Motorist demands council pay £1.7k repair bill after pothole damages car
A car driver is demanding his local council pay him more than £1,700 after he claims a pothole left his vehicle in such a state he was unable to drive it.
Motorist Matt Shawtell says the hole in the road in Draycott measured six-centimetres deep and one-metre wide, when he hit it last December. Six months on he is still rowing with Staffordshire County Council over who is responsible for the damage he says was caused to his car. Matt, from Oakamoor, said: “I’ve still not had any response and it’s particularly annoying having hit it at Christmas when you don’t have that much money in the bank as it is.
"Ultimately I don’t feel the bill is justified for me having to pay it considering how bad the roads are. Almost the whole length of that road there are potholes and bad surfaces. What I’d really like is first of all for the bill to be paid and second to put in money to highways to actually fix the roads because they’re getting worse and worse.”
The pothole he claims damaged his car
Staffordshire County Council says pothole compensation claims are administered by its insurers, reports Stoke-on-Trent Live. Darryl Eyers, county council director for economy, infrastructure and skills, said: “Our highways inspection team received a report of the mentioned defect in Cheadle Road on 12 December. The pothole was inspected the next day and an emergency repair was made there and then. If a pothole causes damage to a resident’s vehicle, they have a right to make a claim for compensation on our website.
"Claims for compensation are then handled externally by our insurers so we are unable to comment on a claim's status. We do, however, urge residents to continue to report potholes. We have recently seen a huge rise in pothole reports after experiencing one of the wettest and stormiest winters on record in Staffordshire. This is why the county council has invested an additional £8 million to double down on fixing more roads over the next 12 months.”