ONLY one claim for pothole damage compensation put to Bracknell Forest Council was successful last year, with the total number of claims down on the year before.

The council insist the low number of successful claims for compensation in the borough shows they cope well with maintaining roads up to national standards, with just 27 claims made against the council in 2015/16.

The one successful claim made saw the council shell out £1,150 to a single driver for damage caused by potholes figures from the RAC Foundation reveal.

The national figures place Bracknell Forest 116th out of the 207 local authorities in England for the number of claims made.

Cllr Chris Turrell, executive member for planning and transport said: "Well-maintained highways are important for residents and visitors to the borough. Bracknell Forest Council operates a comprehensive system of highway safety inspections carried out by fully trained and registered highway inspectors.

"Our road classifications and inspection frequencies comply with the standards recommended in the current national highway maintenance Code of Practice and our local Highway Maintenance and Management Plan.

"Any claims against the council are assessed against how we keep to these standards. The low number of successful claims against the council show that we keep well to these standards."

The councils with the highest number of claims were Hampshire, with 1,952 claims, and Surrey, with 1,412 claims.

Bracknell's figures show the number of claims was down on 2014/15, when 32 claims were made, but higher than in 2013/14 when just 16 claims were submitted.

The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead paid out nothing to drivers this year, despite 41 claims made against them, while Wokingham Borough Council paid out a total £203 for two successful claims out of the 39 submitted in 2015/16.

West Berkshire Council had the highest number of claims in the county, 91, but paid out £251 for just a single claim. 

In England as a whole a claim was submitted to councils every 17 minutes, prompting the RAC Foundation, who submitted Freedom of Information requests to all local authorities in order to compile the figures, to highlight the inadequate funding for local road maintenance.

Steve Gooding, director of the RAC Foundation, said: "Year in, year out, the backlog of work on local roads is estimated to run to several billion pounds.

"A pitted road surface isn’t just a problem for motorists – for those on two wheels it can be life threatening.

"Just last week the Chancellor acknowledged that there had been decades of underfunding in the nation’s infrastructure and that he was keen to support targeted, value-for-money public investment. Providing the funds to fix our roads would be a great place to start and would show rapid results."