Drivers want council to pay for pothole damage

9:34am Friday 15th February 2013 in News By Matthew Taylor

The pothole struck by Mandi Lloyd’s car in Church Minshull The pothole struck by Mandi Lloyd’s car in Church Minshull

CREWE commuters face a gauntlet of potholes in Church Minshull, according to drivers who want Cheshire East Council (CEC) to pay for damage to their cars.

Mandi Lloyd has written to CEC seeking reimbursement of the £249 repair work to her Suzuki Alto.

Mandi, a school teacher in Crewe, said she was returning home along the B5074 at 5.30pm on February 4 when she hit a ‘massive’ pothole beside the kerb.

She explained: “The road has no street lighting, which made the hole difficult to miss as it was dark. “This area of road is extremely dangerous given the position of the hole on a narrow sweeping bend.

“I hit the hole with such force it immediately burst my tyre. I pulled the car over a few yards up the road and had to ring my husband for assistance.”

John Lloyd likened the pothole to a ‘trench’, 4ft long and 2ft wide. After inspecting the wheel the next morning, the couple found the tyre had split and the wheel was badly buckled.

Mandi added that she ‘would be very surprised if this is not a daily occurrence for other drivers.’ One such driver is Ginette Woodward, who has been off work with stress after she was stranded on the B5074 in the pitch black.

Without her car, the 36-year-old has been unable to get to her job as a carer in Northwich, or transport her child to primary school.

Ginette said she spent her journey on January on Wednesday, January 30, ‘dodging potholes’ before she felt a sharp thud to her wheel.

“It was 7.15pm. It was pitch black and I couldn’t see a thing. I got back in my car and pulled over in the nearest lay by. I was shaking with the whole experience. I was close to tears and I panicked. I couldn’t find my mobile phone to contact my parents for help,” she said.

Ginette’s wheel was so badly damaged that she had to abandon her vehicle until the next day. Now she wants Cheshire East to reimburse £300 damage to her vehicle.

CEC have announced a £25 million investment in tackling potholes and the council are in the process of prioritising routes needing the most urgent attention

Comments(6)

Edward Hunter says...
10:15am Fri 15 Feb 13

Perhaps the local Councillor ought to sort it out - oh and guess who is the local Councillor - the Leader himself Michael Jones.

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Richard 21 says...
7:13pm Fri 15 Feb 13

Crewe’s roads are a disgrace compared to other counties, in Wales the roads are near perfect & also in Leeds where my Daughter is at Uni there & they have more severe weather.
I ride a motorbike daily & its becoming a death trap what with trying to avoid the crumbling speed humps & the size and the depth of the potholes, I dread to think what would happen to me & the bike if I happened to hit one. I emailed Mr John J Dodd of the Cheshire east council about the road situation to which he did reply. He went on about the funding situation and this new great machine they have to repair the potholes ”from his response” we have recently been using a proprietary process called Velocity Patch; this process involves blasting a mixture of bitumen emulsion and a suitably sized road stone into the pothole under extreme pressure, this results in the pothole being filled extremely effectively, efficiently and to a profile that is acceptable to road users.
Has anyone seen this being used? The Government go on about council saving money but surly doing a quick fix with the back of a spade then 2 week later going back to do it again surly is a waste? Do it right 1st time! I reported 2 potholes last week one being by Sunnybank rd bridge, not even 2 weeks and its coming out already “another waste”
I dread to think what the firm is charging per pothole knowing full well they will be back to do it again & getting paid again!
Bring back the local council workers that used to repair almost anything, and to a good standard, the worst thing the government did was privatise these jobs.
I run 4 vehicles and pay road fund licence on all these including the astronomical fuel prices where is all this tax going? Maybe we should all stop paying our road fund licence until the infrastructure is redone?

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Richard 21 says...
7:16pm Fri 15 Feb 13

People should go on the Cheshire East web site & start reporting the potholes, the more people do this the more they will have to react

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Edward Hunter says...
7:19pm Fri 15 Feb 13

The velocity patch was used on a pothole near me at the side of the road; within a couple of weeks the repair had fallen apart. A few months later it was repaired again, after I reported it again, with the velocity patch and you've guessed it, it fell apart within a couple of weeks. The next repair was done with the old fashioned barrow, shovel and lorry and that patch is still there.

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HarriStotle says...
9:54pm Sun 17 Feb 13

Could someone please tell me what Prioritise! Is about. Ye find a potohole, you find a pothole you fill it in. Simples me thinks. Don't you. You are locking young kids up at a cost of £200, 000 year, per kid. I kid you not its in the sun.this week. Yet you cant make jobs up for a young people on say £400 a week which would cost £20, 000 a yr. And the people that lock them up. Could work with them and give them the reassurance, an respect and most of all being wanted and needed to make are lifes better, give them the self respect back andthe love and guidance that everybody needs, could get jobs in the leisure and retail, fresh produce, food a could go on

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HarriStotle says...
10:02pm Sun 17 Feb 13

Richard 21 wrote:
Crewe’s roads are a disgrace compared to other counties, in Wales the roads are near perfect & also in Leeds where my Daughter is at Uni there & they have more severe weather.
I ride a motorbike daily & its becoming a death trap what with trying to avoid the crumbling speed humps & the size and the depth of the potholes, I dread to think what would happen to me & the bike if I happened to hit one. I emailed Mr John J Dodd of the Cheshire east council about the road situation to which he did reply. He went on about the funding situation and this new great machine they have to repair the potholes ”from his response” we have recently been using a proprietary process called Velocity Patch; this process involves blasting a mixture of bitumen emulsion and a suitably sized road stone into the pothole under extreme pressure, this results in the pothole being filled extremely effectively, efficiently and to a profile that is acceptable to road users.
Has anyone seen this being used? The Government go on about council saving money but surly doing a quick fix with the back of a spade then 2 week later going back to do it again surly is a waste? Do it right 1st time! I reported 2 potholes last week one being by Sunnybank rd bridge, not even 2 weeks and its coming out already “another waste”
I dread to think what the firm is charging per pothole knowing full well they will be back to do it again & getting paid again!
Bring back the local council workers that used to repair almost anything, and to a good standard, the worst thing the government did was privatise these jobs.
I run 4 vehicles and pay road fund licence on all these including the astronomical fuel prices where is all this tax going? Maybe we should all stop paying our road fund licence until the infrastructure is redone?
Privatisation is like a rape on are society, the goverment is smirking and sneering, George Osborne. Can you really trust him. Hes a Rotter : ((( please read my post lower down on this page, its goes a bit funny at the end, because the pad or site were playing up.

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