Driver faces huge bill after pothole damages car

The government has told councils they must publish annual pothole fixing reports or risk losing funding

A driver is facing hundreds of pounds worth of repairs after he hit a large pothole.

Anthony Dean, from Lancashire, was visiting family in Suffolk when he hit the pothole on Symonds Road between the A14 and Great Saxham near Bury St Edmunds.

The car is no longer driveable and it comes after the government told local councils they must show how they were improving roads or lose out to millions of pounds in funding.

Paul West, in charge of highways at Suffolk County Council, said the council was "quite agreeable to publishing the details".

On Friday after hitting the pothole, Mr Dean managed to get to his son's home which was less than a mile (1.6km) away and found the car's automatic gearbox was damaged.

"I spoke to the local Mercedes dealers and they said they're not sure how much it would cost, but it's not going to be cheap," he added.

Mr Dean and his wife have had to book trains to get back home while their car remains in Suffolk to either have its gearbox repaired or replaced.

He described the pothole as about "three or four inches deep" and his wife had reported it to the council.

A member of the public not known to Mr Dean had spray painted expletives around the pothole on Symonds Road

The Department for Transport (DfT) said it would boost the local authorities' road maintenance pot by £500m from mid-April, but councils were required to publish annual reports detailing progress on pothole fixing, or lose a quarter of that extra funding.

"Last year we fixed around 20,000 potholes on our roads across Suffolk and we also had more longer term capital repairs to the roads on a longer term basis, on about 300 different roads," West said.

"We're quite agreeable to publishing the details.

"The outstanding question is what level of detail the government wants which is the information we're waiting for later in the week."

West argued the pothole problem was due to an increase in vehicles on the road and age of the roads themselves.

In July the council said it needed £50m a year to keep roads in "optimal condition", funded by DfT as well as council taxes.

Pothole guidance

According to the RAC drivers are encouraged to report potholes to authorities or, if it is a motorway or major A-road, to National Highways.

If you have hit a pothole, you are encouraged to take notes and pictures, if possible get details of a witness who saw the incident, get garage quotes and weigh up the pros and cons of making a claim.

You may be able to claim compensation, but chances of being successful depend on whether the pothole had already been reported.

Councils have a statutory defence that they cannot be held liable for defects they are not aware of.

When claiming, drivers will need to also include copies of estimates or invoices for their vehicle repairs, a current MOT certificate and photos of the damage if they have them.