BBC Watchdog: Hole-y moly, there's so many potholes on our roads!

Tony

What Consumer Founder
Apr 7, 2008
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Bolton
The sun may be shining at the moment but think back to earlier this year. The snow and ice was bad enough but when it thawed we were left with some new symbols of a broken Britain - potholes.

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As a driver, if you're not thumping into one or swerving to avoid it, you're living in constant fear that a big hole's going to get you at any minute.

Watchdog reporter Chris Hollings says it's been particularly bad where he lives. He says the combination of bumps and holes makes his journey home a bit like doing the Grand National each day.

The Highways Agency should maintain motorways and trunk roads while local councils are responsible for the other 95% of our public roads, which includes filling any potholes. They're not doing too well though, judging by the many pothole-related complaints Watchdog has received.

The problem's getting worse because the number of potholes has reportedly increased by 40% over the last year. There's even been a national shortage of windscreens because many have been cracked by loose stones being thrown up from potholes.

The Watchdog team went out on the road to get the measure of some of Britain's worst road craters. One whopper in Sheffield clocked in at 56 centimetres wide, whereas Surrey has recently been crowned the pothole capital of Britain. There's evidence of the problem in Manchester and potholes litter the surface of Carver Street in south London.

Yet potholes are more than just a nuisance. Sometimes they can really leave you out of pocket. An anti-pothole campaign website claims the annual bill for axle and suspension repairs is £2.8 billion.

Robert Hopping had to shell out £400 for damage to his car wheel after a particularly nasty encounter with a pothole in London. Shortly after, the same pothole was hit by another unsuspecting driver and cost Louise Gill hundreds of pounds. They weren't the only two victims of that crater.

Not only was this a scary experience, but Robert and Louise both agree on how dangerous this could have been. Robert told Watchdog that drivers:

"Shouldn't be put to this sort of degree of danger on the roads in this day and age",

while Louise also expressed concern:

"It could have been fatal if a motorbike or a bike had gone over [it]. "

Despite the damage to their cars, Richmond Council's insurers refused to compensate these drivers. The authority says the road had been the subject of inspections every six months and the offending pothole has since been filled in.

The situation has left Louise feeling very angry - she doesn't understand why she's had to pay for damage that wasn't her fault.

It's not just drivers who are livid, cyclists are angry too. Ian Davis struck a pothole while out on his bike near Newbury. He tumbled over the top of his handle bars and says he ended up forty yards down the road.

The accident left him with some broken ribs, a dislocated shoulder and injuries to his hip, knee and hands. If there had been a car following behind Iain, he could have been fatally injured.

But, like those drivers in Richmond, Ian faced a struggle for compensation. It's taken four years, and a court battle with West Berkshire Council to get them to pay out. They've now resurfaced the road.

So, should we all just bump along and take the rough with the smooth? If your car was damaged, is there anything you can do?

According to Paul Kitson, a lawyer from firm Russell Walker and Jones, drivers need to take the following steps:

"Get witnesses. If you've had an accident, speak to people in the street. Did they see the accident? Get their names, telephone numbers.

"Take good photographs of the road defect. You need to clearly demonstrate the depth of the hole, the width of hole, the length of the hole."

Yet even if drivers take all those steps, you still may face a battle. We've seen how some councils are reluctant to pay out, while the Highways Agency - which looks after motorways - compensates just one in nine drivers whose cars are damaged on our main roads.

Last winter did bring one bit of seemingly good news - the former government released an extra £100 million to repair some of the road damage caused by the snow and ice. It may sound a lot, but fixing potholes is an expensive business and there's an estimated two million of them still to fill.

Meanwhile the new government is unlikely to whip out the chequebook. Paul Kitson from the Local Government Association believes the condition of our roads will get worse. He said: "Looking ahead, you've only got to look at what the government is facing in terms of public sector finance cuts and I think things will get worse. But I think the whole of our public forum, everything that's outside people's homes will look shabbier in five years time than it does now."

A Richmond Council spokesman said:

"Following on from the severe winter weather, Richmond upon Thames, along with many other parts of the country, was left with extensive pothole damage to its roads.

"A programme of repair has been underway since early February and indeed the particular pothole in question on Sandy Lane was made safe within two hours of receiving the report from the police and repaired within 24 hours of it being reported to the Council, at a time when the workload of our road repair teams was particularly heavy.

"We were sorry to hear about the problems caused to Ms Gill, Mr Hopping and other road users. We have been addressing damage caused to roads by the bad weather as fast as our resources allow but cannot be held liable for every case of accidental damage. Where there is a claim against the Council our insurers will decide if there is a case to answer and we will of course abide by that decision. There is no question that we would consider the evidence separately to our insurers and come to a different conclusion. Dealing with such claims is after all why we pay the insurers in the first place.

"The new administration which took control of Richmond Council on 7 May has made road repairs a major priority and we will be setting out details of our plans in the coming weeks including the amount of money to be made available to repair the boroughs roads."

West Berkshire County Council said:

"Obviously we accept the decision of the courts. Extensive resurfacing has been done of this road since February 2006. In March and April that year £155,000 was spent resurfacing the stretch through Wickham, and in 2008 a further £100,000 on other stretches of the road."

A spokesperson for the Highways Agency said:


"The network of motorways and major A roads in England, which we are responsible for managing, carries two thirds of all heavy goods vehicle traffic and a third of all road traffic, and remains one of the safest road networks in the world.

"We constantly monitor and maintain our motorways and major A roads to
ensure that they are in a safe condition and where defects are found they are quickly repaired.

"We thoroughly investigate any compensation claims and deal with them fairly and on their own merits. It is for the driver to provide evidence that damage was caused to their vehicle by a pothole.

"If the Highways Agency has acted properly in monitoring the condition of the road in question, and has repaired any defects promptly, it is not liable to pay a claim."




Hole-y moly, there's so many potholes on our roads!