West Sussex man takes council to court over pothole damage – and wins

David Butcher, of Seaview Avenue in East Preston, issued a formal compensation request after his car struck a pothole on the A24 in Worthing last May.

His formal account of the incident read: "On Monday, May 8, 2023 I was travelling with my wife southbound on the A24, going round the bends shortly before the Worthing Crematorium, when the front near side wheel of my car caught in the rut in the middle of the dual carriageway where the road surface was disintegrating over a continuous stretch of approximately 100 metres.

"Although West Sussex County Council knew that these potholes provided a very real threat of damage to property and a very real threat to driver and passenger safety, the sheer number of blow outs reported, proves that inadequate warnings were given.

"WSCC negligently failed to minimise the risk of damage to property or threat to driver and passenger safety, by imposing temporary lane restrictions or temporary speed limits, pending repair of the potholes. The defects should have been coned off until repair.

"I believe the damage to my vehicle was wholly attributable to the negligence of WSCC and that they should therefore reimburse the cost of repair, including the court costs that I have had to incur.”

Mr Butcher said it was ‘regrettably hard to imagine’ how the council ‘could have made it more difficult to make such a claim’.

He said he received a letter stating that it was ‘considered unlikely’ his claim would be successful as the county council relies upon a ‘statutory defence against claims of this nature’ – and the majority of claims are ‘therefore unsuccessful’.

‘After 11 months of fighting’, Mr Butcher was told West Sussex County Council had accepted liability for the £458.58 worth of pothole damage.

He received ‘full compensation’ on the morning of April 10.

"Forget what they tell you about how unlikely you are to be paid, it is just not true,” Mr Butcher wrote on social media.

"On numerous occasions there were alleged inspections which failed to notice potholes sufficiently bad to cause a subsequent blowout.

"If you know of anyone who has sustained pothole damage on the A24 Southbound in the past 18 months or more please let them know it is highly likely that they will be able to claim for all their damage. I have done so. I hope they succeed too."

West Sussex County Council has since issued a statement to this newspaper.

A spokesperson said: “We are concerned to hear of any accident. We have paid Mr Butcher’s compensation and apologise for his inconvenience.

“Beyond this, we cannot comment on details of specific claims, so the following are general comments about our approach to highway maintenance and legal obligations.

“We take the maintenance and repair of roads in West Sussex very seriously and have a duty to take reasonable steps to maintain our highway network. Claims for damage are processed in the order they’re received, with every effort made to consider them fairly and on their own merit. Where public funds are being used to settle claims, we must ensure approved claims meet the criteria and clearly evidence that the council had been negligent or breached its statutory duty to maintain the highway.

“We inspect our roads and pavements on a programmed basis in line with national guidance and carry out repairs according to a published set of criteria. The decision on liability is based on the facts of each case, and the law. We also inform all claimants that Section 58 of the Highways Act 1980 allows us a defence if we can show that reasonable steps were taken to maintain the highway.”

Mr Butcher said he was ‘just relieved to get it all sorted’, adding: “It's frustrating that they went to such lengths to avoid paying what they should have done.

“I had £458.58 paid to me and they paid the legal costs on top of that so £585.58 in total.

"The road was deteriorating for months but there were ‘no actionable defects found’. My Freedom of Information request showed guidelines were out of date so they go and change it. It beggars belief really.

"Councils are required to keep the road to a reasonable standard. Having a major pothole on the middle of a major road with bends is dangerous and shouldn't be allowed to happen.”

In a separate statement, the county council explained how staff are ‘currently tackling the pothole issue’.

A spokesperson said: “In the last few years, West Sussex and many other parts of the country have experienced more extreme weather events, resulting in heat-damaged roads, wide-scale flooding, wind damage and an increase in the number of potholes being reported. The county council has approved an additional £4million to support highway maintenance activities.

“We are also investing an additional £7million of capital funding this financial year, increasing our resurfacing and treatments programme to more than £20million.

"A further £10million will be committed for 2025/26 to continue the work needed to provide a resilient highways network for the county.

"We have approximately 25 highway officers identifying safety defects, both through routine inspections and by responding to customer reports. We have approximately 20 repair teams dealing with safety defects and are looking to bring in more contractor teams to bolster these numbers.

"In more rural areas, we are also using three Velocity road patchers to help tackle the volume of safety defects on the network.”