GWENT councils will spend hundreds of thousands of pounds fixing pot holes this year - despite already spending more than £5.5 million on repairs over the last two years.

Figures obtained by the Argus show Newport, Torfaen, Caerphilly, Blaenau Gwent and Monmouthshire spent a total of £5,777,459.77 repairing pot holes on the region’s roads between 2008 and 2010.

But this year's spend is already expected to top £700,000, and motoring organisation the Institute of Advanced Motorists warned that the amount spent on pot hole repairs could rise even further because of this winter’s exceptionally cold weather.

Torfaen spent around £1.1 million on pot hole repairs over the last two years, with £556,474 spent in 2008/2009 and £548,004 in 2009/2010. The authority has an allocated pot hole budget of £600,000 for 2010/2011.

Blaenau Gwent spent £477,066 in 2008/2009 and £519,930 in 2009/2010. The council did not provide an estimated figure for this financial year.

Caerphilly council spent £825,900 in 2008, £868,300 in 2009 and £957,400 in 2010. Its budget for highway safety issues this year is £1.4 million, but this also includes cash for emergency call outs to road traffic collisions, repairing damaged sign posts and other costs.

Newport city council spent £365,757.86 in 2008/2009 and £420,927.91 in 2009/2010, but said this year’s spend would not be known until April.

Monmouthshire spent £146,500 in 2008/2009, £121,200 in 2009/2010 and has a budget of £149,550 for this financial year.

But Monmouthshire’s traffic and network manager Paul Keeble said the amount spent on repairs could be even higher this year after weeks of freezing weather in December, and IAM spokesman for Wales Tim Shallcross said most councils would see costs continue to increase because of "short-sighted" approaches to tackling pot holes in previous years.

Mr Shallcross said: "Over the past 20 years we have had a series of relatively mild winters and local authorities throughout Wales have got away with a scandalous under spend. But over the last couple of winters we have had harsh winters and the damage that went unrepaired has been made far worse and left our roads in a mess."

Mr Shallcross said the exception to this assessment was Newport council.

Its three year Project 21 programme to resurface all roads in the city resulted in the authority coming top in a survey of the best roads in the UK, and the council said that despite last month's cold weather the number of pot hole repairs carried out by its workers had reduced in December.