ESSEX County Council is refusing to pay out compensation to people who have had their car damaged by a sink hole.

Motorists have face bills to fix the damage caused by driving over a sink hole on the A13 Vange Bypass.

One driver, Clive Lucas, 75, from Canvey was driving along the A13 Vange Bypass on Tuesday February 20 when his car was badly damaged after driving over the hole.

He said: “Driving over the sink hole made a lump in the side my car tyre called a carbuncle, it knocked the tracking out and also damaged the rim of my wheel.

“The damage costed me about £80 to fix, which I shouldn’t really have had to pay out as it wasn’t my fault.

“When I got the letter from the county council I was just disgusted. They say they look after the roads, but they obviously don’t otherwise the sink hole wouldn’t have formed.

“I had to get the car repaired as I couldn’t drive it with the damage.

“When my car was damaged by the sink hole, there were about two or three other cars on the side of the road that were also damaged by driving over the hole.”

The county council said in a letter to the resident that it accepts there was a sink hole but the hole was not due to the county council not maintaining the road.

A letter from Essex County Council to the resident, dated April 10 which has been seen by the Echo, claims the county council’s highways department had carried out various inspections on the sink hole.

The letter states that the county council had a number of enquiries about a defect with the road between February 7 and February 13.

It says that workers from the authority carried out an inspection on the road on February 13 and a defect was recorded.

The letter says that workers put up warning boards by the roadside to alert drivers to the issue with the road and then on February 15 it was patched and then the county council has another enquiry about the road on February 20 and that the county council carried out temporary repairs that were completed.

The letter continues that the county council believes it did all that was reasonably practicable and it could not have been reasonably expected to take any additional action to avoid Mr Lucas’ accident taking place.

The road was closed on February 20 and February 21 for further works on the sink hole.

Ukip councillor Stephen Hodge visited the site on February 21 and helped out people who had their cars damaged.

A spokesperson for Essex Highways said: “We receive hundreds of compensations claims for damage to vehicles every month. Each one is considered against our set criteria. Unfortunately in some cases, and particularly where we have taken reasonable steps to repair defects to the road in question, not all claims are successful.”