Report Potholes in Tendring – Essex County Council – Highways Dept
I reported a dangerous pothole in a road near to my house a few days ago, the pothole had been there for some time apparently and when I hit this particular pothole it broke two expensive alloy wheels a rear tyre and also propelled me across the highway into the oncoming traffic. After clipping a van I came to rest in the rain and then spent some time getting my car to a safe place with flat tyers and broken wheels.
It was in the dark and I was absolutely livid that such a huge pothole could of been left like that, if a motorcycle had hit it then as a rider myself I know I would of been propelled over the bars and possibly killed.
Now I took time out to get my composure and got my car recovered to my home, the next morning I went to the spot with a camera and a tape measure to determine the dimensions and to take pictures. I took plenty of pothole pictures and then contacted Tendring District Council, they then redirected me to the Essex County Highways Department.
I logged the pothole and asked for urgent action, I then took reference numbers and also registered the incident for a claim to recover damages to my car. I then reported the incident and the location to the police and asked for them to put out a warning sign for other road users because whilst I was taking pictures I had two people stop and tell me they had also suffered a similar fate, one of these people was a driving instructor.
I then contacted my insurance company to make arrangements to repair the car.
The lane where the pothole is runs from Weeley to Great Bentley and I travel it every day taking my son to school, it is a general rat run of potholes but they are now getting completely out of hand because the council have not dealt with them during the summer. Most of the potholes are a legacy from the winter of 2010 and very few had proper reconstruction and repair during the summer.
This means that the road will effectively fall apart during the oncoming winter of 2011 and thus more people will be suffering the unfortunate and potentially life threatening experience of roads that are no longer fit for safe travel.
The result of the complaint to the Police was that they took no action to warn people of the danger, no signs were placed and subsequently at least one more incident happened.
The result of the complaint to the Highways Department at Essex County Council was simply astonishing!! A work team eventaully did a temporary repair to the pothole, right next to the really bad pothole is a second that at just a few inches further down the road is breaking out the same way and may even break into the pothole they just repaired. This second pothole was untouched, no repair even though it is just inches from the first one, a closer look down the land shows a number of similarly dangerous potholes that within a few days will all offer the same life threatening road defect.
I am completely bewildered by their standards and certainly it is difficult to understand how they can be trusted to look after our wellbeing through road maintenance.
On Monday I will post the pictures so their amazing negligent attitude can be seen in the visual perspective but here are a couple to wet the appetite!
Here is the pothole from above – further pictures will show dimensions, depth and the sheer face of the pothole.
