Pothole claim

12:03pm Friday 4th July 2008

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A FURIOUS driver has been refused compensation for damage to his car which he says was caused by a pothole in a badly maintained road.

Derek Dickenson says his wheel trim was damaged beyond repair and his tyre had burst after he drove over a large pothole in Penn Bottom in March.

He submitted a claim to Buckinghamshire County Council (BCC) for £530 to have his Mercedes repaired.

But the council told him that an inspection carried out in December 2007 showed the road had no defect.

Mr Dickenson, 58, of Hill Avenue, Hazlemere, said: "The nature of the road is that it's quite narrow and there was a lorry coming the other way. I had slowed down, but I had to keep to the left hand side of the road.

"Then I felt this almighty thump and 200 yards further along the road I realised I had a puncture.

"With it being a rat run road between the Amersham Road and Beaconsfield, I held up rush hour traffic for half an hour while I changed the tyre."

While officers accepted the pothole could have occurred since December, their regular inspection schedule means they are not at fault and do not have to reimburse him for the damage. But, Mr Dickenson said checks every six months "hardly seems to be adequate in view of the volume of traffic we suffer in south Bucks" and claimed the pothole had grown in size by 50 per cent since his accident in March.

A spokeswoman for BCC said: "We thank Mr Dickenson for this further information and are making further enquiries with our contractor to ensure that our procedures have been fully adhered to.