| Dundee City Council has confirmed it has already received around a dozen compensation claims from motorists, while a campaigning website is reporting a surge in the number of reports it has received nationally from angry drivers since the start of the bad weather.
According to one local trade leader, almost all taxi drivers in Dundee can expect to have their cars damaged by potholes this winter.
The dire prediction was made by Graeme Stephen of the Dundee Taxi Association.
He told the Tele he already knows of one driver who has had to replace suspension springs as a result of hitting a particularly vicious pothole in the Dens Road area.
“Fortunately, he used to be a mechanic so was able to do the repairs himself,” he went on.
“The roads are full of really bad potholes just now and a lot of drivers have been complaining about it, and a lot of passengers, too. It’s got to the stage where just about every taxi is going to suffer problems.
“We are not just driving over them once going to work and once on the way home — we are going over them all the time and that affects every part of your suspension,” he explained.
Even so, Mr Stephen urged drivers to show patience when pushing for road repairs.
“I must stress the ice and snow have just recently gone and you have to give them a chance to get the potholes sorted,” he continued.
“Obviously the weather has had an effect, because they weren’t so bad before, but I would hope that, through time, they will be fixed – and sooner rather than later.”
Campaigning website www.potholes.co.uk had already received more reports by the middle of this month than it did throughout the whole of December, with many of those logging on reporting damage to their tyres, wheels and suspension.
It estimates that as many as one in five mechanical failures on UK roads relate to potholes, at a cost of around £320m each year.
Cyclists, too, have been hard hit. National cyclists’ organisation the CTC also runs a website — www.fillthathole.org.uk — where problems can be reported, and one of the most recent alerts relates to a problem in Long Lane in Broughty Ferry.
The CTC, which estimates that one in eight compensation claims made by its members relates to potholes, has compiled a league table of UK councils and their efficiency at dealing with the problem.
Dundee comes 39th out of 212 local authorities, with a 47% repair rating, though it is beaten by Fife, in 28th place (52%). Angus is in 68th position (41%) and Perth & Kinross trails in 111th place with a repair rating of just 34%.
However, all the Tayside councils fare better than Scotland’s three other main cities — Edinburgh in 143rd place (30%), Aberdeen in 170th (24%) and Glasgow at 188th (19%).
A Dundee City Council spokeswoman said the number of claims received so far is no more than usual for this time of year. No pay-outs have yet been made, she added.
Compensating drivers cost the council £3637 last year (2008/09) as a result of 48 successful claims from motorists. |
