Mr Pothole stands over the crater and shakes his head.
This indomitable figure grips a ‘Best Ever Grandad’ engraved tape measure in one hand and wields a 50-inch spirit level in the other – a weapon he nicknames ‘my sword of truth’.
Crouching over the pothole he takes meticulous length and width measurements before balancing the spirit level across the rut to record its depth. After noting down these vital statistics, he whips out a smartphone to take photos as if he was a forensic science expert at a grisly crime scene.
‘The secret to success is to be a pain in the backside,’ says Mr Pothole – whose real name is Mark Morrell.
The 63-year-old retired gas engineer, who lives in Brackley, Northamptonshire, has earned his moniker as the most successful person in Britain at having potholes fixed – getting 10,000 filled in over the past decade.
Mark Morrell, aka Mr Pothole, sizes up a deep pothole with the Mail’s Toby Walne
And he’s agreed to share his top tips with me – both for getting your council to fix potholes, and winning compensation.
He says: ‘Start by recording the details of a pothole – so always carrying measurement tools in the car. But to win your fight for justice you must be tenacious – and get to grips with the local council’s policy for repairs.’
Typically, a hole must be at least the depth of a golf ball to be fixed – 4cm. But councils confuse the situation by offering different measurements for what constitutes a pothole, with some dictating at least 5cm and 30cm wide.
The crater we have assessed is on the outskirts of Marston St Lawrence, a Northamptonshire village and home to Geri Halliwell and her Formula One boss husband Christian Horner. We are four miles north-west of his hometown of Brackley.
Morrell is also a former town mayor and tells me, ‘We have fewer potholes than any other town in Britain because I never let my council off the hook.’
At 12cm deep, 18cm wide and 260cm long, our crater might do serious damage to a car.
He says: ‘I will report this pothole immediately. But at the same time, I must check the local authority’s so-called “intervention criteria” – how often the council checks a stretch of road and when it should be repaired following a reported pothole.
Mr Pothole once drove an orange tank to Parliament to protest about the quality of our roads
‘You often have to be a detective and put in a Freedom of Information request to smoke out this information if they will not tell you or it cannot be found on a council website.’
Under Section 41 of the Highways Act 1980 highways agencies and local authorities must ensure roads are ‘maintained in such a state of repair that it is reasonably passable … without danger caused by its physical condition’. This includes dangerous potholes.
But in Section 58 of this same act, authorities try to weasel out of paying up for repairs or costs if your car is damaged by claiming they have taken reasonable measures to check the roads for potholes.
Councils often hide behind an excuse of having up to 26 weeks from a report to getting one fixed. But if they fail to provide evidence that they make adequate road checks in the first place – as often as every week for motorways to once a year for minor roads – they have a case to answer. Morrell says: ‘Of course, it is not just about road safety – but the cost to the motorist.
‘So, when you go to the garage for a repair make sure the mechanic puts down in writing that the damage was caused by the pothole. You hand this dated itemised bill to the council.’
Potholes are caused by water seeping into the road surface, then freezing in the gaps – with the expanding ice breaking up the Tarmac even more. On dark, wet roads after dark, craters are often disguised as puddles.
Potholes are also creating traffic chaos. Two weeks ago a ‘massive’ pothole crippled 20 cars on the M4 motorway – while last week another crater caused carnage on the M25, wiping out 58 cars and leaving motorists stranded for hours.
Morrell is also a former town mayor and tells me, ‘We have fewer potholes than any other town in Britain because I never let my council off the hook.’
Now there are more than 1 million such potholes across Britain costing the economy £14.4 billion a year in traffic problems and repairs to vehicles and roads, according to the Centre of Economics and Business Research.
Simon Williams, of the motoring organisation the RAC, says that pothole damage to cars typically costs £460 to repair. He says: ‘At this time of year call-outs soar with broken shock absorbers, suspension springs, damaged alloy wheels, and of course, flat tyres.’
The number of call-outs to the RAC due to pothole damage – not including flat tyres – was up by a third to almost 30,000 in 2023 on the previous year. The motoring organisation fears the figure could rise further this winter.
Morrell says: ‘A lack of funding is a common excuse used by councils – but there is also a clear lack of common sense. The crater we measured had marks made around it by the council three months ago, but nothing done. Many holes could be filled when reported.’
Adding to the armoury to get councils to fix holes, Morrell encourages motorists to also sign up to a free smartphone app called Stan (Safer Travel Around Neighbourhoods). This provides details of defects on roads. So far one seventh of the country has been mapped using this app, but motorists can help by signing up to Stan, mounting their phone on the windscreen to face out on to the road and record a journey video to be downloaded on to the app.
Morrell hopes that if enough information is provided local authorities could soon be forced to take note of the findings – and fill in more holes.
Research by comparison website Confused.com has found that 4.4million claims were made from motorists to councils last year for pothole-related incidents – up 6 per cent from 2020.
But local authorities are becoming increasingly mean-spirited at paying compensation. They handed over £3.3million in 2023, which is less than the £3.8million paid out in 2020.
Mr Pothole’s guide to winning compensation:
- Take close-up photos of the pothole with a tape measure, include road position, signs and car damage. Take a note of time, weather and traffic conditions. A sketch of the area – or a downloaded map – also helps.
- Find out who is responsible. National Highways is response for motorways and major ‘A’ trunk roads in England and Wales. Map details are available at nationalhighways.co.uk. In Scotland, it is Traffic Scotland. For smaller ‘A’ roads and lanes, it is your local council. Ask it to send a claims form or download one from its website.
- Ask a local mechanic to put in writing that they believe the damage was caused by a pothole – and include this with any repair bill that must be itemised and dated.
- If a claim is rejected do not give up. Under Section 41 of the Highways Act 1980 highways agencies and local authorities must ensure roads are well maintained. Under Section 58 of this act authorities try to avoid paying up by claiming they have taken reasonable measures to check roads for potholes. The best way to tackle this is proving a road is not properly maintained. If the council fails to answer, make a Freedom of Information (FOI) request. Demand an inspection log to show how well maintained the road is, how exactly they inspect and the repair policy.
- Go through the FOI response with a fine-toothed comb. Were inspections done on foot or van, what speed was it travelling at and how frequently are patrols made? If a pothole is already reported, how does the authority categorise it as a risk, how long did it take to fix, why were no repairs made? Check this against its own policy for inspection. If there are discrepancies, you have a case.
- If you have gone through this whole process and the claim is still rejected consider going to the small claims court. But be aware it initially costs you £50 to claim £500.
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