Hit the mother of all potholes last night on the way home (Dark country road with no lighting) Round a corner and wack, hit the pot hole dead on.

On the last bit on the way home (about 3 miles) there was an occasional clonking. Had a quick look when I got home and the wheel is not damaged and droplink, wishbone all looks intact so cant actually see where the clonking is coming from. I hate problems like this which are not obviously clear.

 

it could be your shocker mate

 

Go and get a pic of the pothole and report it to the council. Then tell them that you will bill them for the repairs. Seek advice if you have to but don't foot the bill yourself!

 

This site may help you if you claim:

http://www.potholes.co.uk/

 

Has this been done before??

 

I think if you are the first to report it you won't get anywhere as the council have to be given the chance to fix it, if someone else has reported the pothole you'd stand a good chance of being compensated.

 

The 1st person to report the pot hole doesn't get any damaged repaired. Get a friend to report it puncturing their tyre. Take a photo and say you was following behind. That way you can claim off the council if I'm correct.

 

This ^^^^ is bang on

Just been through all this hassle myself, if the council are aware, and it's been highlighted with that yellow paint they use to mark out roadworks then you have a claim

If your the first to report, then you don't have a chance in hell

 

Yes mate, I hit one about 5 years ago and bent an alloy on my kangoo work van, the alloys were after market and we could not replace it as no one knew which make they was, the council offered to pay for one alloy and one trye but i told them to politley do one, after 3 months of arguing they stumped up £475 iirc which did cover the cost of new wheels ect
Get some pics mate with a ruler showing the depth ect as they will try and weasel out of it

 

Most Councils put aside about 10% of their entire road budget for the year to cover litigation.

Go for it, the money's there for you!

 

Yes. I was driving my father's AMG Merc about 30mph when I hit a pothole full of water (sorry I mean crater) and it smashed the front suspension and royally f'ed the alloy on that side. Those things will fly over very rough surfaces without noticing to give you an idea of the size of the pothole.

I went back the next morning and got a pic in the light with a ruler for depth and width.

When I phoned them they tried to wriggle out of it. Said I should claim on insurance, said there were no potholes there, all sorts. Amusingly my father had gone out to look at it and was taking a pic of it himself when the council workers turned up to fix it! When I phoned them back someone on the phone said there had been no reported potholes on that road.

To cut a long story short, we threatened to involve a solicitor and they stumped up a four figure bill to repair the damage. You get your money mate it's not like it's your fault it's their negligence that has led to the damage!

 

I hit a pothole a couple of years ago in my corolla and it royally ****ed the alloy, split the tyre and buggered the shock. It was down a dark country lane and it was filled with water. Anyway I reported it to the council with an estimate of the cost to repair and they replied back asking how often I use the road. I honestly said about twice a month and to they're reply they said I should have known it was there and been more aware when driving! I also reported it on that potholes website but got no where with it and had to stump up the £200 bill myself.

 

I have had a similar thing happen in the past and have claimed and won. The day after this one happened the hole was filled. It's just more annoying to find out where the actual noise is coming from

 

Had similar happen awhile ago, and while my alloy looked ok, when the tyre was replaced the wheel was found to have cracked on the inside of the rim.

Just a thought but councils do have their own MOT stations. It might be worth phoning the council and explaining what has happened, and ask if it would be possible for their testing station to check your car over for you as it is down to their negligence.

 

Whatever you do with these things, collect your evidence for the damage as soon as possible. As D4vidh confirms, they fill them in the next day if they think you're going to claim and then play dumb about it.

It makes me sick with all the fuel tax and road tax I pay that the councils negligently let our roads fall to bits and expect us to foot the damage for their problems.

 

I think you need to find out a bit more about Highways Maintenance and relevant funding.

Potholes are relevant to general road condition and weather conditions at any one point in time.

The simple fact why potholes are worse now than they may have been over the years is purely down to lack of funding..... from central government in-line with increased traffic, road use and recent weather conditions.

I work in the world of Highways Maintenance and play a key part in a local authority £20 million a year Highways Maintenance contract..... and there are still potholes on the that highway. Double that funding and you may be able to sort the road network out. That is the sheer size of funding required, and this for a road network that is not big in comparison to other authorities.

 

I appreciate that there is a budget deficit but when some of the roads are clearly falling to bits and nothing is done about it one does get a bit cheesed off!

I also appreciate that some of the smaller potholes may be left due to budget constraints but on a few roads I know well there are potentially serious accident-causing potholes that go unchecked - it was amazing how quickly the council went and repaired the pothole that knackered the Merc's front suspension after we got snotty about it... turned out it had been reported as dangerous by someone living nearby weeks before.

For the record funding is a big problem in my line of work too and I guess it's part of a wider issue in general. It's quite alarming to see how money is spent (some may feel wasted!) in other areas while you do the best with what resources are available.

 

Unfortunately it's slightly more complicated than that......

Each local authority will have a policy on how it inspects it's highway, how it categorises defects and what the intervention levels are.

Many will base a frequency of inspection on road classification. For instance A roads being inspected more often than a D road, due to the fact that they carry more traffic. But this could be several weeks between each inspection (even for a higher frequency classification). A pothole can "breakout" in a couple of days..... there lies the problem.

Most councils rely on "reports from the public" to aid their inspection regimes, which makes sense as they simply don't have the funds to inspect and repair the roads on a weekly basis.

Everything will be based on priority and whilst there maybe a road that you see as "falling apart", there will be a very good reason why it has not been attended to. Either it's of less of a priority or it could be on a work programme to be actioned in the future.

Best thing to do is report it to your local authority and ask them when it will be maintained appropriately.

 

I know those issues, 4.5 years in the industry myself although not local authority - HA Areas 3 & 5.

Government seem to expect the HA to deliver the same service with half the budget, and as long as all works comes under the 'do minimum' with respect to resurfacing, the pothole situation won't improve.