A driver is facing a £700 repair bill for his car after driving over a hole in the road.

Tony Wells, 53, was travelling northbound along the A24 near Findon when he felt a large crash while changing lanes.

After pulling over to the side of the road, he found one of his tyre rims destroyed by a long groove in the road, which he had run over.

He said: “I just saw this pothole in the middle of the road, it was a groove about 12 to 15 feet long.

The Argus: Damage to the rims of Tony Wells's carDamage to the rims of Tony Wells's car (Image: Tony Wells)

“The camber and tracking on my wheels is out and the car was pulling to one side. The main thing is that it’s dangerous.

“it’s going to cost £700 just for one wheel. I’m very angry.”

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“They have forgotten something on a major road like the A24. If that was a motorcyclist they would have been in the central reservation.”

Tony said he inspected the groove and estimated it was around 15ft long and six inches deep.

He suggested that due to the lack of debris in it and the length of it, the groove may have been left from work being done on the road. He said: “To my eyes it looks like it’s been accidentally left and missed."

Tony later returned to the road and found the hole had been filled in.

He contacted West Sussex County Council and was told the road was “not currently at a level where it would be scheduled for immediate repair”.

Dash cam footage of the incident shows Tony changing lanes before a large dip and the car shaking.

In the first 11 days of 2023, West Sussex County Council received more than 2,500 reports of potholes on their roads.

The Argus: The groove in the road near FindonThe groove in the road near Findon (Image: Tony Wells)

In the nine months to January 2023, about 25,500 potholes were filled by the council’s highway teams on 145km of road at a cost of £8.1million.

A council spokesman said: “A local highways steward has visited the site and confirmed that two recent repairs have been completed on the northbound section of A24 between Findon and Washington.

“Further works have been identified to rectify a previous temporary repair and further defects were identified on the southbound carriageway. All scheduled repairs have been raised under the 28-day category and subject to traffic management we hope to complete these by 10 March.

“This section of the A24, given its classification, is on our monthly driven inspection rota. We will continue to monitor the situation raising works in future as and when necessary.”