A father-of-two has slammed the city council after damaging his SUV driving through a 26-inch pothole.
Sam Piase, 44, from Hove, thought his car was going to be “shaken apart” when he struck the gaping hole in Old Shoreham Road on Thursday night (November 2).
His two-year-old Volkswagen had just been serviced, Sam said, when he drove into the pothole which is six inches deep and was filled with muddy rainwater.
“The city council should be inspecting this kind of thing. The council tax has just gone up, so they should be using it to sort this,” said Sam.
“I was shocked, there was a massive bang, and now I can feel it in the steering wheel. I thought it was going to fall apart.
“I would have been so upset if either of my children were in the car.”
Residents in Old Shoreham Road, Hove, told The Argus the pothole first appeared on Sunday night (October 29) but it was not until Tuesday that Brighton and Hove City Council visited the scene.
Blue protective fencing was put up around the hole, which measures 28 inches in width, though adverse weather conditions caused by Storm Ciaran quickly blew the fencing down the road, residents said.
One resident said they were forced to put their household waste bin in the pothole to stop cars driving through it before they eventually found an orange traffic cone to alert drivers to the danger.
The city council has confirmed that the pothole has appeared due to gas works which took place roughly seven weeks ago.
Lead councillor for the environment Tim Rowkins said: “This pothole is connected with recent road surfacing work done by Southern Gas Networks.
“We have made SGN aware of this problem and asked them to carry out the repair as a matter of the utmost urgency.
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“We will be reiterating to utility companies the need for surfaces to be restored to a satisfactory standard after engineering works.
“We cannot comment on possible insurance claims.”
Sam said his vehicle is still driveable but is waiting for a mechanic to tell him the true extent of the damage.
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