DRIVERS whose vehicles have been damaged by hitting potholes have claimed more than £90,000 from Wiltshire Council in the last year alone – and the cost of repairing roads has totalled more than £1.6m.

Figures released by the authority show that since April 2017, 14,800 potholes have been repaired on Wiltshire roads and since the start of this financial year in April, £33,053.32 has been paid out to disgruntled drivers in compensation.

Pothole problems have become so bad that nearly half of drivers believe they have caused damage to their cars or vehicles.

Over a quarter of people polled by road safety charity IAM RoadSmart said they had to swerve to avoid a pothole every day and 90 per cent think the roads have got worse over the last three years.

Mike Quinton, from the charity, said: “IAM RoadSmart is deeply concerned at the safety implications of drivers having to swerve to avoid potholes as well as the high level of damage and injuries revealed by our survey.

“It is increasingly clear that those who use the roads on a daily basis are pretty much united on this on. Enough time has now passed for a long-term plan to be in place and for work to have started. As our survey has shown, This is now the motoring public’s number one priority.”

A Wiltshire Council spokesman said: “We’re working incredibly hard to improve Wiltshire’s roads, however as a rural county, we look after more miles of roads than most.

“With the cold and snowy weather this spring and then the recent extreme hot weather, there has been additional damage to our highways and more work to be undertaken.

“We are spending more on reactive road maintenance than ever before, and over recent years we have seen the historic backlog being greatly reduced. We constantly monitor our roads so we can programme appropriate work to help improve their condition.”

“Where there are local road issues we’d encourage people to report them using MyWilts and we will address these as quickly as possible.”

Frustrated motorists including cyclist and drivers have had their own battles with the council to get roads repaired. Chris Ward was riding through Pewsey when his bike hit a pothole and he was thrown off. He is now claiming for damages to the bike. Mr Ward said: “I am glad it has finally been fixed, and that no other accidents will be caused“However It is a real shame that it took me to have my accident for it to be fixed.”

Badgers have even been blamed for some pothole issues – on Sunnyhill Lane, Pewsey, a hole bigger than a traffic cone appeared.