Woman forced to pay over £1,000 after Chesterfield pothole leaves her car damaged

Anne Todd, of Chesterfield, was driving on Newbold Road when her car suddenly hit an unmarked, deep pothole. She was forced to pay a total of £1,004.94 for repairs to two damaged tyres and the suspension needed repairs as well.

Anne said: “The pothole was huge. There was nothing there to say it was there. Now someone has put a cone in front of the pothole after more people were affected. I’ve heard of another three people who said their tyres have exploded because of this pothole. It is very dangerous.

"I’ve contacted the Highways Agency and the Derbyshire Council straight away. They said we could claim back some funds for the damage if we filled in a massive form and sent various pieces of evidence as proof.

"Potholes are an issue in the area, they are everywhere. The constant rain we have had just made it worse and worse. We pay a lot of money to the council to take care of the roads but they don’t seem to be doing very much. They don’t repair them properly so they just get washed away a few weeks later. I suppose that’s cheaper for them.”

A spokesperson for Derbyshire County Council said: “We know that the condition of our roads and pavements is a really important issue for us all – we all travel on our highway network at some point, and in many cases on a daily basis. Highways are working through all pothole reports as fast as possible and as quickly as weather conditions allow, including on Newbold Road, but also on a priority basis of both safety and main roads.

"We are sadly seeing an increase in potholes as a result of the really poor and extreme weather we’ve had over recent months - a wet summer, followed by flooding which included Storm Babet, and then an early extended freeze and now continued heavy rain. We are taking steps to fix as many potholes as possible and have taken measures including setting on additional reactive maintenance teams, extra hotbox teams (who lay hot tarmac repairs) and working round the clock whenever conditions allow.”

Residents seeking compensation for damage can submit a claim online while issues on roads can be reported via a dedicated website.