More than £350,000 has been paid out to disgruntled drivers across the north and north-east who have had their cars damaged by potholes.
Hundreds of motorists have complained to their local authority about damage caused by bumps and holes in the roads.
And according to the figures, released by the Conservatives, councils across Grampian and the Highlands have paid out more than £350,000 over the last decade.
Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire councils have paid the lion’s share of the bill, shelling out almost £300,000 between them over the 10-year period.
Highland Council forked out £20,958 in compensation last year, but did not provide numbers for any other year.
The total reported for all council areas across Scotland was £4.59million, but the true figure is likely to be higher as not all authorities published statistics for each year.
The eye-watering extent of the compensation bill faced by councils has prompted calls for the Scottish Government to drastically increase investment in the country’s roads.
A report from local government umbrella body Cosla from February showed funding to maintain Scotland’s roads has been cut by a fifth over the last seven years.
North-east MSP Peter Chapman, who is the Tories’ shadow secretary for rural economy and connectivity, said: “The shocking state of our roads is costing local councils a fortune in payouts to drivers.
“The vast majority of this is entirely avoidable, however. The road network wasn’t always in such a terrible state and these claims would be much lower if maintenance was kept up.
“A large part of the responsibility for this must be placed at the door of the SNP government in Edinburgh for failing to provide adequate funding for our councils.
“Given cuts this year and more to come in the future, it is difficult to see how this problem can be rectified by our local authorities alone.
Councillor Ross Grant, transport spokesman for Aberdeen City Council’s ruling group, said the administration had increased the roads maintenance budget but said it could “only do so much” on a local level.
Aberdeenshire Council’s roads chief Philip McKay said the authority consistently ranked in the top five for roads maintenance but stressed that potholes could appear at any time on any standard of roads.
A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: “The local road network is the responsibility of local authorities and it is up to them to allocate resources based on their priorities. However we have allocated an additional £10million to them to assist with the cost of road maintenance and repair following the extended adverse weather.
“We have also increased our road maintenance budget by £65m to £433m for 2018/2019 and have the £745m Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route opening later this year, which will take some traffic off of local and city centre roads.
“While local authority budget setting is the responsibility of individual authorities the total funding they have available will increase by almost £342m in 2018/19.”
