Surrey County Council has spent more than £800,000 in pothole compensation payouts in the past five years.

In that time it says it has repaired about 221,456 potholes along its run-down road network, at an average of 121 per day.

The details were released as the government announced it was to give the county an extra £3 million to tackle the problem.

Hampshire County Council will receive £5.9m out of the £200m the government has set aside to repair potholes.

Although Surrey’s finances this year include a capital fund of £69.8m for highways maintenance, that is set to fall back to £29.5m a year for the next four years – much more in line with the spending under its previous highways strategy which has led to the roads we have today.

But if highways cannot be maintained, the opposition leader at Surrey County Council warned, then the roads will fall into further disrepair and the number of potholes, and motorists’ insurance claims, will rocket.

Cllr Will Forster said: “The cut is to the road maintenance budget – this will mean the road surfaces will get worse.

“The cut is notable in the next financial year, 2024-25, and makes the £3m to repair the potholes from the government look like a drop in the ocean.”

In 2018 Surrey County Council paid out £399,189 in compensation payments for claims relating to potholes on roads and pathways.

This declined to £135,949 in 2019 and was followed by two years when people were off the roads during the pandemic – £83,415 and £79,364 in 2020 and 2021 – before climbing again as roads got busier in 2022 to £118,553.

In Hampshire, Cllr Nick Adams-King, the county council’s executive lead member for universal services, said: “Additional government money for pothole repairs is certainly welcome following an extremely challenging winter where we have seen a steep increase in road defects across Hampshire.

“Over the winter period we have drafted in extra resources to repair more road defects following a dramatic and sustained increase in reported issues. In total over the past three months, we have repaired 16,748 potholes and other road defects.”

Our photographer Casey Oakley took these images of potholes in the immediate Farnham area. But have you seen worse? Email details – and a photo – to [email protected]