A MARLBOROUGH councillor has slammed Wiltshire Council, saying that it has wasted the £1.3m it was given under the government's pothole action fund and spent it on compensating motorists instead.

Coun Nick Fogg, who is concerned about the deteriorating state of Marlborough's roads, claims that the sum has been spent on compensating motorists whose vehicles have been damaged driving on the county's roads or who have suffered personal injury.

However, Philip Whitehead, Wiltshire Council's cabinet member for highways, hit back saying that Coun Fogg's statements are factually incorrect and that he is not comparing like with like in regards to time periods.

"It is an extraordinary revelation. The special sum supposedly allocated by the government to deal with dangerous potholes on highways, is exceeded by the sums that Wiltshire has had to pay out in compensation to road users over the previous four years," said Coun Fogg, who sent a freedom of information request to Wiltshire Council.

"The large sum paid out in compensation for personal injury is deeply disturbing. If this is repeated across all the local authorities in England and Wales it must mean that the state of our roads is a serious danger to public health and yet another serious drain on our beleaguered NHS.

"Of the £1,319,000 that was paid to the 3,451 applicants for compensation, as a result of damage to vehicles or person caused by faulty road surfaces, £450,000 related to damage to vehicles and £869,000 related to personal injury.”

In response, Coun Whitehead said: "The compensation paid over a three-year period comes to £1.319m. This has no direct link with various grants we receive from government for road maintenance.

"Yes the individual grant for repairing potholes in 2017-18 happens to be a similar figure, for the single year, but it was £866k in 2016-17, and none in 2015-16.

"We receive other grants for maintenance, which we have topped up to spend £21m on major maintenance each year for the last few years.

"And separate from this, we spend several million pounds each year on emptying road gullies, cutting verges, sweeping roads, cutting back trees, fixing street lights, and many other activities to keep our roads safe for the users.

"I agree that any money paid in compensation for damage by potholes is a waste of resource, but the reality is that our road network has suffered decades of neglect and under-investment, resulting in road conditions deteriorating in many areas.

"This is a national problem with a road funding mechanism which is no longer fit for purpose. In the last few years and have managed to reverse the trend and have removed more than £25m of the historic maintenance backlog.

"Of course roads have to compete with social care and other demands for funding. Despite this we will continue to look for ways of improving our roads, and make them safer for users."