Pothole proves costly

AN ANNAN driver who had to fork out £95 after hitting a pothole has slammed Dumfries and Galloway Council.

April Harrison hit the crater on the road between Chapelcross and Annan at the end of last year.

The tyre was flat just minutes following the impact and April had to go and get it replaced.

She subsequently reported the pothole on the council website before lodging an insurance claim.

The insurers recently reached the decision that they would not be accepting liability and would not be offering any compensation.

They said: “The highway concerned is inspected on an annual basis. The last routine inspection before the incident you told us about was on October 22, when the defect was noted and added to the council’s programme of repairs.

“Unfortunately, this incident occurred within the timescale for said repairs to be carried out.”

In reply, April said: “The response was just quite annoying and disappointing, they had known about it but just hadn’t got round to fixing it yet.”

April said: “(When it happened) it was just like a big thud. I just thought that wasn’t a good sign. I stopped at Tesco to get fuel and it was already flat at that point.”

“There’s a few bad ones on that road. I could not avoid it as there was a car on the other side of the road.

“I provided them will all the information and pictures they asked for and they’ve taken no responsibility.

“They were aware of the pothole two months before this happened as stated in their email to me but have not taken responsibility and have not yet been to repair it.

“In their email it also states: ‘local authorities have a duty to maintain roads, pavements and other highways’. However, this has not been the case as they have failed to repair the road.

“It’s really disappointing as I pay road tax and council tax, and you would expect that if you’re paying for those things then the roads should be in a suitable condition for my car to drive on.

“If my car has to go for MOT to prove it’s roadworthy, the council should make sure the roads are in a worthy state for my car to drive on.”

A council spokesperson said: “Improving the state of our region’s roads is a priority for our council, involving a multi-year planned programme of works.

“When a road defect is reported, our council’s roads service will check whether a recent inspection has been carried out.

“If a recent inspection has not been carried out, then we will inspect the defect within 20 working days of its report and categorise the defect based on several critical factors to determine its urgency.

“This approach enables us to use our resources efficiently, aiming for maximum safety and infrastructure reliability across the region.”