A driver has branded a council “ridiculous” after he was told that he could not claim for compensation unless he identified the specific pothole that caused the damage to his car – out of a cluster of 10.
Trevor Kay from Stockton-on-Tees, Co Durham, had to replace two tyres at a total cost of £180 after hitting a patch of potholes in the town.
However, when he went to put in a claim for compensation he was told by Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council that he would have to find the specific crater that caused the damage on the pothole-plagued road.
A masterly move there, quite masterly.
Why didn’t he just pick one?
Last year I had to replace 4 tyres, 2 with nails and screws, 2 with treads shredded by potholes. One of them had been on the car for a couple of weeks. I recommend going to a Cuntsil meeting and giving the bastards some of their own medicine. A Stanley knife is a good tool for the job.
I recommend going to a Cuntsil meeting . . .
Well, if you’re aiming at councillors’ tyres it’s the wrong target. They’re pretty powerless. It’s the permanent bureaucracy ruining the show, and they’d be happy for you to be a thorn in the side of their thorn in the side.
It’s a perpetual disappointment to me that people who are diagnosed with terminal cancer don’t roll up their sleeves and set off to slit a few throats among our governing classes. And, come to think of it, criminal classes.
What BiC said. How would they know?
There’s a reason Britain is as poor as Mississippi.
Is that restriction even lawful? It would be a completely unreasonable demand in the case of damage done at night or in restricted visibility. Why do they need that information? Reference to Local Govt Ombudsman 100% justified.
What’s the problem? He goes back photographs the biggest of the lot and tells them it was that one. How’re they going to argue? Unless he’s already said he doesn’t know… But then, perhaps he can remember?
Years back my mum found a dead herring gull in the garden. She phoned the council and was told that because it wasn’t in the road they couldn’t collect it. The woman on the phone then said that my mum should go back and check to see if the gull was in fact still alive because it might be able to stagger to the road.
After she’d moved it Mum phoned up again and spoke to the same woman who said that often they just looked dead, and that they’d be there to collect the corpse the following day…
Here’s the rub. Councils are liable to pay compensation for damage caused by potholes they’ve been made aware of, but not repaired. They’re not liable for damage caused by unreported potholes. So you’ve got to pick the correct pothole as the culprit. Sort of find-the-lady done with tyres.
However, much of the reason for the damage is that manufacturers insist on fitting cars with oversized wheels & very low profile tyres. At one time, pretty well any car could cope with quite large potholes without problem.
And it is totally cosmetic. The advantage of low profile tyres would only be on a race track or on a car either being driven above the speed limit or in a manner would attract a prosecution for dangerous driving. But then, most cars are designed with capabilities far in excess of anything can actually legally be used. A reflection of course of the prevalence of small cock syndrome.
Used to work for a firm insuring councils for “highways” which meant pothole claims. When we got more claims we raised premiums, a lot, so they started filling in potholes. Lots of interesting legal cases on exactly how long they need to be aware to be liable.
Find the oldest pothole. Blame that one.
“Find the oldest pothole.” For some of the ones round here you could use carbon dating. On the mammoth remains at the bottom.
Fascinating, sort of.
Do potholes wear disguises? Surely in the rain, when you should be driving more cautiously anyway. My sympathy is limited.
I’ve driven the Dempster Highway which has some spectacular potholes, you don’t see people around there with low profile tyres
@ bis 3:58
Thanks for that: worth mentioning if anyone can contact the poor guy. The photo in the paper shows him by the side of the road with two potholes circled in white paint that the council’s employees used to mark them out for repair.
two potholes circled in white paint that the council’s employees used to mark them out for repair.,/i>
Be very careful with that assumption, john. Knowing in councils, that may be simply be to direct the council’s pothole inspector for the decision about whether that meets the council’s definition of a pothole. But, whatever, a fine example of why you have potholes.
The French solution to the problem is an open backed truck with a pile of mixed asphalt & aggregate, two geezers & a shovel. Presented with a pothole, they shovel the mix in the hole & run the truck tyre back & forth over it to level. Thus inspection, solution, fixed. No pothole.
@ bis
I’ve actually asked about this and the explanation given (skipping the bit that if they don’t mark them out the council employees will skive and only fill in two-thirds of the holes) is that an inspector goes round when potholes are reported and marks them out for the reapir team. That it is more efficient to have an inspector go round first than just have a repair team to go there with a shovel and some tar says a lot about *some* council workmen.
@Steve Crook
As @bis wrote Councils are liable to pay compensation for damage caused by potholes they’ve been made aware of
I shafted them by spraying their yellow paint around potholes. Council employee customer told a friend they were furious, but approved repair
philip @7.12, I nearly got totalled on my bike by a pothole hiding on the back side of a speed bump.
BiS at 4.11, a Challenger 2 would struggle with some of the potholes around here.
“I’ve actually asked about this and the explanation given (skipping the bit that if they don’t mark them out the council employees will skive and only fill in two-thirds of the holes) is that an inspector goes round when potholes are reported and marks them out for the reapir team. That it is more efficient to have an inspector go round first than just have a repair team to go there with a shovel and some tar says a lot about *some* council workmen.”
Its also the case that the repair team may not be council employees but private contractors. So identifying what they are supposed to be filling in is important so that they don’t spend their day filling in tiny cracks and then billing the council for all the unnecessary work.
And even if the repair team are a part of a council owned ‘works’ team, its usually the case that such functions are held in arms length organisations, because such jobs have to be subject to tendering requirements. So the contract for pothole repair will be put out to tender, the council’s own public works organisation can bid for that contract (and will probably win it) but all the admin must operate as if the contract winner is not controlled by the council. Hence the requirement for an inspector to go around painting yellow paint around what needs repairing, and for the repair team to follow and fix whats marked.
Consider taking the council to the small claims court, for the cost of repair/replacement, which can also include any damage to the wheel the tyre was on. No lawyers involved and, if the council claim they weren’t told about the 10 potholes, request/require printouts of all phone calls relating to pothole reports for the previous 14 days. Even if you lose, your only cost is the initial fee for bringing the case. The media will have a field day
A more proactive act, not that I would suggest doing it, is to throw a load of stones at a big window in the council offices, and demand they point out the actual stone that broke the window if they want you to pay for the damage.
Instead of calling them ridiculous (they are ridiculous) he should have said ‘right, yer honor – this one, this one right here’ – and just pointed to one of them.
Then let them run around trying to prove it *wasn’t* that one.