Three Oxfordshire drivers who had almost £1,000 damage caused to their cars by hitting the same pothole were told they had no chance of getting compensation.

Matthew Benson, Jane Fowler and Mike Hogan paid a combined £845 in repairs after they struck the same five foot-long "crater" within minutes of each other while driving on the B480 near Chalgrove.

Mr Benson, 33, and Mr Hogan, 44, have already had their compensation claims refused and Mrs Fowler is expecting to be left footing her bill after Oxfordshire County Council said it would not pay out to drivers whose vehicles were damaged in potholes it did not know of.

The three cars all ended up with buckled front passenger side wheels and flat tyres after driving into the four-inch deep pothole on a blind bend last month.

Mr Benson, Larkhill Road, Abingdon, said he was particularly upset as he was only driving on the B480 because the A329 was closed due to flooding.

Mr Benson, who paid £465 to fix a damaged alloy wheel on his Citroen C4, said: "I'm annoyed.

"I pay my council tax, I pay my road tax and I expect to be able to drive on the roads without damaging my car.

"If a motorbike had gone into that hole there could have been a fatality because it was big enough to throw a biker off.

"Someone must have been down that road to put up the diversion signs so someone hasn't done their job properly."

Last night, Mr Benson said he was considering taking the matter to the small claims court.

Jane Fowler, of Newington Road, Stadhampton, faced a £130 repair bill for her Suzuki Ignis.

Meanwhile, Mike Hogan, from Windmill Lane in Wheatley, had £250 of damage caused to his Ford Galaxy.

The pothole was fixed by the county council within hours of it being reported by Mrs Fowler.

Brian Fell, County Hall's assistant head of transport, said: "The council does lots of maintenance work on roads.

"Like everywhere else we would be able to spend much more if Government provided us with more money.

"We are committed to keeping our roads as well-repaired as possible within the budgets we have available and we are largely successful in doing this - only a small proportion of the claims made against us justify compensation being paid."

Council spokesman Owen Morton added: "The council has a defence under Section 58 of the Highways Act 1980 in that if we were unaware of the defect prior to the incident, we are not liable."

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