Almost half of all motorists believe they are not getting value for the money they pay local authorities to repair potholes.

And according to an AA survey of county highway engineers, this may well be down to the fact that local authorities are paying out as much on damage claims as they are actually spending filling potholes.

In 2007 compensation payments totalled £53 million.

It is estimated that there are more than 3.5 million potholes on roads in England and Wales and local authorities do not have sufficient budgets to repair them.

“There are all sorts of issues here.

"The main one is that people are being injured and vehicles are being damaged because of un-repaired potholes,” said David Shelton, managing director of Motorpoint, which carried out the research.

“With motoring costs escalating, it seems like a bad bargain for drivers to be paying out for pothole repairs that are not happening, covering the resulting compensation payments through council tax and stumping up for repairs to their own vehicles.”