YORK council paid out more than £22,000 in compensation to motorists for damage or injury cause by potholes between 2018 and 2020, according to a Freedom of Information request.

Car buying company WeBuyAnyCar submitted an FOI request to every local authority in the country.

It revealed that nationwide, more than £16 million was paid out by councils to compensate drivers for damage or injury caused by potholes.

City of York Council paid out £22,130 in compensation between 2018 and 2020, WeBuyAnyCar says – although this was 73 percent less than the Yorkshire and the Humber average when calculated per thousand inhabitants.

North Yorkshire paid out £221,119 in compensation in the same period, according to WeBuyAnyCar, while the East Riding paid out £24,380. Both were below the Yorkshire and Humber average in per capita terms.

The local authority which paid out the most in per capita terms in Yorkshire was Rotherham Metropoplitan Borough. It paid out £232,388 – and reported 544 per cent more potholes per 100,000 people than the Yorkshire average.

According to a WeBuyAnyCar survey, more than two thirds of people (63 per cent) believe their roads are in a poor or very poor condition - and three quarters (76 per cent) think they are getting worse.

Seventy per cent of people think councils should spend more on fixing potholes, it said.

The survey revealed drivers find potholes to be one of the biggest annoyances while on the road, with almost 40 percent agreeing they are worse than a driver carrying on when you have right of way.

A further 38 percent said hitting a pothole was more inconvenient than getting stuck behind a slow driver or middle lane driver, while 34 percent would rather sit in a traffic jam than drive over a pothole.

Richard Evans, head of technical services at webuyanycar.com said: “It’s hardly shocking that two thirds of people find potholes to be a major issue."

City of York Council has been approached for a comment.