HAMPSHIRE’S road bosses paid out more than £200,000 in just 12 months to drivers who complained their cars had been damaged by potholes on the county’s roads.

More than 700 motorists made claims against the county council – equivalent to two a day – landing council chiefs with a bill of £211,000.

The money was paid out between April 2013 and the same time last year – 61 per cent more than the £82,786.58 they paid out for pothole damage the year before.

The large sum has ranked Hampshire the fourth highest authority in the country when it comes to pothole compensation, only beaten by Kent, Essex and Surrey.

The Government recently announced Hampshire would get a slice of £6bn to deal with potholes over the next six years.

Hampshire County Council is set to receive £140m to fix the worst affected roads between now and 2021 in a scheme Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin expects to plug more than 18 million potholes across England.

County council bosses say they have already spent £62m fixing 105,000 potholes in the last 12 months.

Hampshire’s transport chief Sean Woodward said it was no surprise Hampshire was almost top of the pothole list.

He said: “Of Hampshire’s 5,200 miles of road, most of them are country roads and the bases that they sit on are much thinner, so when they were under water for months last winter, the roads broke up so it’s hardly surprising that you see that peak in claims.”