Dear Sir,
For the second time this year, heavy rain has caused significant damage to my family’s cars as a result of the inadequate condition of the road surface on School Aycliffe Lane. In early January, an 8” deep, 15ft. pot hole emerged and ours was one of 20 cars, according to the Borough Council’s figures, (there would undoubtedly have been more!) that reported and suffered damage to wheels and tyres. Kwikfit thought it was Christmas all over again. The same thing happened again on Wednesday. Heavy rain created a pothole of similar dimensions and resulted in irreparable damage to both near side wheels on another of our vehicles. (I attach a photograph). I was certainly not the only car that hit the pothole.
The response from Darlington Borough Council’s insurers – the Technical Department didn’t respond directly – to the initial incident in January was to assert that their only duty is to operate a system for for inspection and maintenance. According to them, they discharged their duty by conducting an inspection at 13.45 in the afternoon, determining that it was a priority repair and then left the pothole unmarked until 9.00 the next morning when they repaired the pothole. They are therefore not responsible for any damage. They chose not to mark the hazard in any way. We hit the unmarked pothole at 4.15 that afternoon, my neighbour hit it at 8.30 next morning. We both had to replace tyres and wheels.
I haven’t gone into the details of this latest incident yet but imagine that their response will be the same. From my (admittedly bitter!) view, the response of the Borough Council has been totally inadequate. To leave such a hazard unmarked overnight is not complying with their duty, it is negilgence of the highest order, especially as the only way to avoid the hazards was to swerve into oncoming traffic. They are very fortunate that the only consequences were vehicle damage and not serious accidents, both in January and this week.
The condition of the road surface on School Aycliffe Lane is shocking. It is a patchwork of badly effected repairs and make dos. They should use the money they have saved not paying for damage to who knows how many vehicles caused by their inadequate maintenance to do a proper resurfacing job and make the road safe once and for all.
Stephen Quigley
School Aycliffe
