COUNTY council bosses receive more than 40 complaints about dodgy roads, every single day, it has been revealed.

It comes as latest figures tell how a total of £63 million of taxpayers’ cash was spent repairing and maintaining roads across Essex in the last year alone.

Essex County Council received 16,900 complaints about damaged road surfaces in 2018/19 - that’s the equivalent to more than 40 a day.

A Freedom of Information request also revealed there were 1,043 claims made for vehicle damage as the result of potholes or road defects, however just 52 were successful.

County Hall had to pay out £15,829 to those claimants.

Eunice Brockman, independent councillor for Wickford north, said: “It’s absolutely dire. There are some roads that you just don’t want to drive on because you know your wheels may get damaged. I was injured by a huge hole in Mount Close in 2008 where my foot ended up in plaster.

“I walked down the same road the other day and it was still there!

“The council should be doing so much more.”

Bill Dick, councillor for St Peter’s ward in Castle Point, believes more focus should be on prevention... rather than cure.

He said: “County council has got itself too big a backlog of requests for repairs, if they don’t keep up with them this happens.

“I think they should review their scheme of how they address it. We have so many roads in the district in such a terrible state that need completely repairing, but the council just seem to send workers to cover up individual potholes. They just leave the rest of the road in a dire state, and then a few weeks later they’re back again.

“You have to think that it would be more cost efficient for the council and the taxpayer to stop the constant repairs of small areas, map out plans for the next few years and resurface all of the roads.”

The FOI request was made by the Federation of Small Businesses, an organisation calling for more funding for authorities from Government.

Alan Jefcoate, of the federation, said: “Poorly looked-after roads peppered with holes and cracks not only hamper members’ ability to do business but lead to damaged vehicles, which are often vital assets to small firms often working without large capital reserves.

“These figures show just how widespread the issue is and it’s clear decision-makers need to sit up and take notice.”

Last year County Hall was given £11 million of a national “pothole pot” to repair battered roads across the county. Kevin Bentley, county councillor responsible for infrastructure, said: “We are aware of how vital a properly maintained road network is, not just for businesses, but for residents and visitors.

“We are confident we have a road network fit for purpose. Our roads are officially in the top quarter of councils for road condition, which is because we have been able to find extra investment.

“We invested an additional £2.4 million during the last financial year into to repair potholes identified by county councillors, which saw an additional 6,000 potholes fixed – more than 18,000 in total for the financial year.”