I was fined £70 after a pothole burst my tyre

A council penalised a driver whose car was damaged by a pothole on a road the local authority is responsible for maintaining.

Matt Fellows told the BBC his tyre "exploded" due to pothole damage in Cragg Lane in Newton, Derbyshire, and he was forced to wait for help on a road in nearby Alfreton where waiting is restricted.

He said a civil enforcement officer then put a £70 penalty charge notice (PCN) on his windscreen before he had time to get the tyre replaced.

The PCN was issued on behalf of Derbyshire County Council, which has now said it will cancel the notice after the BBC asked the authority for a comment.

But Matt, from Newton, thinks the PCN should not have been issued in the first place.

"It's awful, it's absolutely awful," he said. "We were... in the wrong place but we were only parked there because the car was broken down.

"And to come back and find we've then had a ticket as well is not the best feeling in the world.

"Beyond that, it seems that roads are getting worse and worse weekly."

Matt said his tyre burst in High Street in Alfreton town centre, when he mounted a kerb to make room for a police car with its lights flashing.

However, he believes the tyre wall was already damaged when he hit a pothole in nearby Cragg Lane on his way there.

"We knew we'd hit it, it made a rather loud noise as we went through it, but we hadn't realised the damage at that point," said Matt, who was in the car with his partner Sadie Elliott.

"We had to come up on to the kerb and in doing so clearly the tyre wall had already been compromised and it exploded on us."

Matt said he was aware the Highway Code advises drivers not to mount kerbs when emergency service vehicles approach, but he did not want to block the road.

A mechanic who examined a photo of the tyre told the BBC it was "classic pothole damage".

Matt arranged for a company to come and replace the tyre, and went to get a hot drink from a cafe while he and his partner waited in the cold.

"When we got back we were met with a nice yellow parking ticket on the front of our vehicle," he said.

"We assumed the flat tyre and hazard warning lights would have prevented that, but unfortunately not."

The PCN was issued on 23 January, and Matt then submitted an appeal.

He was waiting to hear back when he spoke to the BBC, which then contacted the council.

Councillor Charlotte Hill, cabinet member for potholes, highways and transport, said: "In this particular case, the penalty charge notice was issued as the vehicle was seen by a warden to be parked in contravention of the yellow line waiting restriction in operation along High Street, Alfreton, and no-one was with the vehicle.

"Once a PCN is issued, there is a comprehensive process which allows people to appeal and, having reviewed the evidence provided in this case, we will be cancelling the notice and notifying them of the decision."

Potholes were one of the key issues in the local election campaign in Derbyshire, with some asking if the county was the "pothole capital of England" after figures showed over 90,000 of them had been repaired in 2023.

The council typically disputes this claim, saying it generally used different methodology to other councils.

However, the government has previously told the BBC the authority is breaching government guidelines by using an alternative method to classify its roads.

The council said Matt could submit a compensation claim for the damage caused to his car.

Replacing the tyre had cost £109.94, but Matt said he was reluctant to submit a claim because the majority of them were rejected.

"As far as I'm aware it's a convoluted process," he said.

"To be honest we're quite grateful it happened where it did happen, other than the parking ticket that came from it, because we weren't far from the M1 [motorway] and had it happened there, it could have been a far uglier experience."

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