I think it depends on when the pothole was first reported and when you son did the damage. Did the relevant authority have sufficient time to effect a repair?

You may stand a good chance, as the pothole had been reported (which is why I always report potholes, as it may help someone else).

I think you're right, Craig. I have hit a few potholes - each time in Oxfordshire, which has one of the least efficient local authorities of all.

The rule seemed to be that if you were the first to report it, it wasn't their fault (!) so they wouldn't pay. However I think they might have done if, as in your son's case, it's been reported and they haven't done anything about it.

It is possible but unlikely that you could make a successful claim.

First you would need to prove that the Council have been negligent. To do this you will probably have to make a Freedom of Information (FOI) to the Council asking if the pothole had been reported, and a copy of their inspections records for that section of the Highway and the agreed schedule for inspection. Local Authorities are supposed to inspect highways a regular intervals ( I don't know what they are and it depend on the nature of the road),

So there are three possible ways you may be able to claim:

1) The Council failed to inspect the highway according to schedule

2) The Council did inspect but failed to rectify the defect (if it was noted)

3) A member of the public reported it and the Council failed to take action in a reasonable amount of time

I think from memory, councils get a window of two days to repair significant, dangerous road faults - any identified by us as such (as opposed to minor [whether by diameter and/or depth, etc]) have to be inspected within 24 hours and then a decision is made what to do next. The more major the road, the higher a priority that fault gets. I would also hope that areas known to be accident blackspots will also elevate issues more. Non-critical ones can take anywhere from a week to months to repair.

It's why it is vitally important for us to always take and upload decent quality photos (both close-ups and wide angle ones to give location, context and size comparison to nearby landmarks - more 'proof') to fault reporting sites, and given governments and councils amazingly 'losing' data on a very regular basis, I'd now consider reporting it to both them and independent ones like fixmystreet, just in case the council denied all knowledge.

I also put plenty of typed detail about the fault, especially if it is safety-critical, inclduing a possible (reasonable) scenario of what could happen should it not be repaired asap. That often gets jobs pushed to the front as much as a photo of a big pothole. Just don't go overboard with such consequences to avoid a 'boy who cried pothole' tag.