Yahoo News Ayr car dealer fumes after giant pothole wrecks tyre on Jaguar F-Type motor - and council refuse to pay up for damage
A top car dealer has slammed council chiefs for leaving him out of pocket.
Jason Skimming saw one of his luxury fleet spiked by a pothole “the size of a crater” outside his garage. The boss of Caledonia Vehicle Solutions was forced to fork out £368 for a replacement tyre on the high-end Jaguar F-Type sports car. And he admits to being stunned when a claim for compensation was thrown out by the Ayrshire Roads Alliance.
Jason, who owns and runs the dealership and MOT centre in Ayr’s Peebles Street, told Ayrshire Live: “I was preparing the car for a customer coming down to test drive it. He was actually travelling a considerable distance – more than two hours away – and was on the verge of arriving when I was moving the car round the back of our garage.
“As I came along Back Peebles Street, the car has struck what I can only describe as a pothole the size of a crater. It was a case of either hitting that or hitting the wall. It totally ripped the sidewall from the tyre and wrecked it. Because of the specification of the tyre, it’s not the type we keep in stock or is easily attainable. So the customer had come all that way and was unable to carry out the test drive.”
Jason, 37, lodged a claim with ARA assuming his picture evidence of the damaged tyre and pothole would be more than enough to suffice.
But he explained: “I was stunned by their response. They fully admitted that the pothole had been reported by someone else a week before I hit it. However, they said a ‘target date’ for the repair had been set for 45 days later.
“How is that supposed to help someone like me who then comes along and encounters a clear danger that’s already been reported? All they had to do was stick a cone beside it to warn people – how hard is that to do? And then funnily enough, the day after I hit it and lodge my complaint, they come along and fix it.
“There might be no automatic right to compensation but I think the claim against the damage caused is valid and find it astounding that they would think otherwise.”
A spokesperson for The Ayrshire Roads Alliance said: "The Ayrshire Roads Alliance can confirm that the back of Peebles Street, Ayr, undergoes an annual inspection aligned with the “Safety Inspection Strategy Manual” and the East Ayrshire Council Roads Asset Management Plan (RAMP), with the most recent inspection showing no defects prior to the incident in question.
"A fault report received on 16 February 2024 prompted immediate action, with repairs completed well within the designated timeframe, indicating no negligence."
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