A taxi driver whose car was damaged by the disintegrating road surface along Douglas seafront has been told he will not be compensated by the government or the council.
Les McMurdo’s Ford C-Max sustained £714-worth of damage when it was hit by a loose chunk of concrete which was thrown up from the road surface, leaving a pot hole behind.
Now Mr McMurdo, who lives at Harcroft Meadow in Douglas, faces a crippling bill to repair an ugly dent in his car’s sill.
‘All I have asked for from either the Department of Infrastructure or the corporation is the cost of the repair to my car,’ he said.
‘I’m not even asking for loss of earnings while my car is off the road when it gets fixed.’
Mr McMurdo said the damage occurrred in August, during the Festival of Motorcycling, and the hole left behind by the loose concrete was so large, he turned his car round and replaced the concrete in the hole, fearing it would cause an accident if a bike hit it.
‘I was driving along the promenade near to the Queen’s Hotel and had to move out into the middle of the road to pass a stationary vehicle and that’s when it happened,’ he said.
He said he reported the damage to the police and to the DoI who told him the area in question, between the tram tracks, was the responsibility of Douglas Council, not the government.
While the damaged road was quickly repaired, the damage to his car, which he had bought only six weeks earlier, remains.
A spokesman for the government said: ‘This matter was investigated by the Department of Infrastructure after being reported earlier in the year.
‘It was determined that the issue was in relation to a section of the highway that is maintained by the Douglas Borough Council. The driver was advised to take the matter up with the council.’
Mr McMurdo said he had got nowhere with the council either – they told him the promenades were checked in March and April, before the start of the year’s horse tram service, and the surface was judged to be fault free at the time.
‘But this damage happened four months later in August,’ said Mr McMurdo. ‘Surely they should be checking more frequently than that.’
‘To turn round and say they don’t have responsibility because it was checked four months earlier is ridiculous.
‘The hole was repaired within 24 hours of being reported but that doesn’t take away the fact that if it was checked more frequently in the first place they would have seen that it needed repairing.’
Council insurers Zurich have told Mr McMurdo the council carried out adequate checks on the road and are therefore not liable for the damage.