Compensation claim payouts against Oxfordshire County Council by drivers who have hit a pothole have risen by 545 per cent in five years prompting claims that the roads crisis is not being controlled effectively.
In the calendar year 2025 the highways authority forked out a record £244,293 to drivers whose vehicle has been damaged from hitting a hole in the road, new data reveals.
It is a sharp rise from the 2021 figure of £37,889 and has been rising every year since. In 2022 it was £44,091, 2023 was £121,140 and 2024 was £164,450.
In total, the council has paid out £611,863 in the past five years.
Pothole near Wantage causing damage to cars (Image: Fix My Street)
Successful claims made have also been rising from 2021, too, by 524 per cent. Indeed, the number in 2021 was 153, but by last year that figure grew every year to reach 955.
Meanwhile, the number of claims received by the council from frustrated motorists was at 469 in 2021 and 1,918 in 2025 – slightly down from the timeframe’s peak in 2024 of 1,918.
Critics have questioned whether the council has got a grip of the pothole crisis while the council argues it is doing the best it can with the money available.
Leader of the Conservative group, Liam Walker, said the sharp rise raises “serious questions about whether the council still has control of the pothole situation”.
The west Oxfordshire councillor said: “When taxpayers are footing an ever-increasing bill for damage caused by our roads, it suggests the problem isn’t being tackled effectively enough.
“Conservative councillors put forward a £1.3 million budget amendment in February that would have fixed an extra 20,000 potholes per year but the Lib Dem administration with the support of Green and Labour councillors voted against our plan.”
Councillor Liam Walker next to a pothole (Image: Liam Walker)
James Robertshaw, a councillor and volunteer who marks up potholes around the Witney area, said he is “not happy” that after all his efforts, the potholes are not being repaired.
“There are only five inspectors to check the work , it is an appalling state of affairs and the contractor should be held to account,” he said.
Elliot Keck, campaigns director at the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “Taxpayers will be rightly furious to see a quarter of a million pounds of their money being paid out in pothole compensation.
“The fact that payouts have rocketed six fold in just four years is a damning indictment of the council’s road maintenance strategy.
“Residents pay sky-high council tax and expect safe, functional roads in return, not a cycle of vehicle damage and payouts.
“Oxfordshire County Council needs to stop throwing money down the drain and start filling in potholes.”
Oxfordshire County Council in 2025 spent around £3.4m fixing 29,135 potholes.
Drivers reported 30,020, but workmen tasked with fixing potholes are also encouraged to fix potholes they see.
In the first two months of this year, the council has spent £693,500 repairing 5,548 potholes but 8,142 have been reported. These figures can change.
A spokesman for Oxfordshire County Council said the state of the roads is “very much a national problem” and is not confined to the Oxon’s roads.
He said figures for 2021 and 2022 are “looked upon as an exception nationwide” due to the impact of Covid and there being fewer cars on the roads due to lockdowns.
“That goes in some way to explain the increase from 2023 onwards,” he said.
Andrew Gant, Cabinet member for Transport Management at Oxfordshire County Council (Image: Oxfordshire County Council)
Andrew Gant, Oxfordshire County Council’s cabinet member for transport management, added that the authority does “the best we can with the funding available” to fix the roads.
“We have been dramatically increasing the number of crews out repairing potholes this winter, following a sharp rise caused by the weather,” he said.
“And we will shortly be starting our annual resurfacing and surface dressing programmes, aimed at extending the life of more than a million square metres of carriageway.”
Research by the Asphalt Industry Alliance suggests councils are now looking at a record £18.62bn backlog of repairs in England and Wales.
RAC head of policy Simon Williams said: “As drivers testify, decades of underinvestment have left many roads in a woeful state of disrepair – something that’s been even more noticeable since the beginning of the year with our teams receiving hundreds of breakdown reports every day mentioning potholes. “
Mr Williams said it “isn’t complicated” to get roads better.
He said: “Ensure water always drains off the roads, fix potholes as permanently as possible, seal roads against water ingress through preventative maintenance, and resurface those that have gone beyond the point of no return.