A PENSIONER has taken Cheshire East Council to court and won almost £5,000 in compensation after they refused to pay out for damage to his car caused by a pothole.

Eighty-nine year old Ken Jones, of Bexton Road, was left with a hefty repair bill to his Mercedes C-class when it hit a pothole, close to the junction of Cranford Avenue and Bexton Road in February this year.

The damage was so severe that the automatic transmission needed replacing, leaving Ken with a bill of more than £4,400.

After notifying Cheshire East Council of the incident he was asked to fill out a questionnaire form.

Unhappy with the process, Ken decided to take the council to the small claims court and at a hearing on September 27 in Chester, he won, with a judge ordering Cheshire East Council to hand over almost £5,000 in damages.

"It was a Sunday evening and it was dusk, cars were parked on both sides of Bexton Road and it was close to the junction of Cranford Avenue," he said.

"A car stopped and as I came through I just went into it.

"The car went clunk but because I was close to home I didn't think anything about it. I then took my wife to Salford Royal the next day for an appointment but I had to turn round and come back."

In court papers seen by the Guardian, Wayne Ashdown, who works for the authority's highways team based at Delamere House in Crewe, said that Ken should have been aware of the pothole as it was yards from his own driveway.

The authority added the damage caused was 'not the sort of damage usually alleged to have been caused by a collision with a pothole'.

"I was quite surprised they hired a barrister and when he came across to me, I was like 'bloody hell'," Ken added.

"I think they were trying to make an example out of me to stop other people from claiming.

"The court requested that I try and arbitrate, which I tried to do by contacting their solicitors. But I then received a letter from Weightmans asking me to drop the case to avoid the council's expense.

"In court Mr Ashdown said that it was the most expensive pothole claim they have had. He said they are normally claims for springs and they settle those, but this is the largest one they have ever had.

"What I would say is that if you are making a claim make sure you have all the evidence and don't be afraid of going to court."

Cheshire East Council was ordered to pay the full costs to the repair of the Mercedes, as well as paying £520 to Ken.

Cllr Stewart Gardiner, Cheshire East Council ward member for Knutsford, told the Guardian the case was 'not a good outcome' for the authority.

"There's always going to be a backlog of potholes I'm afraid," he said.

"We can't spend the whole budget repairing the roads and the residents need to realise that. We can either mend all the potholes or look after older people in the borough – that is the choice we have got.

"The reality we have with our budget is that unless we want to increase our council tax to ridiculous levels, we have to manage the money that we have got.

"It (this case) is not a good outcome for the council and it is something to look at."

A spokesman for Cheshire East Council said: “Cheshire East Council will defend all highway compensation claims when it believes it can demonstrate to the courts that it has acted responsibly.

“With regard to reports of potholes, the council has a robust system in place to ensure that actionable defects are made safe by the end of the next working day or within five working days on lower trafficked roads.

“This is generally accepted by the courts as a responsible level of service and provides the council with a sound defence.

“Over the previous four years the council has invested an additional £30m into improving the condition of Cheshire East’s roads, leading to a 70 per cent reduction in potholes.

“Since January 1, 2016 the council has fully processed 150 claims for damages resulting from incidents on the highway and in all but five cases the authority has successfully repudiated the claims, this case being the largest single award this year.

“In this particular case the council believed it had a solid defence but the court found otherwise and decided that it was appropriate to award damages to the claimant and Cheshire East Council will pay the compensation.”