Compensation of more than £290,000 has been paid to motorists during the past five years because of damage caused by potholes in roads in Worcestershire.

Some of the claims have come from the Wyre Forest district where the summer floods two years ago caused exceptional damage to local roads.

These left homes flooded and parts of the Severn Valley Railway track between Kidderminster and Bridgnorth literally washed away in 45 different sections.

Latest figures show that Worcestershire County Council has paid out compensation totalling £290,086 during the past five years.

Of this total, more than half of the cash has been paid out during the last two years and councillors say that this was because of the summer floods of 2007.

As much as 68 per cent of this money was for claims made from April 2007 to this April when the county not only faced floods but on-off spells of sub-zero temperatures.

In a statement Worcestershire County Council has said it has invested £15 million in road improvements across the county and particularly around the Wyre Forest district and areas affected by the floods.

It is also putting a further £5 million of investment forward to ensure more potholes are filled and roads in urban areas are resurfaced.

The initial funding helped improve 330 kilometres of roads throughout the county and the money was on top of day-to-day costs of repairs carried out to improve highways.

Officials have said a further £7 million is being spent to improve drainage systems. Blocked drains and gulleys have been blamed for part of the flooding problem which they believe has contributed to the high number of potholes across the county.