Someone remind me what the f*ck I pay my road and council tax for?

[Dan]

...because courtesy of a lovely pothole in our oh-so-well maintained roads, I've just f*cked £130 of new Contisport rubber along with f*ck knows how much £ of 17 inch Avus.

Brilliant thing is, after limping into a pub carpark and changing to the spare, I went back to check out the hole that did it and found a couple of guys there...

...changing a wheel.

Please tell me it's still possible to sue these c*nts? (Leeds council, not the two guys changing their tyre, that would be a little unfair).

Also, what the f*ck did I do to little baby bejeebus in a previous life that he feels the need to bend me over and royally f*ck me in the ar.se like this?

[Tap Towers]

Yes you can, Dan, but it takes lots of work, photo evidence, witnesses, and other victims, well worth pursuing if you are out of pocket.
If there are a few people who have suffered at the same spot, swap details etc, and try a solicitors letter to the local authority.

If you use the "up my street" website, the hole will prob get sorted quicker than that, but you wont get any recompense.

[JMLAudi]

Holes

Hi Dan

I lost a BBS split rim due to a pothole too last week.......going over the moors at night( bent it on the inside lip)

I changed a couple of lasses Fords wheel as she hit the saame inverted sleeping policeman i hit

The authorities dont want to assist at all........after we complained 2 days later holes filled


cheers
john

[Dan]

Alright, I'll do my homework and send them a nice letter.

I like how this happened 2 days after getting new rubber fitted. I actually feel a little bit sick.

[Tap Towers]

Could be worse i suppose, the A1 is bad in the northeast, the potholes resemble long tramline strips, and when you hit one of them 70mph+...

My dad drives (suffers) with a 55 plate renault laguna, and the wheels on that have the softest alloy i know, driving over a tab end fooooks them, hes gone through 4 in 4 months!

[Dan]

hah, well this is the first one I've done... so fingers crossed.

Unfortunately the S2 isn't as forgiving as the A6, which just absorbs everything.

Kinda kicking myself about the whole thing now, but on the other hand, I really had almost no chance of spotting it at night. Just gonna have to be more careful where I take the S2.

[Error404]

Meticulously photograph and measured the hole, with something for scale, also get the details if you can of other poeple who have also hit it.
Report it to the police before lodging a claim against the council with all your supporting evidence - plenty people are having successful claims like this at the moment dude to the handy camera phone
The roads are in such **** state now after labour totally neglectd them for 10 years and then a harsh winter

[macspring]

My wife did a front Contisport in on her Touran Avus 17", in the dark two weeks ago. Couldn't understand how the tyre got it and the rim was perfect, thankfully hit on the outside of the rim.

The Bridgestone tyre centre said that Contisports had very soft sidewalls, but don't know how true that is.

Changed the car back to 16"Avus for a while.

My understanding is that over here if they've repaired the hole and it becomes a pot hole again you can susccessfully claim, but if it is a fresh hole that they haven't touched, your claim won't be succcesful.

Having said that it, I'd treat each case on it's own merits. Like over there, there are a lot more potholes, and deep ones at that, after all the snow melted.

I feel your pain, and expense for what it's worth.

[Le S2 Audi]

...because courtesy of a lovely pothole in our oh-so-well maintained roads, I've just f*cked £130 of new Contisport rubber along with f*ck knows how much £ of 17 inch Avus.

Please tell me it's still possible to sue these c*nts? (Leeds council, not the two guys changing their tyre, that would be a little unfair).

Sorry Dan,

But you are wasting your time and money trying to sue... The council hide behind "Section 58" of the road traffic act...

I tried this last year after my missus did the same with her fiesta ST..

http://www.s2forum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=43941

Sorry M8...

[bazburn]

Tell me if I'm being daft here...

All the major road improvement nowadays are done by contractors for the council/Gov. We all must have had some done around us in say the last year and there are some of them that are part of said problem. Do they not have some sort of guarantee period from these contractors so we as taxpayers wont have to pay and the council should have help/recompense to get said road repaired.Or do we not have such a thing? Any coonsle ( Geordie..) workers out there...

Yours, prepared to be shot down in flames...

[SE_30]

Anything’s worth a try so go for it I say, even if you don't get money from them least you've tried I've got experience of roads with councils, I borrowed my dads allroad to move some rubbish, during driving the mobile went, so pulled over to answer it, abiding by the law.. finished the conversation and pulled off, not see that right in front of where I’d stopped the drain cover in the roadside was missing from the drain, the passenger rear tyre went down the hole luckily the allroad has big enough tyres for it not to fit down the hole, the car then went up in the air and came down with a bang that hard it broke my toolbox in the boot, I got out and thought what the *uck was that, looked at the car it had put a hole in the rear passenger tyre sidewall, ripped the side skirt off and buckled the wheel, First thing I done was take photo evidence, called the council and waited for them to come out, half hr later they were with me at the roadside, I said unfortunately for me that I'd found the hazard in the road but imagine if it had been some bloke or kid on his bike? Anyways after a few weeks of me pestering them and visiting the spot on two more occasions I eventually got refunded the £850 it cost me at Audi to have it repaired.. Just a tip..try having a look at the history and frequency of the mandatory inspections on that road that the council have in a log.

[Le S2 Audi]

Read this; http://www.potholes.co.uk/claims/step_by_step_guide

I found out after many hours of digging that as long as the council have inspected the road with in a regular 3 month period, and have duly acted on the report ie fixed the problem... you dont have a leg to stand on...

If the repair is done by the council or other company, as long as they have fixed it there is nothing you can do... The repair don't have to last for 3 months - it just has to be acted on...

I took this up with my MP and still got nowhere!! I pointed out that councils hide behind this ACT and they denied it BUT thats what they do - they are covered by the crown by this act and you have to prove that they have failed to comply with it.. The FOIA is all supplied in gobbledygook so you have no way of working out whether it is true or not..

I also got a letter from my council pointing out that the FOIA had cost the council over £200.00 to process so I suggested that they should have just paid that to me and I would have been happy with that.. Instead they then passed the case onto a firm of solicitors to deal with...

IMO it would cost less to settle the claims rather than fight them - BUT they seem to have 1, the Crown to back them up and my Council tax money to then fight the case and then bill me via my TAX for all he claims submitted via FOIA and the accountants as this is not funded from the Government...

GO FIGURE!!!

I just gave up in the end.....

Which if anyone who knows me - Is not like me unless I can't win....

[Dan]

Ah, typical public sector - covering there own asses at any expense to the taxpayer :corey:

I'm still tempted to put in a FOIA request, though, just to see if they have inspected it in the last 3 months. It's an out of the way road, so I wouldn't be surprised if they skimped out.

At least I'll know if I have any remote leg to stand on, for the sake of a 5 min email.

Also, nice stats here:

http://www.potholes.co.uk/facts

I am so done with this country.

[Benjinkan]

Crap innit? I smashed up the front suspension on my old Corrado VR6 going through a pothole (chasm) in the dark a few years ago.

Never got anywhere with the claim I put in with the council

[Dan]

Well, just totalled up the damage: £130 of tyre plus just over £320 of wheel - £450.

That's assuming nothing else was broken by the impact - the whole car bounced pretty well.

Not bad for a 5 min run down the road