Pothole damage
Discussion
Hit a really bad pothole 6 months ago - it was hidden under a shallow puddle of water which didn't look any different to the 100s of other shallow puddles of water on the road - it wrecked two of my tyres. I pulled over and in the 5 minutes I was there about 10 other cars hit it with a bad crunch, a few pulled over to check their tyres and a few kept driving (a marked police car that hit it kept driving despite the loud bang/crunch!)
It was the middle of the night so I reported it to 101 so they'd set up cones or something.
It's a stretch of road that's always bumpy and never maintained properly, so I put a claim in with the council for the two tyres. They had a standard form which I filled in with pictures, etc.
Over the last 6 months I've contacted them about 20 times and got nowhere.
The council say "We don't handle claims, call this external claims admin company that work for us".
The claims admin company say "We've been requesting the road condition report from the council since you put your claim in and they haven't sent it yet."
Both the council and the claims company say these things are usually resolved within 8 weeks. It has been 6 months now.
... Where do I go from here? Give up/write to councillor/small claims court/other?
It was the middle of the night so I reported it to 101 so they'd set up cones or something.
It's a stretch of road that's always bumpy and never maintained properly, so I put a claim in with the council for the two tyres. They had a standard form which I filled in with pictures, etc.
Over the last 6 months I've contacted them about 20 times and got nowhere.
The council say "We don't handle claims, call this external claims admin company that work for us".
The claims admin company say "We've been requesting the road condition report from the council since you put your claim in and they haven't sent it yet."
Both the council and the claims company say these things are usually resolved within 8 weeks. It has been 6 months now.
... Where do I go from here? Give up/write to councillor/small claims court/other?
Write to the leader of the council (elected member) and to the chief executive (overpaid lacky) enclosing details of your claim and ask how to make a formal complaint against the council - details of their complaints procedure may be on the council's website but it won't do any harm to let the top men know you're not happy.
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