POTHOLES have cost Bury Council more than £50,000 in pay outs to owners of damaged vehicles.

It is the highest amount paid for claims by any council in Greater Manchester.

Bury also received 4,574 complaints about its damaged roads, with only Manchester (8,183) and Bolton (7,119) receiving more.

The figures released by the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) cover the 2017/18 period and reveal that Nuttall Road in Ramsbottom was the most complained about road in the borough for the second year.

Bury spent almost £2.5 million on road repairs but the number of complaints rose from 2,798 in 2016/17 to 4,574.

The number of claims also rose from 296 to 490. Of these, 280 were successful, forcing the council to pay out £50,458.

FSB development manager for Greater Manchester, Robert Downes, said local road networks underpin the success of local economies, but in many areas they are not up to standard and require more investment.

He said: “It’s easy to dismiss potholes as an irrelevance, or to think of a well-maintained roads infrastructure as ‘nice to have’, but the issue is actually rather important.

“Small businesses need free flowing, well-maintained road networks to compete and grow.”

A cold winter, coupled with the summer’s heatwave had a particularly damaging effect on roads.

Mr Downes added: “We know longer journey times impact on productivity levels, affect profit margins, and can be a turn-off for investors.”

Cllr Alan Quinn, cabinet member for the environment, said: “Roads across all districts in Greater Manchester, and indeed the whole country, have suffered due to many years of chronic underfunding.

“There are 660 km of roads in our borough which require investment of £6 to £7 million a year; however, we receive a mere £2 million from the Government towards this.

“Despite this, we are taking action. We are spending an extra £10 million on improving our road network. We have also invested in new equipment which is allowing us to carry out more repair jobs and more quickly, and we doubled the crews who repair pot holes during the fine summer we had. This is having results, and the number of potholes and highway defects reported is now coming down.

“We are also planning to introduce a new online system which will keep customers up to date with how and when highways defects will be repaired.

“The only long-term solution, however, is to allocate sufficient money for the highway network. Bury has lost £100 million due to Government austerity measures, and our road network is one of many frontline services that need to be funded.”