Pothole damaged my car

taxiphil

Astaroth wrote:

Thankfully the whole basis of negligence is on reasonableness. The op said the inspection occured 3 months prior so on that basis it could be they inspect the road 4 times a year rather than 2

I thought that by the council's own admission they inspected it twice a year (see post #7 in this thread).

Astaroth wrote:

Given the hundreds of miles of road surface within a council juristiction it is not reasonable to expect them to inspect it every few days as you seem to be suggesting Phil - unless of cause you are happy to double your council tax to pay for the army of road inspectors it would require

No, I wasn't suggesting they inspect it every few days. What I said was that potholes can appear in a matter of a few days, therefore the OP might have a strong case in arguing that 2 inspections a year are not acceptable.

(And I think there's more than a hint of exaggeration in saying it would cause a doubling of council tax. Better road surfaces could easily be achieved at no cost to the taxpayer by stripping away some of the bureaucracy, inefficiency and wastage within local authorities).

Astaroth does have a valid point, though, about the type of road it is. If it's a minor back street the council might have some mitigation in only inspecting it twice annually.

Astaroth

Apologies - problem with trying to scan read posts whilst being in a dial in meetings, I missed the bit that says they inspect it twice a year.

If pot holes can appear in a few days then what would be a reasonable inspection frequency for a mid sized road? (ie not a major A road through the city but not a residential close either)

Certainly all public services are massively inefficient in comparison to the private sector but being realistic, I am sure there would me a very surprisingly high amount of total road surface within a councils control and as the council states, these do have to be inspected by people on foot and therefore to check every single road on a bi-annual basis does take a very large number of people - make this much more frequent and you get a vast number of inspectors required and then all the back office/ management structure to control such a large operation.

I can only go on my experience of handling claims in saying that the examples of people wining contested cases on pot holes are few and far between - from the councils response it would appear that they would probably contest.

Altarf

taxiphil wrote:

Roads need inspecting far more frequently. Potholes can appear in a matter of a few days.

Of course the council needs to inspect the road, but why don't motorists bother to report potholes?

There are no potholes on any of the roads I travel to work on which cross four counties (yes it's a long commute). If there are any potholes I report them to the relevant council (they all have online reporting so it only takes a few moments). Within 24-48 hours the pothole will be filled in. The councils know that if they don't act quickly, then if there is an accident such as the OPs, then they have no defence as they knew about the problem.

And before anyone says that their local authority is useless and takes 1000 years to do anything, just try it. You might be surprised.

CrazyChemist_2

Altarf wrote:

Of course the council needs to inspect the road, but why don't motorists bother to report potholes?

There are no potholes on any of the roads I travel to work on which cross four counties (yes it's a long commute). If there are any potholes I report them to the relevant council (they all have online reporting so it only takes a few moments). Within 24-48 hours the pothole will be filled in. The councils know that if they don't act quickly, then if there is an accident such as the OPs, then they have no defence as they knew about the problem.

And before anyone says that their local authority is useless and takes 1000 years to do anything, just try it. You might be surprised.

My local authority has a dedicated phone line open monday to friday 9:30 till12:00 then 13:00 till 15:30. And they are closed on Thursday afternoons :rolleyes: No online reporting either. But when I do phone up the spray painters come out and mark the hole within a day. That's about all that happens. When the paint around the hole has faded they come out and respray it again :rotfl:

Altarf

CrazyChemist wrote:

My local authority has a dedicated phone line open monday to friday 9:30 till12:00 then 13:00 till 15:30. And they are closed on Thursday afternoons No online reporting either.

Admittedly your council does seem to be a bit in the dark ages with its website, with "Online reporting soon. Please watch this space!", but why not just use the email address on their contact page?

CrazyChemist wrote:

But when I do phone up the spray painters come out and mark the hole within a day. That's about all that happens. When the paint around the hole has faded they come out and respray it again

One of the local authorities I deal with started off like that. I just CC'd the chief executive of the council in on the emails I sent reporting the potholes and chasing up why they have not been fixed. They don't need reminding now.

CrazyChemist_2

Altarf wrote:

Admittedly your council does seem to be a bit in the dark ages with its website, with "Online reporting soon. Please watch this space!", but why not just use the email address on their contact page?

One of the local authorities I deal with started off like that. I just CC'd the chief executive of the council in on the emails I sent reporting the potholes and chasing up why they have not been fixed. They don't need reminding now.

:think: How did you obtain the CE's email address?

I've tried the general email form but the last time I did that, it went to the admin dept > environmental department (hygiene division) > street lighting dept > environmental department > City council customer services > Highways department. And all that happened was the orange paint. :rolleyes:

I must admit they are quick when I phone up and mention it but it's pathetic that their opening times are so narrow Anyhow our potholes are now filled in but not very neatly - they are all lumpy and it's just as bad except we're now driving over raised pieces of tarmac instead of sunken :rotfl: Such is life

Altarf

CrazyChemist wrote:

:think: How did you obtain the CE's email address?

With any large organisation I find out the CE's name, dial the main switchboard, ask for the CE's PA (by name) and when you get through ask for the email address. Providing you don't sound mad it works about 50% of the time.

If that fails, then a search on google.

If that fails, then firstname.lastname@bigcompany.com firstinitial.lastname@bigcompany.com;etc
and wait to see what does or doesn't bounce.

The chairman of your councils email address is firstinitiallastname(nodot)@county.gov.uk

CrazyChemist wrote:

I've tried the general email form but the last time I did that, it went to the admin dept > environmental department (hygiene division) > street lighting dept > environmental department > City council customer services > Highways department. And all that happened was the orange paint.

Don't ever use webforms. Your council does have an email address, it just hides it. If you email then you can just keep forwarding the email until they get fed up with you and deal with it.