The UK road network is as bad as it ever was; County Councils' Highway Agencies have seen their budgets slashed and funds diverted to pay for the Labour Governments social programmes every year since 1997. It isn't going to get better anytime soon.

No only that, ethics and the ownership of responsibility at the senior public service employee level have almost entirely disappeared from public life today. Not only will no-one take responsibility for failure but now senior public servants will routinely and actively seek ways to disclaim their legal responsibilities and even to divert blame elsewhere (preferably onto the victims and / or complainants themselves in the first instance and then, if that's not possible, onto junior staff).

One of the major sources of public ire is the damage caused by lack of road maintenance which results in potholes on our roads. Potholes are very dangerous because they are not always visible (particularly in rain or snow and on dark nights), consequently motorists, cyclists and motor-cyclists - and even pedestrians, joggers and horse-riders may drive or ride over or fall into them. Even in bright daylight they can be a problem because on single carriageways and tracks they can be a hazard because they may be unavoidable and must be traversed. Even at modest speed (and that includes a fast walking pace), the damage to the travelling vehicle, cycle or persons can be horrendous.

Councils currently typically spend £35 million every year repairing potholes - however, crazy as this sounds - they spend another fantastically huge £60 million a year in compensation for the damage they have caused. This huge amount is just the tip of the ice-berg. Most Councils have a policy of rejecting and then fighting against claims made by road users for damage caused by them - and many claimants simply give up their rights to compensation because they are unsure of their rights or are frightened of the cost of pursuing a claim. The council's Legal Advisers and senior public servants are well aware of this, and this explains their unethical policy.

So what is to be done? Here is a true story reported in the Daily telegraph which gives a clue as to how to effect a claim:

"In December last year, my car hit a pothole measuring more than 4 foot long and 2 foot wide. It was up to 6 inches deep. I wrote to the local council, claiming damages for the cost of two new tyres and one new wheel. All I received back was a letter stating it had a 'Statutory defence'.

I wrote again but the council simply replied with a further denial of any liability.

Undeterred, I issued proceedings in the county court; by way of evidence I produced three witness statements confirming that the hole had been there before the council's last inspection, and a copy of a case before another county court where the District Judge had ruled that, in the case before him, on the balance of probability, a hole of such size could not have arisen between the date of the council's last inspection and the date of the incident.

On seeing my evidence, the council then paid my claim in full, plus the £50 court fee."

In this case, persistance paid off. It is clear that councils do have a liability for damage caused by poor maintenance of their roads.

It is also clear that claims are most likely to be successful if 'evidence' is produced at the time of the claim (witness statements, previous court guidance on related cases, photographic evidence of the incident scene, the pothole and the damage caused [it is good to have a camera that can annotate the pictures with date and time], and possibly a written report by the garage, engineer or person who repaired the damage, together with a copy of their invoice etc.)

The message is simple; don't suffer in silence, make your claim. After all, you pay an awful lot of money for the privilige of using the roads.

Recently, there has been correspondence in the press about the pursuit of prosecutions for speed fines by foreign (continental) nation states on UK Nationals after they have returned to UK.

2008 Breakfast Club Dates And Themes
Click on the website www.Goodwood.co.uk/breakfastclub to pre register for Breakfast Club and you could 'win a Flight in a Warbird!'
Following the huge popularity of the 2007 Goodwood Breakfast Club season, the much anticipated dates and themes for the 2008 Sunday morning meetings can now be announced.
The Goodwood Breakfast Club will be held on the first Sunday of the month, from March until November (excluding September and October) at the historic Goodwood Motor Circuit in West Sussex. The event will once again host a series of meetings with the promise of an eclectic mix of vehicles and a great organic breakfast menu to get the appetite of any motoring enthusiast going.Below is a full list of 2008 Goodwood Breakfast Club dates and themes, with a summary of the sort of vehicles visitors can expect to see at this year’s events.

MG RETURNS TO THE BRITISH TOURING CAR CHAMPIONSHIP
REGENCY RUN - ENTRY FORMS NOW AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD
KIMBER RUN - IT'S NOT TOO LATE TO ENTER
WEB SITE ON-LINE SHOPPING PAGES NOW REDESIGNED AND UPDATED

View the latest news: http://www.mgcars.org.uk