South Ayrshire Council received 77 claims for compensation from motorists who damaged their cars on local potholes - but they paid out on just two of them.
The 2021/22 figures, obtained by the Scottish Conservatives, show that of the two successful claims, the local authority had to stump up £6412.59.
South Ayrshire, according to the figures, has one of the country’s lowest pay-out rates- at just 2.6 cent of all claims.
In East Ayrshire, the local authority received 88 claims for compensation with 11 of them being paid out (12.5 per cent)- to the tune of £4598.01.
And in North Ayrshire, 119 claims were received with 14 successful claimants (11.76 per cent), costing North Ayrshire Council £1,790.32 in compensation.
The figures have given rise to a fresh call from the Scottish Conservatives for a Pothole Action Fund.
Around Scotland, just 15.76 per cent of pothole claims were paid out in 2021/22 - leaving scores of other motorists missing out.
Glasgow recorded the highest number of claims in 2021/22 (1053), with Dumfries and Galloway behind them on 525.
South Scotland Conservative List MSP Brian Whittle said: “These figures won’t come as much surprise to anyone driving on Ayrshire’s roads.
“For years, the SNP have squeezed council budgets tighter and tighter, with the result that there’s less and less money available for road repairs and local roads end up looking like the surface of the moon.
“Safe, well maintained roads are vital for communities across Ayrshire, carrying commuters to work, pupils to school, delivery vehicles or the emergency services.
“With many roads already in a poor condition, this winter’s cold and wet weather is sure to mean more potholes opening up on roads across Ayrshire and, instead of providing extra funding, it looks like the Scottish Government are going to leave councils with even less.”
Mr Whittle continued: “In November last year, Ayrshire Roads Alliance pulled the plug on their resurfacing programme for the year in East and South Ayrshire when they ran out of budget and they’d only completed a fraction of their planned works.
“Sadly, John Swinney’s latest budget looks set to make the situation worse with council leaders across Scotland uniting to say the SNP’s cuts to council budgets will harm essential local services.
“The Scottish Conservatives have proposed the creation of dedicated Pothole Action Funds so that communities blighted by rough roads can have them repaired quickly.
“Ayrshire’s councils must have the funding they need to maintain our local roads and prevent a plague of potholes that damages vehicles and costs drivers dearly.”
Deputy First Minister John Swinney said the Scottish Government had “protected councils” in the wake of the most challenging Budget since devolution to provide more than £13.2 billion in the 2023-24 Local Government Settlement.
And a spokesperson for Mr Swinney said: “This represents a cash increase of over £570 million or 4.5%, which is a real terms increase of £160.6 million or 1.3%.
“Maintenance of the local road network is the responsibility of local authorities and it is up to individual councils to manage their own budgets and allocate the total financial resources available to them on the basis of local needs and priorities.
“If other parties wish to see more funding allocated for purposes of this type, they must identify which other budgets must be reduced to provide the funding. This has not been done on this and on many other occasions.”
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