Pothole woe!

[cassell]

Well it was bound to happen!

I filtered off a dual carriageway onto the exit slip road and whilst still doing about 40 mph, BANG....another bloody pot hole has appeared since last Wednesday when I was last there!

I stopped to have a look, no damage to the alloy wheel, but a big bulge in the sidewall of my nearside front Pirelli PZero 255/35 R20 97W tyre...bugger!

Car has only done 8k miles and the tyres are hardly worn so I'm only going to replace the damaged one with a direct replacement Pirelli which is going to cost me around £153!!

Now to do battle with East Staffordshire Council but not holding my breath!

Paul

[4x4]

Gat a mate to report the hole today and make your claim tomorrow...

[lalith16]

Originally Posted by cassell

Now to do battle with East Staffordshire Council but not holding my breath!

Paul

Go after them; I have heard many success stories of people making councils accountable for not doing their part in repairing and maintaining roads. You have a greater chance if you can prove the pothole that caused the damage is already there when the council did their last inspection but haven’t actually done anything about it. Resort to FOI act to get that information from them. Please keep us posted as well of the outcome.

[Belmont84]

Originally Posted by lalith16

Go after them; I have heard many success stories of people making councils accountable for not doing their part in repairing and maintaining roads. You have a greater chance if you can prove the pothole that caused the damage is already there when the council did their last inspection but haven’t actually done anything about it. Resort to FOI act to get that information from them. Please keep us posted as well of the outcome.

I have claimed successfully for pot hole damage, it was fairly easy and hassle free.

[apnicolle]

I claimed a few years ago but for a broken wheel, tyre and damaged suspension arm. It was quite a drawn out process and the council missed every one of their deadlines to respond. I did take photos of the crater, on a NSL road to support - it was very deep and next to a newly installed traffic island.

They then sent a letter which said something along the lines of “are you sure you want to claim compensation form us as you’ll just be taking money from the public purse which we could spend wisely elsewhere”. I paraphrase but that letter really p’eed me off and I thought if they’d spent their money better I wouldn’t be needing to claim £1,000 from them.

They paid up.

[cassell]

Update:

Reported the pothole to Staffordshire County Council Highways Dept., it was logged as a first report and a reference number has been issued to me.

A visit by an engineer is scheduled, all of which implies that they weren't already aware of the defect, so fingers crossed I may get some recompense!

[4x4]

Originally Posted by cassell

....A visit by an engineer is scheduled, all of which implies that they weren't already aware of the defect, so fingers crossed I may get some recompense!

They're going to come back to you and say that as they weren't aware of the pothole they can't be held responsible and therefore won't pay out.

This is the reason I said to get a mate to report it

[Oop north]

Originally Posted by 4x4

Gat a mate to report the hole today and make your claim tomorrow...

That would be fraudulent...

[apnicolle]

Originally Posted by Oop north

That would be fraudulent...

Whereas the appalling state of the roads and lack of maintenance is merely “criminal”...

[lalith16]

Originally Posted by cassell

Update:

Reported the pothole to Staffordshire County Council Highways Dept., it was logged as a first report and a reference number has been issued to me.

A visit by an engineer is scheduled, all of which implies that they weren't already aware of the defect, so fingers crossed I may get some recompense!

My understanding of the incidents like this is that Council can’t be held negligebt if they aren’t aware of the pothole. This is simply because there is no negligence involved as there is no way for them to repair it if they do not know the existence of the pothole. There are two ways that they would normally know the existence of potholes 1) Reported by someone and/or 2) They find it during their inspections.

If they said to you that it is the first report on that particular pothole then just to check it out what they are saying is correct maybe it is a good idea to access inspection reports relevant to that road and then take it from there.