A driver from Mansfield has blasted the state of roads across and potholes Nottinghamshire as a 'disgrace'. It comes after his car was damaged after hitting a large a pothole.
Mark Hills, 50, was travelling to work on his own on February 21 when at around 6.30am, he hit a large pothole on Clipstone Road in Forest Town. Mark, who was working as a skip lorry driver at the time, knew he had done damage to his '14 plate Ford Mondeo as soon as he hit it.
He coasted to a flat part of the road and had to change his wheel in the howling wind and pouring rain at the roadside. He said: "A massive chunk was taken out of the wheel, when I hit it I knew I'd hit it hard. I've been trying to get this sorted through the council, but they've dallied from the start.
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"It's not my fault, I didn't deliberately drive over it. The roads in Nottinghamshire are a disgrace, especially around Mansfield, you can't drive down one single road where you don't vanish."
He reported the pothole to Nottinghamshire County Council, and says it had been "temporarily fixed" after his report came in along with five others. Mark says he has tried to make a claim for the council to pay for the repairs to his car.
He added: "It's not a massive claim I'm after, it could have easily been sorted. They've fixed the hole, which to me says it's their problem, and I don't get what the problem is. It's a huge expense and something I don't need. They know the state of the roads."
He says he has paid around £75 for a basic new wheel. Mark wants the local authority to accept responsibility and pay for the repairs - but he said the council has not accepted responsibility.
Mark took his Mondeo to Glenn's Low Cost Tyres in Mansfield, where a mechanic issued a receipt which has been seen by Nottinghamshire Live, which states: "Cosmetic impact damage to face of wheel, tyre has impact damage to sidewall caused by pothole".
Mark added: "There is a duty to make the roads safe, and I know they're working hard to fix it but they're a mess. I was lucky it was just a wheel."
According to the AA, local highway authorities can’t be held responsible for a pothole they didn’t know about.
A spokesperson added: "They might not have known about it if it hadn’t been reported to them, or because it wasn’t spotted by them during their regular checks. But councils do have a responsibility to fix large potholes if they know about them. And they're supposed to keep the roads safe."
Nottinghamshire County Council has been contacted for comment.
