Potholes cause £9k worth of tyre damage in a month

Garage claims this is over four times their average monthly order

Potholes cause £9k worth of tyre damage in a month

Cottenham Tyre and Autocentre, a garage in Cambridgeshire, reported ordering more than £9,000 worth of tyres in a single month this year, over four times its usual amount, due to customers experiencing punctures from potholes.

The garage typically spends about £2,000 on tyres monthly, but the unprecedented levels of rain in February led to an increase in orders. Garage owner Steven Johnstone described the situation as “crazy due to potholes.”

County council figures show that Cambridgeshire has over 6,000 potholes that need filling. The council stated it could fix 1,500 per week and that new funding in the millions would improve roads.

Mr Johnstone noted that February was the worst month, with many drivers unknowingly driving through large potholes disguised as puddles. This led to bent alloys, broken suspension coil springs, and deflated tyres.

Despite the increased business, Mr Johnstone empathised with customers, stating, “We feel for the customer. But when it gets offered up to us, we’re happy to take it and help the customer out.”

The county council filled over 50,000 potholes in 2022-23, with the majority filled by the Dragon Patcher machine. The council, the first authority to acquire the machine in 2018, has access to four of these machines. The average cost of a machine fix is £29 per pothole, compared to £88 for a road crew fix.

Alex Beckett, chair of highways and transport at the council, acknowledged “years of underinvestment in highways across the country” but added that this year, an extra £20m is earmarked specifically for improving the county’s roads.

Source: BBC News

1 Comment

  1. If there are 6,000 potholes and the council can fix them at a rate of 1,500 a week, in a month the job would be done. So get on with it!

    I am going to buy some of the road marking paint used to mark road damage and if my vehicle is damaged, I will mark the pothole and then claim off the council. Apparently, their excuse is that if they do not know, they cannot fix a problem. The way they know is by the paint.

    I pay lots of road tax and lots of fuel duty. I also am forced to pay to park my car at home and elsewhere on the public highway. Therefore, I expect reasonable roads for all that money. To be fair, Portsmouth City Council does a good job on our roads but once one leaves the city, one is catapulted into third world roads.

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>


The reCAPTCHA verification period has expired. Please reload the page.

Have your say!

0 0

Lost Password

Please enter your username or email address. You will receive a link to create a new password via email.