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Council using extreme weather in 2009 / 10 as an excuse not to pay out.

by mattservini@jasbowman.co.uk

09 Nov 2010

An extremely large pothole resulted in £175 damage to my car.

After many letters and submit a requests for info using the Freedom of Information Act, I have successfully got the council to admit that they should have repaired the pothole a month earlier than they did.

However the council are claiming that the extreme weather that hit the UK in mid December and lasted for 1 month resulted in their repairs being put behind schedule as "it is difficult to repair potholes after snow and ice has sat for a long period on the road surface. Due to the fact that the water has penetrated into the road core, making it too cold and wet for the repair to bond" .

I recall the winter was bad but also their word several day of warm and dry weather in January where all the snow and ice had thought out completely for days.

I have tried to get a day by day whether history from the Met office but this will cost me hundreds of pounds.

Do you know how I can get a free weather history a local area?

Also can you confirm at what temperature is a road can or can’t be repaired?

Matt

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Comments (2)

simon.jones posted : 19/11/10 at 6.13pm

It's the same defence that my council are using against my claim. But, 37 days between the first report of the pothole and my incident, maybe the court will see sense that it's reasonalble for them to have fixed within those timescales. rnThe other point I wanted to raise is that there are materials (Colas Coldpatch and RonaRoad GreenPatch to name 2) which claim to be able to make repairs in such conditions....afterall, what happens in the Nordics or Scotland?

Potholes.co.uk Expert posted : 12/11/10 at 9.24am

I use this site as a starting point if I'm looking for weather data that I don't have to pay for;rnhttp://www.weatherstations.co.uk/aws_map.htmrnIf you are lucky, you will a weather station with historic data close to where you are looking.rnrnA road can be repaired at any temperature. However, the point they are probably trying to make is that pothole repairs in wet/cold conditions are generally a waste of time and money. The material used to fill the pothole will not bond to the existing road material, and if temperatures drop below zero, the water in the road will freeze and expand, which usually causes the new material to blow out (called 'spalling').rnrnThe winter of 2009/10 was the UK's coldest and worst winter for 30 years, so looking through weather data for a few dry days in January might not be your best course of action, as all this means is that they had hundreds and hundreds of potholes to fill in those days.rnrnWe don't know yet if the argument that last years winter caused huge delays in pothole filling is going to be accepted as a defence to claims. My own humble opinion is that it will be accepted, but what do I know......

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