Earlier this year I was driving to work in Urmston early in the morning, having dropped off my son at Manchester Airport. On Woodsend Road in Urmston there was a hole about 2ft in diameter, in the middle of the public highway.

As it was right in the centre of the road it was difficult to avoid, and I didn’t see it until it was too late. I drove into it, causing considerable damage to the wheels of my car.

The damage cost over £800. I also saw that there were various bits of wheel trim and car debris belonging to other vehicles at the site, demonstrating that I wasn’t the only one to suffer damage.

I informed Trafford Council of this, and like many other of its public services, this department has been contracted out, this one to ‘Zurich Municipal’. During the course of my correspondence with them they requested all sorts of details: photos, receipts, proof of ownerships, etc.

Having done all that – imagine my frustration when I received what looked like a fairly standard reply, engaging with none of the content of what had happened.

They said it ‘was unfortunate that your accident occurred’ when it did, but that legally Trafford Council has a timescale of 28 days to complete such repairs – which it did. So basically: hard luck.

I find this extraordinary. What if someone had suffered an injury, or even died, due to a hole of this size or larger – is Trafford Council within its rights to hang around for 27 days, leaving the hole for other people/cars etc to fall into – just as long as it does the repairs within the legal limit?

Surely a large hole in the middle of the road is a danger to the public, and they should at least have put up bollards/warning signs, until the repairs were done.

Like many other people I pay council tax, road tax and car insurance, not to mention income tax, fuel tax and all the other hidden and not so hidden taxes. Yet after all this I still get hit for a bill of nearly £1000 through no fault of my own.

I don’t remember seeing Zurich Municipal on the ballot paper at the last election, and I strongly object to being told by them, whoever they are, that if I take this further that ‘a Judge will agree with their decision’.

Well I don’t agree with it and I think Trafford Council should stop hiding behind big corporates and tell the people it is meant to be serving just what its current policies are – because at the moment it looks like their policies on pot holes are based on pot luck, and the ‘luck’ is entirely in their favour.

David Moore

Altrincham