A GROWING number of motorists have been claiming for pothole compensation in Carmarthenshire and Swansea, but they’re not getting any change from council legal teams.

Carmarthenshire Council received 33 pothole damage claims in 2017/18 compared to 15 the previous year. Swansea Council dealt with 76 claims in 2017/18, which was up from 50 the year before.

Neither council paid out a penny in pothole compensation in 2017/18. The details follow a Freedom of Information request, which also asked which road in the two counties gave rise to the most claims.

Swansea Council declined to provide an answer, and said: “The authority considers that disclosure would, or would be likely to prejudice the commercial interest as providing this information might invite new claims.”

Carmarthenshire Council said the A484, which runs from Swansea to Newcastle Emlyn and beyond, was the cause of the most pothole damage claims.

Heavy traffic combined with wet weather — particularly when water freezes, expands and thaws — causes potholes. Swansea Council maintains more than 600 miles of roads and has a Patch team dedicated to pothole repairs.

The Patch team operates on a rolling basis, with Llansamlet, Townhill, Cwmbwrla and Uplands in the frame for a visit this month. The authority said it fixed 8,750 road defects last year, including potholes, and filled in a further 625 potholes in April this year alone.

Resurfacing work on Fabian Way, which links the M4 with Swansea city centre and carries some 10,000 cars daily, was also completed last month.

The council has set aside £7.5 million for road maintenance and repairs for the current financial year. Councillor Mark Thomas, cabinet member for environment, said: “Like everywhere else in Wales, the winter combined with relentless traffic caused problems for our roads.

“That’s why our pothole repair team was out late in the evening on many days during the winter filling in the holes residents had reported to us. “In the first four months of this year the teams filled in more than 2,500 potholes alone, the busiest period we’ve experienced in a long time.”

In 2000 there were some 24 million licensed cars in Britain, compared to 31 million in 2017. Central Governments are responsible for maintaining motorways and many trunk roads, including the A40 and A48 in Carmarthenshire.

Concerns were raised in February this year by county councillor Alan Speake about the A48 following a spate of accidents, although the cause of the accidents was not clear. “The whole section of A48 should be investigated,” said Cllr Speake, who represents Carmarthen Town West, at the time.

The Welsh Government said the trunk road network was inspected regularly and that any safety-related defects were addressed as a priority.

Carmarthenshire Council, meanwhile, has an annual programme of planned work, consisting of road resurfacing and pavement revamps.

In 2017/18 the authority repaired 1,633 potholes. It also resurfaced and dressed nearly 50 miles of carriageway.