Man sues Essex County Council over car damage
A man whose car was damaged after hitting a raised manhole cover, is suing Essex County Council for compensation.
He wants the county council to accept public liability for the damage to his 21-year-old MG Montego Turbo.
Interestingly, the local county councillor had also reported the manhole cover to county highways officials after his own car was damaged on it.
The manhole has now been fixed but the 51 year old man claims if the county councillor had not got involved, nothing would have been done to rectify the problem. "They didn’t even put up warning signs,” he said.
He stated that his car hit the cover and was so badly damaged that it had to be towed to a garage.
“I’ve had the car from new and kept it in pristine condition. It only does 2,000 miles a year, which is why I’m all the more upset about it being damaged in this way.”
The council has written to tell the man he has no grounds for a claim.
He said: “The Highways Act means nothing to me, but that’s what it’s hiding behind. We’re not talking about a lot of money, but that’s not the point. It’s the principle. The car could have been written off, through no fault of my own.”
Updated on 11/19/2009