10:29 am, May 15, 2024
A car dealer has taken aim at his local council after a Jaguar F-Type suffered hefty damage in a pothole ‘the size of a crater’ outside his showroom.
Jason Skimming, boss of Caledonia Vehicle Solutions in Ayr, was left £368 out of pocket after having to replace a tyre on the high end sports car when it fell into the large cavity.
He made an application to have the money refunded by the Ayrshire Roads Alliance (ARA) – a shared service between East Ayrshire Council and South Ayrshire Council – but was turned down.
Skimming, who runs an MOT centre alongside his dealership, said he was ‘stunned’ by the verdict and has criticised the body’s approach.
The 37-year-old told the Daily Record that someone else had already reported the pothole a week prior to the Jaguar incident but nothing was done.
Instead, the ARA said a ‘target date’ for the repair had been set for 45 days later.
The damage meant that Skimming was forced to cancel an upcoming test drive, despite a customer travelling a ‘considerable distance’ to try the vehicle out.
‘I was preparing the car for a customer coming down to test drive it,’ Skimming explained.
‘He was actually travelling a considerable distance – more than two hours away – and was on the verge of arriving when I was moving the car round the back of our garage.
‘As I came along Back Peebles Street, the car has struck what I can only describe as a pothole the size of a crater.
‘It was a case of either hitting that or hitting the wall. It totally ripped the sidewall from the tyre and wrecked it.
‘Because of the specification of the tyre, it’s not the type we keep in stock or is easily attainable. So the customer had come all that way and was unable to carry out the test drive.’
He added: ‘I was stunned by their [ARA] response. They fully admitted that the pothole had been reported by someone else a week before I hit it. However, they said a “target date” for the repair had been set for 45 days later.
‘How is that supposed to help someone like me who then comes along and encounters a clear danger that’s already been reported?
‘All they had to do was stick a cone beside it to warn people – how hard is that to do? And then funnily enough, the day after I hit it and lodge my complaint, they come along and fix it.
“There might be no automatic right to compensation but I think the claim against the damage caused is valid and find it astounding that they would think otherwise.’
In response to the car dealer’s complaint, the ARA said it had taken ‘immediate action’ to fix the pothole.
A spokesman said: ‘The Ayrshire Roads Alliance can confirm that the back of Peebles Street, Ayr, undergoes an annual inspection aligned with the “Safety Inspection Strategy Manual” and the East Ayrshire Council Roads Asset Management Plan, with the most recent inspection showing no defects prior to the incident in question.
‘A fault report received on 16 February 2024 prompted immediate action, with repairs completed well within the designated timeframe, indicating no negligence.’
