Driver’s threat to stop paying council tax over potholes

A DRIVER has threatened to stop paying his council tax to Aberdeenshire Council until he is reimbursed for pothole damage to his car.

Bill Cameron was driving his new black Ford Fiesta on the A944 Aberdeen to Alford road at Whitehouse at dusk when his steering wheel jerked out of his hand.

The occupational health and safety manager said he ploughed into a pothole which was “about seven inches deep”.

The 60-year-old lost control of his car when the gaping hole jolted his suspension.

“If there had been oncoming traffic I would have been straight into it,” he said.

Bill, who retired from Grampian Fire and Rescue Service after 30 years as a fire officer, discovered both his driver’s side wheels had been badly damaged, totalling £600 in repairs.

Bill, who lives in Leslie, near Insch, returned in daylight to photograph the crater on the Aberdeen to Alford road and discovered another driver had suffered the same fate.

He said: “There was a guy who was having his car loaded on to a breakdown truck. The same thing had happened to him.”

Bill made a claim to Aberdeenshire Council for the damage, but the authority told him it would not refund the £170 he paid in excess fees.

He said: “It was shocking. I pay my council tax and I think they should be repairing the roads.

“If I have to stop paying my council tax, I will.”

An Aberdeenshire Council spokesman said he should contact the claims department again.

rbrown@ajl.co.uk