A County Durham driver says he has been left £300 out of pocket after his car hit a large pothole that badly damaged a tyre and kept his vehicle off the road for a week.
Matty Simpson, 31, from Cockfield, near Bishop Auckland, who works in highway maintenance in Darlington, was driving on Burtree Lane, near the A1(M) on January 25 this year, when his car clipped what he described as a “huge” pothole.
Mr Simpson said he immediately pulled over to the side of the road, where he saw the damage to his alloy and tyre, leaving the vehicle just about driveable to get him home.
Mr Simpson, who had just got the tyres three months previously, put a claim in to Darlington Borough Council on January 26, noting the location of the pothole, damage to his car and all of his details for their records.
Days later, he said he received a call from the council, noting his claim and saying that the local authority would be back in touch.
But the 31-year-old says he received a call a week later to tell him that the council couldn't find any fault and would not accept liability because it had fixed the pothole in a "timely manner", meaning they had "done their duty".
A spokesperson for the council told The Northern Echo it is only responsible for vehicle damage where negligence can be proven - for instance, if it had failed to repair a reported defect within the required timeframe.
Mr Simpson says that the repair to his car cost £300, his vehicle was in the garage for a week, and he had to borrow his partner's car to get to work.
"I was still fine getting to work in the end, but think about the number of people who wouldn't be able to work because their car is in for repair because of a pothole," he said.
"It's wrong what the council are doing. We pay into the system and expect to be helped if things go wrong, and something here is very wrong.
"I felt like saying to the council, 'How would you like to be left without a car?'
"It's a ridiculous situation to be in, and to insult to injury, they fixed the pothole the next day and then denied the claim.
"I work on the roads myself, so there's a little bit of irony there. I want to make people aware that if they're in the same position, the council won't pay out."
In response, Darlington Borough Council says that it "cannot comment on the detail of an individual compensation claim".
But a spokesperson for the council went on to say: "We have a statutory duty to inspect and maintain roads, and we are only legally liable for damage to vehicles or personal injury where it can be demonstrated that we have been negligent, for example, if we were aware of a defect and failed to take appropriate action within the required timescales.
"In this case, the defect was repaired promptly after it was reported to us."
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The spokesperson added: “We are in the middle of a really long spell of wet weather, which can cause extra problems for drivers.
"Cold and wet weather can cause more potholes to form as water gets into cracks and under the road surface, making small issues worse.
"We would encourage anybody who sees a pothole to report it via our website.”
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