More than £30,000 has been handed out by Bromley Council to motorists and cyclists because of potholes since 2013.

In figures obtained through a Freedom of Information request, it has been revealed the council spent £17,295 on compensation and legal fees to disgruntled drivers and cyclists in 2013 alone.

The figures show the amount being paid out has dropped most years since then.

The costs have decreased significantly since 2013, with only £7k being paid out the year after, and only £2,930 last year.

Bromley has spent less than neighbouring Bexley on payouts – with the latter spending £229,460 since 2013.

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Cllr William Huntington-Thresher, the councillor for environment, said the council had spent £11m on a resurfacing programme.

He said: “Considering that tens of thousands of people use Bromley’s roads every day, to have an average of less than 100 claims in an entire year in the past six years is testament to the condition of our roads and the statistics show that most of these claims were actually rejected too.”

Residents have up to three years to bring a claim forward, so the figures may still change.

The council has received 471 claims since 2013  – with last year having the least in 39.

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Cllr Huntington-Thresher added: “We work extremely hard to make sure that Bromley’s roads are in as good a condition as they can be, despite some recent tough winters. We appreciate the importance that residents put on the quality of roads in the borough.

“We have recently invested £11.8 million in a resurfacing programme, which will reduce the numbers of potholes which naturally occur but we also inspect each and every maintained road each year, with busier roads inspected far more frequently.

“We can all help make sure our roads are as pothole free as they can be by actually reporting a pothole rather than simply passing by.  You can use your phone or tablet to do this – go to www.bromley.gov.uk/report.”