The increase in potholes recently has been pretty annoying.

Now its getting to the point it's dangerous.

This hole I dropped into last week in the pitch black was not the worst on this particular stretch of road either.

Shame on North Yorkshire County Council. I even alerted them to this deteriorating road surface back in November.

As this is an unclassified road and therefore only needs to be inspected once every twelve months what do you reckon the outcome of my claim will be? Yeah, I reckon I'll be fobbed off too.

I put a claim in last year as a huge chunk of tarmac that had been used to botch repair one of the many potholes was thrown up by a passing car into my windscreen, smashing it. Got rejected.

I won't go down without a fight on this one, it'll be time to involve the local press and as many other media channels as possible!

the problem is inspection times, I bust a tyre like that (well it deflated) and I claimed... i was told that as the road had been inspected in the required time, and was ok at that point, i couldn't claim :(

Yep, that's what I'll be told too.

The road was last inspected in August 2012.

However, I'm hoping that the fact I've reported a number of issues on this same stretch of road since then with no obvious remedial action I'll have grounds to appeal.

We'll see, I'm prepared to be a bit of a pain in the arse with this one, especially as I'm now £100 out of pocket.

lots of pictures and use a ruler or something to show the scale or depth of the hole, also go to the local paper if you get no joy on your first correspondence.

If they've been alerted you might have them. As long as you have a record of of since theirs might have been lost.

Stick in a FOI for details of reported potholes around when you reported yours.

If you're stuck for a measure of scale use a CD. CD's are a standard size so you can use it to give a measure.

Edited 13 January, 201313 yr by Aspman

Stick in a FOI for details of reported potholes around when you reported yours.

I'll stick a ruler and tape measure in the car tomorrow! The problem is I only ever use the road early on a morning and later at night so it's pitch black.

I'm now so nervous about driving down it that I'm in the middle of the road doing 40mph!

Any idea on how I go about purusing a FOI request?

Any idea on how I go about purusing a FOI request?

Here ya go:

https://onlineforms.northyorks.gov.uk/citizenportal/form.aspx?form=Freedom_of_information_request

Gaz

Brilliant, I'll be completeing the claim form at work tomorrow with some nice colour print out's of the pothole/damage.

I'll also be submitting a FOI request to see how many other poor sods have suffered the same fate as me.

Here was their response late last year after I escalated my complaint due to a lack of action from them after my first complaint...

Dear Mr **********,

Thank you for your e-mail of 7 Novemer 2012 which has been forwarded for my attention by the Corporate Director. Please accept my apologies for the delay in my responding - I've had to deal with the recent floods which has taken me away from normal duties for a week or so.

The main problem we face in repairing North Yorkshire's roads is the extensive cuts which has taken place to local authority budgets. This has significantly reduced the extent to which we can action major repair work and often all we can do is action any urgent repairs to defects which have become hazardous. This is the case with Moxby Lane and at present we have been unable to fund anything more substantial than the repairs you have seen.

North Yorkshire County Council has a formal maintenance inspection regime in line with its statutory duty. Moxby Lane is an unclassified road and, in line with national guidelines, it is inspected annually. The last formal inspection was carried out on 16 August 2012. We also respond to any reports of defects whenever these occur and any defects requiring attention are actioned. Such repairs may not be aesthetically pleasing but they are intended to keep the road safe for use. In addition, local office staff do travel this road from time to time as part of their normal duties so that its condition can be monitored.

We will continue to assess this road and ensure that it is properly considered for funding more substantial repairs, however, for this year I'm afraid that the funds simply are not there to allow anything more than the local safety repairs currently being actioned.

I am sorry that I cannot give you the answer you were hoping for. Like you, I would very much want to be carrying out major works on this and indeed many more roads but unfrotunately the funding simply isn't there to allow this to happen.

yours sincerely

Mr **** *******

Head of Highway Operations

North Yorkshire County Council

Highways and Transportation

County Hall

Northallerton

DL7 8AH

What a crap reply. Rather than try and improve the service provided just moan and blame the Government. That's pretty nasty damage. In the time we've owned our car I've noticed the wheels have become scratched quite badly; guess it must be the same cause.

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Most Councils have sod all money for potholes. It's all going on social care and ipads now.

A letter to your local Councillor or Mp can work wonders too. You'd be surprised how often a Councillor will chase thing like this for you. MPs will often write letters but care less about the outcome.

Much like threatening a shop with bad press a letter from an elected member can grease wheels at a high level.

Unfortunately the councils have no money at the moment (I know because I work for one- not in the highways dept though!).

York have just been given £500,000 to go towards road improvements (not to be used on repairs but only to be used for re-surfacing etc).

That's really annoying.

Just one of those things. Just have to be uber careful in future.

Phil

I reported a big hole outside my house, they fixed it in ten days, 7 days later it was like it had never been 'repaired'.

Utter waste of time and money patching like this.

There is a reason roads need to be resurfaced every so often rather than just patched or having cr*p sprayed on them.

A patch ticks the box to stop wheel claims. You didn't really think it was about repairing the road did you?

Round here they have a pot hole hit squad. Normally the patch will be done within 24hr of reporting. Very few pay outs on claims.

Just one of those things. Just have to be uber careful in future.

There is being careful and then there is a duty of care by the council to ensure the roads we drive on are safe.

The picture in the OP is in daylight, when I hit the hole it was pitch black, being more careful wouldn't have made the outcome any different I'm afraid.

Ah yes. That would be pretty hard to spot in the dark!