Pothole damage claim - February 2024 - Find a freedom of information request

On Sunday 11th February, 2024, my car struck a pothole in Lincolnshire causing £210 worth of damage. Lincolnshire county council admitted knowledge of the pothole and it that was their responsibility to repair that pothole. Notwithstanding this, LCC chose to defend the request to make a reparation payment which subsequently ended up in the county court at Derby on the 10th March, 2025.



1. I require the full cost to the taxpayer used by Lincolnshire County Council in defending the claim for £210.



This includes the cost of administrating my initial claim through the fix my street web site, the total number of hours used by Jack Berry and his team defending the claim and the financial costs incurred for that. This will also includes the cost of his line manager and any other person in the legal team that had any involvement in this claim. It includes the witness time used and the financial costs incurred in relation to their time spent on answering queries from both the legal team and the FOI team (in relation to this request and also ref 9689929). It will include the time spent on this request and the previous request to the FOI team (ref 9689929).

The cost will include the total number of hours used by the barrister representing LCC. The cost will include all expense claims made by the barrister and the witnesses that attended at Derby County Court and any other ancillary costs used by LCC in defending this claim.

1. The total legal costs of defending the claim are £2,405.61.

Lincolnshire County Council do not record the time and costs of the witnesses involved and so this information cannot be provided.

Please note that it is Lincolnshire County Council's policy to defend all pothole claims where there is a positive defence.