This has not only affected car and van insurance, but also bicycle insurance. Further claims have been made due to the severity of the poor state of British roads. TireSafe continued to advise drivers and motorists that extra care should be taken when it is dark or visibility is poorer than usual, as at these times it will be even more difficult to see potential hazards, such as potholes.

The TyreSafe spokesperson said: “Damage to the tire is not immediately visible and therefore motorists may not be aware of this until a potentially catastrophic failure occurs, putting vehicle occupants and other road users.

Councils are responsible for the roads and say they try to cover up potholes or other road hazards as soon as they are noticed. The AA says that this is not always the case, the Automobile Associations calculate that there are hundreds of thousands of incidents of damage on the roads that the municipalities know about but do not repair.

Edmund King, president of the AA, said: “Last year in London alone there were 35,000 potholes that were reported and not filled, so we can only estimate across the country that there must be hundreds and thousands of unfilled potholes. “. .”

Disgruntled road users across the UK note potholes and other road damage online, and CTC, a group of cyclists, recorded almost 10,000 complaints over the past year. CTC believes that council funds are not enough to fix these problems, and the government needs to fund these repairs.

Figures released by the AA and the road builders association Asphalt Industry Alliance have suggested that UK local authorities are paying out as much in compensation for injuries and pothole damage as they are fixing them.

Richard Wakelen, chief executive of the National Joint Utilities Group, which carries out resurfacing of roads, said: “If our members fall short, then the Highway Authorities hold them squarely accountable and ensure that utilities come back to correct the problem.”

According to the government, its spending on road repairs has tripled in the last decade, he also said that municipalities should have a continuous program of repairs and should not wait until problems and potholes appear. Roads Minister Rosie Winterton believes local authorities need to know how many roads are under her control.

She said: “They need to see what kind of condition they are in and they need to have an ongoing program of investment in them.

“They need to make sure they repair the roads regularly and not leave them until they are in such poor condition that it becomes incredibly expensive.”

Local Government Associations said councils simply did not have the funds to deal with the backlog of needed repairs on Britain’s roads. The money cannot be looted through council taxes or added to the government’s allocation of its own funds.

David Sparks of LGS estimated that a further £200m would be needed to meet the government’s targets of filling existing gaps by 2010. He said: “Our evidence shows that backlog of work plus escalating costs means we don’t have enough money To solve the problem”.