Scooter rider happy pothole filled but considers legal action

A scooter rider who was left needing stitches after crashing into a deep pothole says he is "delighted" it has been filled in by the council.

George Balkwill was riding a Voi hired e-scooter along Oxford Road on Saturday evening in Old Marston, Oxford, when he hit the hole which was obscured by rainwater.

He told the BBC: "It does beg the question is this what it takes for a local authority to do the correct thing and ensure that the roads are safe for all road users?"

An Oxford City Council spokesman said the pothole had been scheduled for repair at the time of the crash but had "deteriorated since it was first inspected".

Balkwill said he was thinking about taking legal action against the council following the incident just outside the Red Lion pub.

"That's the council that we - myself included - but also the residents of Old Marston and everybody else in Oxford pay our council tax to," he said.

"That e-scooter that I was riding is legal and it's part of an [Oxfordshire County Council] approved scheme… and they are allowing that scheme to exist whilst not maintaining the roads to an adequate enough position for all road users to be safe."

The 32-year-old also said comments he had seen online under clips of the fall which described it as an "obvious" pothole were "frustrating".

"That CCTV camera is about 15ft (4.6m) in the air," he said.

"From road level that pothole... looked like a puddle."

Balkwill previously said the crash "all happened so quickly" and left him "feeling cold" with "quite a lot of blood".

He required stitches in his chin and remains unable to speak properly because of the swelling.

He said he has had to take time off of work to recover and is concerned about the impact it has had on his appearance.

He measured the hole at 140mm (14cm) deep and believed it would have caused "serious problems to a large 4x4 vehicle, let alone a scooter".

Remembering the incident, Diana Wiley, the landlady for the Red Lion said: "A lady come in screaming, somebody's fell in the pothole."

She said six of them went out to help and he was bleeding from his nose and mouth but they were reluctant to move him because his neck and back were in pain.

She described the pothole as "lethal" and said it has been filled in twice this year.

Councillor Nigel Chapman, cabinet member for citizen focused services and council companies, said: "We fully recognise the frustration residents feel about the condition of some of the city's roads.

"This particular pothole was inspected by [council facilities management company] ODS on 3 February.

"At that time, it was assessed as a category two defect, which carries a 28-day repair timeframe."

He said the repair was completed "within 14 days of being raised — well within the required timescale".

He said weather and traffic "cause defects to worsen quickly, which is why timely reporting and scheduled repairs are so important".

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