Potholes wrecked my tyres '“ motorist

Daniel Balchin suffered his latest blow-out, which will cost £250 to overcome, on Linden Road on Tuesday (April 23) morning.

He was driving a BMW 5 series car for DB Autos for a potential customer when they heard the tyre being punctured in the deepest pothole among a series outside a convenience store.

Daniel, 33, of Hoe Lane, Flansham, said: “The roads around Bognor are disgraceful.

“I can’t understand why they are repairing Upper Bognor Road by the flyover this week when there isn’t anything wrong with it and I go over there every day.

“They are spending money and time on it when there isn’t any reason to.

“But a pothole like this one in Linden Road has been here for such a long time and nothing is done about it.

“I had no choice but to go through the pothole because there are vehicles on the other side of the road.

“I would have gone into them if I had swerved to 
miss it.”

He estimated it would cost £230 to replace the offside front tyre. The excess on the car’s insurance is £250.

The first puncture, Daniel says, was caused by potholes close to Butlin’s.

The car’s Pirelli tyres are designed to run when they are flat. This meant he did not realise the problem on that occasion until he went to start up again and the problem was apparent.

The problems tempted him to leave the BMW by the pothole in the middle of Linden Road.

“I wanted someone else to have the headache of dealing with it,” he said, “whether that was the police or the county council. It would be worth paying to re-claim the car just to draw attention to the situation.”

A West Sussex County Council spokesman said: “We are scheduled to repair two potholes at the Longford Road crossroads on May 17.

“Later in the year, we are planning to resurface Linden Road as part of our Operation Watershed initiative.

“No date for this has been finalised.”

The county council has been working on roads around Bognor this week.

Carriageway surface dressing was applied to Hewarts Lane in Rose Green, Fish Lane and Marine Drive West, Nyewood Lane, Hillsboro Road, Murina Avenue, Orchard Way and Upper Bognor Road.

Roads in the Five Villages were also treated with carriageway micro-surfacing: Critchmere Drive/Highview Road, Eastergate, and Ivy Close, St Richard’s Road and Ivy Lane in Aldingbourne.