Business consultant’s Mercedes suffers 12 punctures thanks to pothole-riddled road outside her home that has landed her with £2,000 repair bill

• Judith Lee, 63, of Burrington, Devon, said the damage has cost over £2000 
• She said the potholes had caused 12 punctures to her Mercedes E350 car 

A retired businesswoman has spent thousands of pounds on car repairs because of the pothole-riddled road next to her house. 

Judith Lee, 63, of Burrington, Devon, said the potholes next to her house had cost her over £2000 in repairs.

Miss Lee, a retired business consultant, said the potholes had inflicted 12 punctures on her Mercedes E350 in just a few months.

She said the punctured tyres cost £100 each to repair and three cracked wheels cost £1500.

Miss Lee, a retired business consultant, said the potholes had inflicted 12 punctures on her Mercedes E350 in just a few months

Miss Lee added that she usually drives a Volvo estate but it is also being repaired because of punctures caused by potholes.

She said: ‘There are elderly people on this road who may need medical attention at some point but the emergency services won’t be able to get to them. Delivery drivers won’t come down here either.

‘You can’t drive down here very easily in an ordinary car. You have to creep down the lane and even then you hit potholes.

‘We’re continually getting punctures and we’ve complained to the council endlessly and we’ve got no help.’

Devon County Council said the road had been added to the list of future sites for remedial work and current high workload on nearby highways was causing the delay.

The authority said it would continue to undertake regular safety inspections of the road.

Miss Lee added: ‘It’s just dreadful. I’m unfortunately living by myself now and my friends won’t come and see me because they won’t drive their car down the lane.

‘It has got to the stage where I have parked my car at the end of the lane, to walk down, and I have actually hurt myself, thrown my ankle, walking down in the dark because I walked in a pothole and I know where they are.

She said the punctured tyres cost £100 each to repair and three cracked wheels cost her £1500

Mike Harris, who lives on the same road, said the road surface was ‘much better’ when he moved there in 2014.

He said: ‘It’s horrific. You can’t do more than about five or six miles per hour.

‘If you’ve got a low-level car, you’re scuffing the rubbish on the middle of the road while you’re going down the potholes and scraping the car on the potholes.

‘The major problem is if you’ve got a problem, either a domestic problem or a health problem, and you need to get to the place quickly, you can’t.’

A Devon County Council spokesman said: ‘Our neighbourhood highways officers have visited Mill Lane to assess its condition and the road has been added to the list of future sites for patching.

‘However due to the current high workload facing our highways teams, no date has yet been scheduled for when these repairs will be carried out but we will continue to undertake regular safety inspections of the road.’

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