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08
May
Pothole payouts fuel concerns about state of Harrogate district roads
New figures obtained by the Stray Ferret have revealed North Yorkshire Council pays out more in pothole claims on roads in the Harrogate district than everywhere else combined.
We submitted a freedom of information request to the council asking how many insurance claims it has received over the last five years for vehicles damaged by the state of the road surface.
We also asked how much the local authority, which is responsible for highways, has paid out.
To get a comparison, we asked for the figures to be broken down into the council's seven highways areas, which are: Richmond, Thirsk, Whitby, Pickering, Skipton, Boroughbridge and Selby.
Boroughbridge, where the council’s Area 6 highways team is based, covers the former Harrogate district, which includes Harrogate, Ripon, Knaresborough, Pateley Bridge, Boroughbridge and Masham.
The figures reveal there were 442 insurance claims for damage on Harrogate district roads from 2021 to 2025. The total for the other six areas combined was 462.
The amount paid out for claims in the Harrogate district over the same period was £48,013, compared with £33,107 for the other six areas combined, which is 45% higher.
Just £1,835 was paid out in Richmond, where only 54 claims were made. The next highest after the Harrogate district was Thirsk, where 122 claims led to payouts of £13,838.
The council said it disagreed with the suggestion that roads in the Harrogate district were worse than everywhere else and the figures were explained by the area being “the most urban in the county”.
According to figures on the council’s website, North Yorkshire had a population of 604,900 in 2016. Harrogate has 75,070 residents and Scarborough 52,100.
Martin Mann, chief executive of Harrogate District Chamber of Commerce, expressed concerns that the state of roads in the Harrogate district was damaging businesses.
Mr Mann said:
Whilst we understand that Harrogate is a more urban area than most, we are still very aware of the infrastructure requiring more maintenance and repairs appear to be few and far between.
It is also concerning that both the Victoria Avenue £1 million investment is still awaiting the ‘snaggings’ to be completed over six months after completion, and the new crossing on Wetherby Road has already been patched.
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