My £65k Jaguar sports car was wrecked by a pothole ‘the size of a crater’ – now I’m at war with the council
A JAGUAR owner has found himself at war with his local council after his £65,000 sports car was wrecked by a “crater-sized” pothole.
Jason Skimmings claims he has been left hundreds of pounds out of pocket after his compensation claim as denied.
Jason, a car dealer from Ayr, Scotland, was devastated when the pricey Jaguar F-Type had its tyre busted by a large pothole outside his garage.
After forking out £368 for a new one, he appealed to the Ayrshire Roads Alliance (ARA), a road management company run jointly by South Ayrshire and East Ayrshire councils.
He told the Daily Record: ” I was preparing the car for a customer coming down to test drive it.
“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.
“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.”
Jason added that the type of tyre used on the F-Type is not one they keep in stock, meaning the customer came all that way for nothing.
However, he was left “stunned” when the ARA denied his case.
He claimed that they “admitted” the pothole had been reported to them but that there was no compensation due as they had already set a “target date” to repair it.
That date was allegedly a full 45 days after the initial report.
Jason fumed: “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?
“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.”
A spokesperson for the ARA responded that the road undergoes an annual inspection and that “no defects” were found at the last check.
They went on: “A fault report received on 16 February 2024 prompted immediate action, with repairs completed well within the designated timeframe, indicating no negligence.”
