A Merseyside council has revealed it potentially has to pay £250,000 excess every time someone makes a claim against the local authority after hitting a pothole or damaging their car on the road.

Wirral Council has awarded a contract for the next three years for surface dressing and microsurfacing works in the borough. This contract has been awarded to make sure the council is still delivering on its statutory duties under the Highways Act 1980.

According to an officer report published by the local authority on November 24, Kiely Bros Ltd was seen as the most advantageous firm to go with. The contract is estimated to cost around £13.5m.

The decision to approve a new contractor was given the go ahead by councillors on March 11, 2025 with the average value of the contract being £4.5m a year. The money for the contract will be funded through Liverpool City Region Combined Authority funding up until 2029.

Section 41 of the Highways Act 1980 imposes a duty on the council as the highway authority to maintain highways. The council also has a devolved duty to maintain and improve those parts of Liverpool’s City Region’s key route network that are within Wirral.

If the council did not award the contract, the report said the council would be unable to carry out a planned programme of works to fix roads in the borough. Officers said this could have resulted in damaging the council’s reputation.

The report added: “Failure to procure the contract would lead to a deterioration of the network condition, which could have an adverse effect not only on the number of claims against the council, but the defensibility of those claims and potential cost implications. Insurance-related claims come with an excess of £250,000 payable by the council.”

In March 2025, a grand total of £7,084,835 was expected to be spent on highways, footways, and bridges following additional pothole funding of £1.7m. A total of £160,000 was to be spent on Duke Street bridge and the council produced a list of roads it believes most urgently need work.

This list was subject to change. Baskerville and Dawstone Road in Heswall were later included on the list of roads being resurfaced after concerns were raised by those living on it.

At an enviornment committee on December 2, councillors will receive an update on the programme. A report published before the meeting said the council’s surfacing and surface dressing programme was finished covering more than 50km of roads.

Footway surface treatments are still ongoing and are now around 85% complete while footway schems are now half finished.

The report said: “Spend is always a little behind actual works, but 80% of the budget has been either spent or committed with works in progress and we are well on target to complete our planned programme this financial year”