A husband who believes his local council should pay a large bill to fix his wife’s Porsche after it was damaged by a pothole has lost his appeal. Neil Walker says he feels “absolutely disgusted” with a council's final decision and is now left counting the soaring cost to repair the classic German vehicle.
Mr Walker’s wife was driving through Derby in May last year when it is claimed the car hit a significant defect on the road. He says the road had been “repaired poorly” and was “uneven” at the time when the vehicle hit “two bumps on the road”, causing damage to the front bumper with various scratch marks visible on the front, reports Derbyshire Live.
But despite receiving pictures of the road from Mr Walker, Derby City Council refuted his claims and say there is no record of any defects on the road at the time. Mr Walker, 51, asked the council to review its original decision on the case but the claim has been dismissed. In February 2022, Mr Walker claimed quotes for a full repair hit the £1,000 mark. Due to inflation rising throughout the year, a full repair now is likely to cost hundreds of pounds more.
Mr Walker said: “I appealed the decision but wasn’t successful. They have disregarded the pictures I sent to them. I feel absolutely disgusted. I was told by the council to get insurance quotes. But if they already knew what the outcome was going to be, then it was a total waste of my time doing that.
"I think the council is wrong. If they looked after the roads a bit better, there would be less damage to cars. Just last week I hit a pothole, it was on a dual carriageway so I couldn’t stop and take a picture. It’s not great, you are paying road tax for nothing basically. It’s an insurance claim we could do without. I will get the Porsche repaired. I’ve got to or else I will lose money on it.”
The council confirmed Mr Walker contested its original decision but its stance on the matter has not changed. A spokesperson for the council said: “We can confirm that Mr Walker contested the council's decision in February 2022. The council's claims handlers advised him that they would be issuing a final reiteration of their original decision and that he could seek legal advice if he wished to pursue the matter. On 30 August 2022 our claims handlers informed the council that they had received no further contact from Mr Walker and would be closing their file.”
The council stated in February: “The council’s highways maintenance records for the preceding six month period prior to that date did not identify any defects on Canal Street at the material time Mr Walker alleged that the damage occurred. His claim was therefore repudiated, and the matter closed.”
