15th March Major pot hole on London Road, A509 close to M1 Juntion 14 roundabout

by Cj

17 Mar 2008

At approximately 17.45hrs on Saturday 15th March, I was driving from Wellingborough towards Milton Keynes to pick up the M1 southbound at Junction 14 to make my way home to Woking.

After turning left at the Tickford roundabout on to London road (the A509) I ran over a completely unmarked pothole. The first I knew of this was the almighty crash we both heard and felt as my car ran over this gaping hole in the ground.

The effect was immediately noticeable and my car began pulling heavily to the left.


We pulled over on to Newport Road, just before the M1 roundabout. Upon inspection it was obvious that my front nearside tyre had blown. Even more noticeable was the queue of cars that began to form, all suffering the same problem as a result of this pot hole!


In total, there were at least seven cars that had all suffered damage because of the dangerously large, completely unmarked hole in the road. Damage ranged from burst tyres to cracked alloy wheels, however the total cost and true extent of all damages is still to be fully realised.


In addition to the financial impact of the damage incurred by all these vehicles, a number of us were also affected by the delay this incident caused. The M1 southbound was due to be closed at junction 9 on 15th March at approx 20.00hrs. As a direct result of the delay caused by the roadside repairs of our cars, a number of us missed this 8pm deadline. As such we were delayed further still by the volume of traffic attempting to navigate the motorway diversion resulting in increased journey times of over 3 hours, not including the time we had already spent by the side of the road repairing our vehicles.


The sheer number of drivers affected in such a short period already proves how inconspicuous yet incredibly dangerous this pot hole was. I haven’t even counted the number of drivers who pulled over to check their cars, who then drove away as there was no visible damage at that time. A concerned witness, Nigel Richards, who lives nearby London road, prevented further accidents by placing a traffic cone in the pot hole to alert motorists to the danger ahead. Had he not done this many more people could have been affected, we dare not even think what might have happened should a motorcyclist have hit this pothole.

I understand that Milton Keynes council has a duty to maintain the highway under section 41 of the Highways act. The council completely failed in its duty in this instance, the result of which is at least seven motorists incurring unnecessary costs of repair, callout fees for rescue vehicles, loss of earnings through missed work appointments and delays to their journeys of over 4hrs in some cases.

We are outraged that this incident was allowed to occur and expect no less than the Council to compensate for all damages and further still for the time we lost, as a direct result of their negligence.