by 25 out of the 32 Scottish councils. Dumfries and Galloway Council also shelled out more than half-a-million pounds - £514,187 - for 1,482 of the 3,158 claims received. Aberdeenshire Council was another to pay out a six figure sum, forking out almost £140,000, while Edinburgh City Council paid out £47,921 for 154 claims out of more than 2,600 it received. Orkney Islands Council had the lowest total compensation bill of £727. The figures come as Scotland’s councils face increasing pressures to balance the books, with some introducing inflation-busting tax hikes for the new financial year. Cosla, the umbrella body which represents all of Scotland’s local authorities, said councils were ‘committed to keeping roads for which they are responsible safe and carry out critical maintenance where necessary’. But a spokesman added: ‘After another year of flat cash capital settlement, council finances are under intense pressure which has an impact on local authorities’ capital programmes and revenue spend.  'This means that the funding needed to meet the high standards and efficiency for essential services, including road maintenance, must go even further and councils need to juggle competing priorities. ‘This will inevitably have consequences which councils do their best to minimise for their communities.’ A spokesman for the Scottish Government said: ‘The Scottish Budget 2026/27 provides record funding of £15.7billion to local authorities, including £250million of unrestricted general revenue grant. ‘It is for individual local authorities to allocate the total resources that are available to them on the basis of local needs and priorities.’ No comments have so far been submitted. Why not be the first to send us your thoughts, or debate this issue live on our message boards. By posting your comment you agree to our house rules. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual We will automatically post your comment and a link to the news story to your Facebook timeline at the same time it is posted on MailOnline. To do this we will link your MailOnline account with your Facebook account. We’ll ask you to confirm this for your first post to Facebook. You can choose on each post whether you would like it to be posted to Facebook. Your details from Facebook will be used to provide you with tailored content, marketing and ads in line with our Privacy Policy.