Success! Thanks to this website.

by kerrensimmonds

30 Mar 2010

I drive down a stretch of country road to get to and from work - and the road is heavily used by industrial traffic. The potholes were terrible. This is in rural West Sussex. In January the Council put up notices at either end, warning of the bad surface. One night in January I was crawling home but had to steer to my left to avoid a haulage lorry which was pulling out ahead, and coming towards me. As I turned the steering wheel - BANG! Fortunately I got home alright and a neighbour changed the wheel for me a couple of days later. The tyre and tracking etc. were OK, but I had to pay £190 for a new alloy wheel. I phoned, and initially the Council were concerned and supportive, and sent me swathes of pages of questionnaire to fill in, which I had to return with dozens of documents about me and the car. However, the covering letter more or less said that I need not bother to fill in the questionnaire, because they could not be held responsible. Indeed when they received my paperwork I got the standard reply, which you advise here, saying that I could not prove their negligence. On the same day that I wrote a very polite letter back saying that I intended to appeal but would welcome their observations on the fact that their property damaged mine and there was little I could have done about it; pointing out that if I had been driving less carefully there could have been more damage; that the pothole itself was repaired two or three days later (though the rest of the road remained untouched) - I applied under the FOI Act, as you advise. Oh boy! A huge wadge of paperwork came back within 10 days (most impressive), showing that the first complaints about that particular pothole were made in August 2009! I didn't have to take anything further though (which I would have done, with your advice), because I have had a letter in response to mine APOLOGISING for the delay, and saying that the cheque is in the post!
I hope other people are taking the advice you give on this website!
And last week, at long last, they repaired all the potholes along the whole length of the road.