A Nottinghamshire chef has slammed the condition of the county's roads and said he feels he would not have got a speeding fine if he didn't have to concentrate so hard on avoiding potholes. Relief head chef, Howard Brown, 51, of Wollaton, says he received a ticket after concentrating on the poor road surface rather than his speedometer to avoid further damage to his car.
Over the last two years, Howard has paid hundreds of pounds in repairs to his car after it had been damaged by potholes on multiple occasions. Howard is now facing a fine and participation in a speeding awareness course after he said his efforts to avoid potholes caused him to exceed the speed limit by driving 46pmh in a 40 zone.
Howard estimates there has been around £1,000 worth of damage to his BMW, and is growing frustrated at the poor conditions of the county's roads, as his job means he has to travel to various schools and hospitals across Nottinghamshire. Howard said: "My car is just not geared to take them."
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He explained that in the last year or so he has had two tyre bulges which were caused by hitting a pot hole which then damages the wall of the tyre, "which causes the tyre to bulge, and when that happens it's an MOT fail." Howard has had to replace his front tyres twice, which cost him around £400.
Howard has also had to pay for his car's tracking to be repaired, after one side of tyres were worn more than the other and his "tracking was all over." He said: "I have had to pay £99 to get all the tracking done, which is also caused by bad roads."
He also revealed how in 2022 he "hit a huge pothole on Nuthall Road" in Nottingham, which buckled the wheel. He reported the situation to Nottingham City Council and the local authority paid for him to have it repaired. This would have cost around £700, but he managed to find a second hand one on eBay for £275.
Becoming more aware of the deteriorating roads, Howard decided to get a dash cam fitted so he could log all the potholes he comes across. He said: "So now when I hit one I pull the dash cam footage on my computer and log it with the council on the day or evening it happened."
Speaking of the speeding incident, Howard explained that he was driving 54 miles on a Sunday morning to a hospital and "just lost track." He said: "Fair enough as I went through at 46 but it's just all these factors, having to watch the roads more and everything.
"I was worried I was being distracted as I was having to look at the road surfaces. Is it fair of the police sending out fines when a lot of the road surfaces are just blatantly illegal?"
Howard recently also hit another pothole on Westdale Lane, which he has reported to Nottinghamshire County Council. He continued: "The day after I went to get my wheels balanced as every time you hit a severe pothole I have to go to a garage to get the wheels balanced to make sure they are not warped.
"It's all time consuming, they checked the balance of the wheel and they quoted for the chip repair which was £30 and £5 for the balancing. I put in a claim for it and I would quite like my money back as it was caused by that pothole."
Howard believes that the heavier cars on the road could also be partially responsible for the potholes emerging. He said: "I went touring around Belgium and France and there was not one pothole, the roads were amazing, but they don't have four by fours.
"I have to say that these heavy cars that are two to three tonnes, there are loads of them around, and I don't think they are helping either. I know lorries are heavy too but you don't have one around every corner."
Regarding the condition of Nottinghamshire's roads, Gary Wood, Head of Highways and Transport at Nottinghamshire County Council, said: “The combination of sub-zero temperatures we saw in December, the effects of salt used as we grit the network and an exceptional level of rainfall over recent weeks have all taken their toll on Nottinghamshire’s roads, but we are not alone as an authority in experiencing this.
“Residents may see an increase in emergency repairs as we keep roads safe throughout the winter until larger scale repairs can be made, however we will still be undertaking permanent repairs wherever we can and are continuing with our large-scale patch repairs as part of our four-year programme. Where residents notice potholes, we ask that they continue to report them to us either through our website or the My Notts App.
“Speeding is enforced by Nottinghamshire Police and any appeals on speeding tickets should be directed to them.”
Hugh Bladon, a spokesperson for the Alliance of British Drivers, said: "I can see where he is coming from as we all have to do it, the roads are in an appalling state now.
"If you want to avoid damaging your car you do have to drive almost zig zagging down the road to avoid these wretched holes and of course whilst you are doing that you are not concentrating on what actual speed you are doing. 46 in a 40 is not excessively fast, it's not as if he is a hooligan or anything, he is just driving as we all do and has been a little bit over the limit as he has been concentrating on something else rather than his speed.
"I sympathise entirely with him and I think it is not probably a defence, but a perfectly reasonable thing for him to say as we all do it."
Nottingham City Council has been approached for comment.
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