News
Man Demands ₦175k From UK Govt. After Deadly Potholes Damaged His Car
The angry man demands ₦175,600 repair bill from UK Government after deadly potholes damaged his car.
He said he has been complaining to the Plymouth City Council about potholes near his home for four years.
A man in UK, Al Mitchell, has slammed Plymouth City Council for ‘ignoring’ his pleas to fix potholes near his home for four years after having to pay £300 to fix his broken down car.
After finding out that some of the damage done to his car was probably caused by potholes, Al sent the £300 repair bill, which amounts to ₦175,600 at current exchange, to his council for restoring his car.
Photos shared by Al to back up his claims showed several potholes on the roads which allegedly made significant damage to the ball joint of the suspension arms of his car.
He told Plymouth Live :
‘I asked the manager down there for the workshop, and he said it had likely been caused by driving over potholes regularly.
‘It’s absolutely ridiculous, we’ve been on to them for the past four years about it. We’ve filled in about five forms, rung them a number of times, and all we get is “oh the road’s fine”.
‘We sent them (the council) the MOT bill in the last complaint but we haven’t had anything back from them yet. I highlighted on the bill the repairs I’d been told were likely caused by the potholes. It all just falls on deaf ears.
‘Over four years we’ve been on to them about it, and they’ve partially filled some in once, and then now they’re even worse.
‘It needs the whole stretch redoing, especially with the amount of traffic that comes down here now. It’s just constant.’
Reacting to Al’s claims, Plymouth City Council agrees there is damage to the area Al is talking about, but doesn’t believe the damage is serious enough to warrant intervention.
It said :
‘We have recently inspected Penrith Gardens and although there is surface damage to the road there have been no potholes identified that would require immediate repair.
UK Govt to use £500m to fix 10 million potholes in 2021
‘We have an agreed safety inspection process for potholes and anything that requires intervention is at least 40mm and at least 300mm wide.
‘In the past, the road was resurfaced using a technique called ‘overlaying’, which is placing a new surface directly on to an old surface, without replacing the core.
‘However, we are looking at alternative longer-term solutions for this type of deterioration.’
Earlier this year, the UK Government pledged to spend half a billion pounds (£500m, N267 billion) to fix 10 million potholes across the country’s local roads this year.
The potholes funding is the second instalment from the £2.5billion Potholes Fund launched by the Chancellor last year.
The worst areas for potholes in the UK — in terms of the number of reported cases — included Cornwall, Cambridgeshire, Derbyshire and Devon. The four areas mentioned above have 210,311; 184,402; 172,297 and 147,779 potholes respectively.
