During the bad weather potholes have got worse and many new ones have emerged.

Not only can they be responsible for axle and suspension failure costing women drivers dearly – an estimated £2.8 billion every year we are told, but they make driving more dangerous, especially for bike riders and in the dark.

Clearly few motorists know they can claim because local authorities only pay out something like £50 million in compensation claims due to poor road conditions, including potholes, each year.

The pothole problem is put down to the fact that road maintenance in England and Wales is underfunded by some £1 billion every year.

Fortunately many local authorities are taking positive action to remedy the situation before a serious claim for personal accident and/or injury lands at their door.

But just because there is a pothole doesn’t mean to say you will succeed in claiming. The test of reasonableness needs to be seen to apply – ie if the local authority had been told about the pothole and hadn’t done anything within a reasonable time then the claim is likely to succeed whereas if the local authority didn’t know about the pothole it will be argued that they would not have been able to rectify this.

Norfolk County Council’s spokesman John Birchall explained that “If the county council hasn’t had any opportunity to do anything about it then it is likely to be a cost on the car driver, which is why of course we want people to let us know about problems.”

With potholes estimated to cause as many as 1 in 5 mechanical failures a website called Potholes.co.uk can help you avoid the cost and misery they cause…and you’ll be able to check to see if your offending pothole had been reported previously to justify your claim.

Whether your car’s been damaged by a pothole and you want to know how to make a claim against a local council or you just want to report a poor piece of road, this is where to do it. And if you’ve got issues with potholes, let others know about them by reporting them and writing a story at this website (and there are others like it).

It’s important for as many women drivers as possible to report local potholes to give their local council the opportunity to repair them, make driving safer and if they don’t do this within a reasonable period of time, to help legitimate claims from other women drivers succeed.

Please tell your family and friends.

FOXY Steph