More than £14,000 has been forked out by Enfield Borough Council for pothole damage to cars in the past three years.

Figures from a Freedom of Information request submitted by the Enfield Independent show the authority has paid out £14,183 since 2012, including one payout of more than £3,000.

The statistics also revealed that the amount of money paid out more than tripled between 2013 and 2014 with £3,041.39 being paid out in 2013 and £10,735 in 2014.

The local authority paid for 35 claims between 2012 and 2014, with the most frequent roads causing damage being Ferny Hill and Clay Hill, both in Enfield, which were responsible for seven and six incidents respectively.

Potholes in Ferny Hill set the council back £1,722, with all incidents being tyre or wheel damage.

The six incidents in Clay Hill cost the council £2,576 during 2013.

The figure is relatively low compared to neighbouring borough of Haringey, where the council paid out more than £37,000 in four years.

Potholes are caused when rainwater seeps into a road then freezes and expands, cracking the asphalt. Holes are widened when rain washes loose debris away.

Last year was the wettest winter on record, leaving cars with broken spokes, punctured tyres and buckled wheels.

Enfield Borough Council's cabinet member for environment and community safety, Cllr Chris Bond, said: "Enfield Council carries out an extensive programme of pothole repairs every year and spends in the region of £8 million annually to make sure that all of our road users can travel to their destination safely and in comfort.

"As such we have one of the best maintained road networks in London and the fact that we pay out less than £400 a month as a result of damage caused to cars by pothole is a testament to that."

Department of Transport statistics show that since 2010 an additional 2,262 miles of local roads require maintenance work – further than going from Land’s End to John O’Groats and back again.