Vicki was the victim of a similar 'crater' a few years back ... totally destroyed her N/S/F wheel ... lucky not to wreck the suspension ... I went out to her, about 8 miles away in Herefordshire to sort out the car and distraught step-daughter ... crater was over a metre long x 600mm wide and 120mm deep ... documented it clearly ... wrote to HCC who then spent over 6 months denying it's existence, despite clear visual evidence .... they employ a firm of solicitors to deal with all the claims ..... sent us badly doctored paperwork, detailing inspection and maintenance schedules in support of their claim that it didn't exist ... blatant cut/paste docs where margins/boxes didn't line up and sentences started and ended randomly. ........ all I wanted was the cost of the tyre and ali rim, which I'd already replaced !
It all went quiet when I put in for all of their paperwork, verbatim, for a period of 3 weeks, a week either side of their supposed report, in an FOI act request.
never got it and just got fed up of wasting my life chasing a hundred quid, when I had plenty of other things to do.
In hindsight i should've persisted and then given their spurious documentary evidence of the non-existence of the crater, that i had photographic evidence of, to the press.
What annoyed me most was that anyone on a motor bike could've died if they'd hit it ... right in the ride line ... on a bend so virtually unavoidable once committed. Would've written the Wing off if I'd found it unexpectedly!!
Several months later 'Hamster' (Richard Hammond) who lives not far from where this all occurred was brought off his siccle by a similar crater ..... and the 'stink' made national news.
