Claims for damages caused on a highway

If you are making a claim for personal injury or for damages to a vehicle or other property, you need to use our claim form.  

Before you use the form, you will need to identify some details of the defect/pothole which caused your incident. See below list of information needed in order to complete the claims form.

Log your incident and get a unique reference number for the claim form.

• Report a pothole or other issue with a road or pavement
• If any issues present an immediate danger, call us on 0300 123 5020 during working hours or out of working hours on 0300 123 5025.

Information needed to complete the claims form

• incident date and locations details
• police incident number (if reported)
• witness name and contact details (if appropriate)
• details of resulting medical appointment attended (if appropriate)
• supporting documentation, such as photographs must be taken by claimant not obtained by a third party. Damage must be of the Highway defect/pothole with identifiable landmark to support the subsequent claims inspection by Cheshire East Council

Read our Highways Claim Privacy Notice for information on what we record and retain from filling in the form.

Do not put yourself in danger to get the evidence for your claim.

If you want to talk to us about another person’s case, you must ask the person to write to us saying they are happy for us to talk to you.

Email: redclaims@cheshireeast.gov.uk

Post: Cheshire East Highways Risk Team
Floor 6
Delamere House
Delamere Street
Crewe
CW1 2LL

Our process for dealing with compensation claims will be the same whether you make the claim directly or through a third party. If you appoint a third party to act on your behalf, we’ll communicate with them directly. The Citizens’ Advice Bureau can give independent advice at no cost.

We’ll either investigate your claim ourselves or pass it to our insurer to investigate. We might ask you to meet one of our representatives at the site of the incident.

Our investigation will include any information you gave us if you reported the incident separately.

Once we have looked at all the evidence, our claims handlers will then assess whether we are liable. They will write to you to tell you the outcome of your claim.

The claims handler will start investigating once they have received all the information they need.

As the Highways Authority for Cheshire East, we are responsible for most roads and footpaths in the borough. But some roads in Cheshire East are the responsibility of other organisations, such as the Highways Agency. Problems with road conditions might also be caused by contractors working on our behalf, or for another organisation or private individual.

If we aren’t responsible for the road concerned, we will either refer your claim to the party responsible, or give you their contact details (where possible).

We don’t have a formal appeal procedure. We make all decisions in accordance with our duties under the Highways Act. If we decide not to offer compensation and you want to question or challenge the decision, you must contact the claims handlers using the contact details on their letter to you. We are unable to process appeals through our complaints process.

We check all claims to prevent fraud. If you have made any similar claims, you must tell us about these when you make your claim.

The personal information you provide will be used by us and insurers for the purposes of insurance administration and claims handling. It might also be shared with other third parties in relation to claims handling and fraud and crime prevention.

We might also need to disclose your personal information to regulatory bodies in connection with compliance with any regulatory rules or codes. These bodies include the Claims and Underwriting Exchange (CUE) run by Insurance Database Ltd (IDSL), and the Motor Insurers Anti-Fraud Register run by the ABI. In dealing with a claim, we might search these and other registers.

Your personal information might also be used for statistical purposes.

For any of these purposes, your personal information may be transferred to any country, including those outside the European Economic Area.

Following the Ministry of Justice reforms relating to personal injury claims not exceeding £25,000 in damages, all such legally represented claims for incidents occurring on or after 31 July 2013 must be submitted via the Claims Portal.

Our appointed claims handling agents for Public Liability claims are:

For incidents occurring 31 July 2013 to 31 March 2014 – Public Liability

Topmark Claims Management Limited
160 Bath Street
Glasgow
G2 4TB

Phone: 0141 331 6831

You should direct your claims via the Portal to Topmark under their organisation ID D00073.

For incidents occurring 1 April 2014 onwards – Public Liability

Gallagher Bassett International Limited
Level 4
Compass House
Rose Wharf
East Street
Leeds
LS9 8EE

Phone: 0113 246 2000

You should direct your claims via the Portal to Gallagher Bassett under their organisation ID D00019.