Anybody knocked a bollard down before? How much will they bill me?

Dolph said:
Council's don't have free money, they only have what they take from the local population and businesses by force.

It's absolutely right that the individual should pay for the actions of the individual.

As for the £700 bill, depending on how much damage there was to the fitting etc, how many man hours were taken to fix it and so on, it's not that unreasonable.
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My point is if they can charge £70+ for a parking offence etc ontop of the money they get from taxes, why shouldn't they have a decent buffer of funds to replace damaged road infrastructure as a result of poor weather conditions.

If they had upheld their job of spending that money on making the road safe (gritting/ploughing/filling holes etc) and fit for purpose, then the OP wouldn't have necessarily been the position he is in now and their wouldn't be a sum of £700 to find from somewhere.

For example, if you drive over a pothole, you shouldn't expected to pay for all the damages to your tyres as the road was unfit for purpose.
 
Booner! said:
That's a different story, as that's somebodies personal property. Whereas this is council and they have funds to maintain and replace, so £700 is extortionate in my opinion.
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2 guys, a lorry half a day to collect the sign, dig up the old one put the new one in.. plus the cost of the sign...

sounds about right to me..

why should I pay (from my tax) for a sign someone else knocks down?
 
He broke it, he pays for it. Suprised anyone argues otherwise to be honest. It would be a different story if it was his neighbours fence!
 
[TW]Fox;16412967 said:
He broke it, he pays for it. Surprised anyone argues otherwise to be honest. It would be a different story if it was his neighbours fence!
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I agree entirely that he should return it to the pre-accident condition.

However... is this necessarily by paying them £700? I personally don't have a clue whether £700 is the going rate for a plastic bollard, or whether it's an extortionate price quoted by the dodgiest builder going who's going to be taking a massive cut for himself and then the admin person will have their cut (like how garages quite often suddenly charge more when it's an insurance job!).

I'd try and find out what the going rate is for a plastic bollard + fitting before agreeing to pay their quoted price..
 
[TW]Fox;16412967 said:
He broke it, he pays for it. Suprised anyone argues otherwise to be honest. It would be a different story if it was his neighbours fence!
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Exactly, that's that the OP has insurance for!
 
I imagine it's going to cost in thousands cos the council is going to fix it, this will not be cheap.

Councils and good value don't mix really.
 
They have no obligation to go for the cheapest either?
I'm already expecting the worst after smashing a council wall so we'll see how long it takes for them to claim on my insurance. Apparently they have 3 years to claim but I've not heard anything yet since the 1st January :)
 
I actually think thats quite good value considering. My job involves designing new road layouts + street furniture. Unfortunately the bulk of that cost will probably come from admin fees.
 
Westyfield2 said:
I'd try and find out what the going rate is for a plastic bollard + fitting before agreeing to pay their quoted price..
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You wont have a leg to stand on saying 'I can get it done cheaper'. At the end of the day, the council will have an approved supplier/fitter for this type of job. The fitter will have tendered at some point previously to be the approved supplier with rates for all types of jobs. To have won the tender, the supplier will have to carry out risk assesments, produced work plans for each type of job, HSSE reports etc, have their own insurance, spent a lot of time/effort in getting onto the approved buying solutions agreement for local councils etc etc etc

Then add in the cost of the post (probably around the £150 to £200 region - i've used these http://www.barriersdirect.co.uk/categories/5-bollards for buying bollards from before for a car park area we cordoned off, not for a council though), pre work risk assesment, putting the barriers out, signing the road, digging the old post out, fitting the new post and then carrying out a post-job assesment, there isn't going to be much change from £700.

They aren't out to make money from this type of thing, they are just paying the rate they have agreed to pay for this type of job and are passing that cost on to the unfortunate person who had the accident. The only way out of it would be to check with the highways agency or council to see if anyone else had reported an accident in that area earlier as once they are informed of a trouble spot then the onus of blame shifts to them rather than the OP.
 
stoofa said:
I will not say I'm the best driver in the world.
However I always adapt my driving to suit the weather conditions.
If the OP has crashed in the snow then I say he wasn't driving to suit the conditions.
Can you honestly say we have weather here in the UK that no matter how you drive you will crash?
If the weather is like that you shouldn't even be going out in it.
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Can you honestly say you have never lost the smallest amount of traction in adverse weather?

I don't recall anywhere in this thread that I say I wasn't to blame or that I wasn't prepared to pay for damage done.

At the time of the incident, I was driving conservatively having driven 60 miles on un-gritted surfaces several inches thick, however, accidents happen and it's why we all (well, most) have insurance. Sure, I could have gone around the corner at 1 mph and guaranteed I made it round, but that doesn't happen in the real world.

Evidently, i mis-judged the corner (one i drive round every day) and the conditions.

I'm actually surprised with the strength of a Focus bumper as i've since found out it's a cast iron bollard! I just presumed it was plastic at the time of the incident as it was so easily moved with very little damage to the car.
 
Beta said:
Can you honestly say you have never lost the smallest amount of traction in adverse weather?

I don't recall anywhere in this thread that I say I wasn't to blame or that I wasn't prepared to pay for damage done.

At the time of the incident, I was driving conservatively having driven 60 miles on un-gritted surfaces several inches thick, however, accidents happen and it's why we all (well, most) have insurance. Sure, I could have gone around the corner at 1 mph and guaranteed I made it round, but that doesn't happen in the real world.

Evidently, i mis-judged the corner (one i drive round every day) and the conditions.

I'm actually surprised with the strength of a Focus bumper as i've since found out it's a cast iron bollard! I just presumed it was plastic at the time of the incident as it was so easily moved with very little damage to the car.
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No - I can quite honestly say that I have had the odd little skid.
On those really snowy days the ESP was constantly kicking in on my car.
However where we differ is that you crashed and I didn't.

As people in the past have said and continue to say "It doesn't matter what safety features you have in a car - it's down to the driver".

All I said was that you weren't driving to the conditions.
You've admitted you mis-judged and that you could have takent he corner slower.
So I kind of feel justified in my "non-admissable" observation.
 
stoofa said:
No - I can quite honestly say that I have had the odd little skid.
On those really snowy days the ESP was constantly kicking in on my car.
However where we differ is that you crashed and I didn't.

As people in the past have said and continue to say "It doesn't matter what safety features you have in a car - it's down to the driver".

All I said was that you weren't driving to the conditions.
You've admitted you mis-judged and that you could have takent he corner slower.
So I kind of feel justified in my "non-admissable" observation.
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Again, I'm not disputing, that there was an error, because the accident happened! However, what I am saying is that conditions do vary, and what might be suitable driving 1m before the accident may not be suitable at the precise moment a skid in snow begins.conditions are pretty changeable on untreated surfaces.

Once this happens, unless you can regain traction, there's not a huge amount you can do unless there's a secret I've not been told about.

To give an indication of the speed I was doing, I had time to straighen the wheels from full lock before nudging up the kerb and hitting the bollard. The car came to a rest about 1 inch over the closest edge of the bollard stump with the rest of it visible.

Incidently, I don't rely on driver aids/electronics as neither car I drive has any other than abs.
 
Think yourself lucky about 8 years ago i hit a steel bollard thingy and they sent me a bill for £2500. i dont know if it was to replace the whole unit or just the middle part i crashed into but thats getting ripped off
 
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