BURY Council paid out more than £35,000 to motorists who had their vehicles damaged by potholes across the borough.

The latest figures released by the RAC Foundation, for 2013-14, represents an increase of almost 10 per cent on 2012-13.

The council paid out a total of £35,280.39 to motorists, which rose from £33,806.46 the previous year.

A total of 119 motorists made successful claims to the council because of the damage caused, with Bury ranking 52nd out of 147 English councils in a nationwide table compiled for the number of claims made.

Across the country, almost 50,000 drivers made claims because of damage caused by potholes.

The RAC Foundation said councils are not receiving enough money from the Government to keep roads up to scratch, and that many drivers are put off from claiming because it is time- consuming.

Cllr Tony Isherwood, Bury Council cabinet member for environment, said: "The RAC Foundation is correct in blaming long-term chronic underfunding of the nation’s roads for the number of potholes we have today.

"There have been headlines recently about Bury receiving 'an extra £10.6 million' for potholes over the next six years.

"Firstly, this is not new or extra money. It is simply an indication of what the Government currently intends to give to the council in future years as its share of national capital maintenance funding. Nor is it purely to repair potholes; it is money for all major highways maintenance works.

"This allocation compares to the figure for the previous six years (2009-10 to 2014-15) of £12.4 million for capital highways maintenance funding, and so the latest announcement is not good news, it is actually a cut of nearly 15 per cent.

"To make matters worse, the Government advised at the same time that the allocations no longer make provision for resilience contingency funding and this will now have to be met from mainstream allocations.

"Regardless, we have taken our own measures to help repair the borough’s roads. Last year we brought in two new machines, known as caterpillar skid steer loaders, to increase efficiency and save costs. These machines are making a real difference to road repairs and minor resurfacing works, increasing productivity by 30 to 60 per cent depending on the repair.”