Oxfordshire County Council has paid out £350,920 in personal injury compensation over the last year.

There were 135 personal injury claims submitted to the council from April 2022 to April 2023.

Amongst the leading causes were falls over carriageway potholes and uneven footways.

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The figures were uncovered after LegalExpert.co.uk submitted a Freedom of Information request to the local authority.

Oxfordshire County Council has 13 teams out repairing the roads each day working within the funding the council has available. 

More than 30,000 defects were repaired in the last year financial year.

The county council is responsible for maintaining the local highway network in Oxfordshire, but not the trunk and motorway network which is managed by National Highways.

Councillor Andrew Gant, Oxfordshire County Council’s Cabinet member for highways management, said: “We are being very proactive to repair roads within the funding we have available but we are in the same position as every council in the country – we are not given enough grant funding for this work by the government and that has been the case for many years now.

"The government needs to deal with this issue and give councils more help.

“Our highways teams work very hard in all weathers and conditions to maintain the 3,000 miles of road for which we are responsible.

"They also work hard to manage 2,000 miles of footway, 1,200 bridges, 400,000 highway trees and 80,000 streetlights.

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“Every council in the country could do with more assistance from central government in doing this work but there is absolutely no shortage of effort and intent locally to do a good job.

"The period straight after winter is always the most difficult and we allocate resource with that in mind. 

"In weather conditions that we have experienced, potholes can appear very quickly. 

"We are prioritising those which pose the greatest safety concerns first. We will work very hard to repair potholes in coming weeks and months as we always do.”

Recently a national survey for the Asphalt Industry Alliance Annual Local Authority Road Maintenance (ALARM) survey said that local authority highway teams in England and Wales only received around two-thirds of what they need from central government for highway maintenance and that £14 billion – £68,000 for every mile of local road nationally – is now needed to fix the backlog of carriageway repairs.

The council encourages members of the public to report potholes using www.fixmystreet.com.

People can also log on to the Oxfordshire County Council website www.oxfordshire.gov.uk to access Fix My Street and report potholes.