BOLTON Council spent more than £117,000 compensating motorists for damage caused by potholes on the town’s roads in the past four years, new figures have revealed.

Since 2012 the local authority has forked out a total of £117,232.83 to drivers whose cars have been damaged after driving on roads around the borough.

But council chiefs said the amount being paid out to motorists is consistently falling after the authority brought in a more stringent policy of inspecting roads in the town.

The figures have been uncovered following a raft of Freedom of Information requests made to 500 councils across the country by the Liberal Democrat party.

Nationally a total of £12 million has been paid out over the last four years, with an average payment per person of £650.

Liberal Democrat Campaigner Warren Fox from Astley Bridge said: “This is a lose-lose situation for everyone, whether they are motorists, councils or taxpayers.

“People already have to fork out so much to drive a car, the least they should expect is that their vehicle doesn’t get ruined by a bumpy road.

“Thousands of pounds are now being spent on pay-outs that could have been invested instead in fixing our roads.

“This is a symptom of the short-termist approach being taken to infrastructure investment.

“Roads should be fixed quickly so this compensation does not have to be paid out in the first place.”

Bolton Council’s executive cabinet member for the environment, Cllr Nick Peel, has pointed out that the amount being paid out in compensation claims is falling each year.

In 2015, The Bolton News reported how the number of drivers who received cash from the council for road-related claims had fallen by nearly 50 per cent from the previous year.

Cllr Peel said: “We are continuing to see that consistent fall in the number of claims and how much is being paid out.

“This is because we have significantly improved our road inspection regime.

“People cannot make claims usually unless the council has inspected a road and is aware of damage to it - so the more roads we inspect the more we are covered against any potentially fraudulent claims.”

The council holds a specific pot of cash within its reserves to pay out any successful claims to motorists.

Cllr Peel added: “In an ideal world we would resurface every road that requires it but there is only so much we can do and we try to combine major resurfacing and rebuilding work with smaller work on residential road.

“We believe that is the best combination.”