THE thorny issue of two burst tyres has resulted in a Darlington man winning a compensation claim against the borough council.

Steve Crow complained to the council after a farmer left hedge cuttings scattered on a country lane near his home in Neasham.

Despite warning the council about the potential hazards, the thorny trimmings were not cleared and Mr Crow suffered two flat tyres after driving over them. After a three-month battle the council have now agreed to compensate Mr Crow for the tyres after he threatened to sue them. The amount involved is £47.

Mr Crow, 47, said he called the council's highways department a week before the incident last October and was given assurances they would clear away potentially hazardous debris from the road.

But he said they then inspected the road and said it was safe.

"Initially they'd told me they would compensate me for any damage to my vehicle but when I asked them to reimburse me they just referred me to their insurer, who said no chance."

Mr Crow said when he inspected the damage there were dozens of thorns in both tyres.

He said: "I've a wife and child to think about here. The consequences of a flat tyre while driving my daughter to school don't bear thinking about. That's why I decided to pursue this."

Helen Marr, an associate solicitor at Newcastle law firm Dickinson Dees, said it was an unusual claim to bring though it set no new precedent in law.

She said: "I don't know whether this will open up the floodgates for more such claims as I would imagine it is quite a rare occurrence."

However, Mr Crow said the hedge-cuttings in the road had been a recurring problem over the last few years.

"Unless the council do something to sort this out, we will be talking about exactly the same situation next year."

A spokeswoman for Darlington Borough Council said general policy if something was creating an obstruction was to remove it and charge the offending party for the cost of clearing the highway.