WILTSHIRE Council hit the national headlines last week when it was reported that the local authority had paid out more than £500,000 in compensation for damage caused by potholes - more than any other council in the UK.

The only problem was that the council’s own figures were totally wrong.

The dodgy data - sent out in response to a Freedom of Information (FOI) request by insurance firm Confused.com - stated that the authority had paid out almost £508,000 in compensation to drivers whose vehicles were damaged by poor road surfaces in 2016.

But the Journal has learned that the actual figure is far lower, at around £83,000.

Bridget Wayman, cabinet member for highways, said that the figures did not compare like-for-like and were not a fair evaluation.

She added: “We actually paid out just over £80,000 to repair damaged vehicles, not the figures quoted.

“As a rural county, we look after more miles of roads than most and are spending more on road maintenance and improvements than ever before, currently around £20 million per year.

“Alongside our partners we were recognised nationally for our innovative work to trial new technology to spot potholes which could potentially change the way local authorities maintain roads in the future.

“Our rolling programme of work, which has already significantly reduced the backlog of road maintenance, is ongoing. We constantly monitor our roads so we can programme appropriate work to help improve their condition, but where there are local road issues we’d encourage people to report them using the MyWilts app and we will address these as quickly as possible.”

The FOI also highlighted that last year 6,803 potholes were reported but just 5,178 were repaired at the cost of £9000,000 and up to April this year 3,134 potholes had already been reported across the county’s roads.

Confused.com motoring editor Amanda Stretton said: “They are a major bugbear among drivers, not least because of the damage they do to our vehicles - around £3.1 million worth of damage. If drivers experience a bump in the road, they should report it to their local council as soon as possible.”

“The cost of motoring alone is getting more and more expensive and damage repairs is a big contributor to this, as car parts increase in price as well.”

According to a government spokesman, year on year the Department for Transport is providing councils with record levels of capital funding - more than £7.1 billion up to 2021 - to improve local roads and repair potholes.