Council “disappointed” after resident brings successful pothole claim

St Albans Crown Court ordered the local authority to fix a set of potholes within 20 working days earlier this week, after a former construction project manager took action using section 56 of the 1980 Act, which allows anyone to serve a notice on a highway authority over disrepair.

According to the BBC, the claimant, Derek Bennett, said that he had also made applications against Cambridgeshire County Council and Buckinghamshire Council over potholes.

He said he hoped that other members of the public would pursue orders in an effort to improve roads in their own areas.

A spokesperson said the council was “disappointed that this routine maintenance issue has resulted in legal proceedings being issued.”

The council said it had already repaired three of the roads before the court hearing, and that it had already scheduled repair work to the others.  

It said there are “much quicker and simpler ways” of letting the council know about potholes, pointing to the online fault report system on its website.

Adam Carey