Potholes in Wombridge Road, Wrockwardine Wood.

Motorists in Shropshire and Mid Wales are among those counting the multi-million pound cost of damage caused by potholes during the big freeze, it emerged today.

Insurers paid out an estimated £2.85 million in claims last month to people whose cars were damaged by potholes around the UK, according to latest research.

At the height of the cold snap, potholes caused chaos on some minor roads in Shropshire. Telford & Wrekin Council even set up a hotline for people to report them.

Councillor Adrian Lawrence, cabinet member for environment, said: “Since the launch of our Pothole Busters campaign on January 29, the council has received 900 reports of potholes via the web, phone and e-mail and we have filled around 6,125.

“Our teams have been working flat out to improve our roads and we are very pleased with the contribution made by the public towards this campaign.”

In January one massive pothole in Waterloo Road, Ketley, Telford, claimed two victims within moments of each other.

Kerrie Vaughan, from Ironbridge, said she was travelling back home from work when she heard the front tyre of her vehicle blow out after landing in the pothole – only to be met moments later by another driver with the same problem.

In Audlem, near Market Drayton, villagers got so fed up with the state of their roads last month that they decided to invite council supremos to their own Pothole Oscars.

Villagers decided to set up an award ceremony to crown the deepest, widest and most treacherous potholes in bid to embarrass highways chiefs into taking swift action to get them fixed.

AA Insurance said about 1,900 pothole claims were made by motorists during February.

It said pothole claims have soared by about 600 per cent in the past three years as councils struggle to maintain the road network.

Simon Douglas, director of AA Insurance, said: “It’s just the tip of the iceberg, because it takes serious damage to make it worth an insurance claim.”

The group is calling on the Government to use cash rai- sed from the rise in fuel duty on April 1 to repair potholes.

By Tom Johannsen