In just three years Surrey County Council (SCC) has had to pay out more than £1,500,000 to people using its heavily potholed roads.

And the amount paid to drivers, bikers and cyclists, made public following a Freedom of Information request by this newspaper, is far from the final cost for the three years from 2009.

In 2009/10 alone it paid out £755,000 and, although the figures for the two subsequent years are much lower, £559,000 and £253,000 respectively, these are likely to rise substantially as claims can take years to settle.

The figure also does not cover money the council has spent on legal work, officers time and other related costs.

An SCC spokesman said: "There will be claims outstanding for all of the years shown and so the figures for all years will change in time. Essentially the figures shown represent a snapshot of the position as of today's date."

The deteriorating state of county roads has infuriated many drivers, who are likely to be further angered by public money wasted on compensation that could have been avoided if potholes were tackled promptly.

SCC is planning to invest £100million investment to replace 300 miles of the county’s worst roads over the next five years.

Project Horizon will see 10 per cent of the county’s worst roads rebuilt from scratch, with a 10-year warranty that if there is then a problem with the road, the cost of repairing it will fall to the contractor which built the road, not to the council. This will be on top of the normal pothole maintenance work carried out by SCC.

The roads to be tackled under Project Horizon are due to be revealed this month.

Last month we revealed that potholes down Epsom High Street will not be filled in until next year at the earliest.

In April Dan Cook, from Stoneleigh, was forced to pay £300 to get his car's suspension fixed after hitting a pothole in Cuddington Avenue, Stoneleigh.

He said he does not believe the issue is a priority for SCC "otherwise they would repair the roads a lot quicker".

The 38-year-old said: "If Project Horizon was widely communicated and people knew what it meant then they would have something to say about it, especially if it shows their roads aren’t going to be fixed until five years’ time.

"Council tax is going up and what are we getting for it? More broken roads."

What do you think about the payouts and the state of the roads? Leave a comment below.