She said the impact caused by the pothole was so great she initially thought she had hit a passing dog — and she had to fork out £150 for a new alloy wheel.

Despite contacting the council almost immediately and filling in the relevant claims form, she was kept in the dark about whether or not she would be given the money.

Council representatives said it was “not unusual” for claims to take “some time” to be dealt with.

However, officials have now contacted her to say the council does not have insurance in place which would “automatically compensate” the driver for the damage to her vehicle.

She said, “I can’t believe they took six months to tell me this. They’ve been giving me false hope for all this time when they could have told me straight away.

“To say I’m insulted by their response is an understatement. I feel like I’ve just wasted my time with them.

“If they’ve known since day one they weren’t allowed to give me the money, why did they say they were dealing with it?”

In response to the claim, the council have said the carriageway in question is inspected every 16 weeks — and compensation is only awarded if negligence can be proved on the council’s part.

When inspected just before the incident, on September 23, officials claimed “no defects were noted”.

But the claimant has been so incensed by this she has taken photographs of the road and contacted local councillor, Kevin Keenan.

She continued, “I don’t know how much evidence of negligence the council wants. The potholes have been a complete health and safety issue for some time now.

“It’s not just drivers they could cause problems with. They’re also a danger to older people crossing the street.

“I can’t believe this is what I’m paying my road tax for. I feel Dundee City Council is just not interested, which fuels my anger further.”

The council has said a further inspection of the road took place on January 13.

Reacting to the motorist’s comments about the state of the road, a representative added the frequency with which inspections were carried out was “considerably better than that recommended for the category of road involved.”