MONSTER SURREY POTHOLE

On Tuesday afternoon, Cycling Weekly?s Keith Bingham filed his first official pothole report on the CTC?s www.fillthathole.org.uk website.

The interactive satellite map enabled him to pinpoint exactly where the hole is (was, hopefully). Now Surrey County Council can see the hole flagged up on the map for all to see.

You can run into it on a left-hand turn entering Tilehurst Lane near Brockham on the Surrey Cycleway. It?s almost as deep as the drop off a kerb and was one of 1400 potholes across the UK reported to the CTC?s website by last week.

Meanwhile, a South Wales vet is embroiled in legal action with his local council.

Seeking compensation for damages has proved fraught with difficulty for Eric Hodge, 73, a member of Cardiff Ajax Wheelers.

In 2002 he crashed into a pothole and was thrown over the ?bars. It was dark and although the hole was an establised feature of the lane, he misjudged it and down he went.

He smashed his bike, tore clothing, sustained cuts and bruises and a knee injury, which would later require surgery.

?I wrote to Cardiff County Council, with photographs and details including the fact that I had four solid witnesses. I did as instructed only to have them state they were not responsible,? said Hodge.

He was told that the road had been inspected only three months prior to his accident, and was declared ?defect free?.

He says the hole was repaired ? weeks later.

Hodge?s story of his personal battle to prove the council?s liability conjures up images of an authority dug in behind a legal and bureaucratic maze. The matter remains in litigation to this day.

? A bonkers judge in the north east once ruled that a local authority was not required to fix the crumbling roadside verge before their next inspection round, because most of the traffic was unaffected by it. Cyclists should simply move out into the path of the cars to avoid the defect!