Pothole Damage

11th June 2010

I hit a pothole back in the beginning of February which was 6 and a half inches deep on a road with no street lights at night time, which bent my alloy and I had to get a new one. I have claimed the damages to the council. The first letter I received from them stated that they weren't at fault due to the weather damaging the road. I then requested the road maintenance report via FOI. Using this information I was able to state that they didn't adhere to there code of conduct which was to repair the catergory 1 defect within 24 hours. The pothole was originally detected on January 25th and was finally repaired some time towards the end of February/beginning of March. I also stated to them that they had over the course of the year, been late doing the check on the road on numerous occasions.
I have just received another letter back saying that they couldn't repair the pothole within 24 hours as they had waivered this due to the weather and instead adopted a 4 week repair time for all potholes (this was shown to me from their minutes from a council meting). They also said that they were late doing their checks because of the weather and that it wasn't sufficient to note this on the report as it was noted in the media.
It took them over the four weeks leniency to repair this pothole from it's moment of detection, do I therefore have grounds to take this further or do I call it off for the reasons they have stated?

Replies (3)

Potholes.co.uk Expert     posted : 15/06/10 at 9:56 am

Was this work you refer to undertaken after 25 January? i.e. after the pothole had already been reported? If so, you might want to ask why the pothole was not repaired if there were operatives on site anyway.

If the work was undertaken before the 25 January, then how will you prove that the pothole was there whilst the work was being carried out?

Nathan_Sheppard2     posted : 14/06/10 at 11:42 am

Thank you for the reply.
Just one other point, does the fact that the week before I hit the pothole the council were doing work to the road, indicate that there could be grounds to take it further as either:
1) They didn't repair the pothole in the first place
2) Repaired the pothole insufficiently
3) Caused damage to the road as a result of the repairs to other parts of the road?

Potholes.co.uk Expert     posted : 14/06/10 at 9:53 am

Only you can decide if you wish to proceed any further. In my humble opinion, Courts are likely to take a sympathetic view towards the plight of local authorities during and immediately following the recent extreme winter.

They have even documented their decision to extend their frequency and response periods, whereas a lot of local authorities are simply 'winging it'.

From the information you have given, the fact that they went over the 4 week period did not affect you, and was not a contributory factor in your incident. The Court will probably therefore question the relevance of this.

My gut tells me you could lose this in court unless you get a claimant friendly judge!