Hunningham man is handing out compensation claims leaflets to drivers outside his house after damage from HGVs and HS2 traffic

A Hunningham man says he is handing out compensation claims leaflets to motorists on the road outside his house whose cars are being damaged by HGV traffic.

Mark Hancock says vehicles are being stranded because of tyre blowouts and broken rims outside his house on the Long Itchington Road from Hunningham daily.

He says the road damage is being caused by much increased traffic flow due to multiple HS2 road closures and traffic not following official diversions.

He said: “This vastly increased traffic includes ‘lost’ HGVs.

"The biggest culprit by far however is HS2 itself whose vehicles do not follow their own diversions for the sake of saving a few miles.

"One company in particular uses this short cut regularly with a constant round robin of eight wheelers in two-way traffic.

"These vehicles cannot pass and therefore go off road at speed damaging the surface.

"Heaven knows what the verges would have looked like if we had had more rain to soften them.”

Mr Hancock has seen so many burst tyres and damaged wheels that he carries handouts in his car to give to those who are stranded.

He added: “The handout gives details of the [county] council’s pot hole insurance claims address.

"I would be interested to know how claims have been lodged because there have been dozens if not over 100 vehicles damaged.

"Over the past few months I have complained to both the council and to HS2, neither of whom have covered themselves with glory with their responses.

"The council says it is not worth repairing the road until the diversions cease – implying that is HS2 traffic to blame - and HS2 denies everything and blames anyone but themselves.”

A spokeswoman for HS2 has said the road is not on one of its approved routes.

They added: “I can’t say with total certainty that on occasion our contractors have used this road, and we have recently installed additional signage to try to prevent people from using the road, but unfortunately we can’t control who uses it.

"Either way, given it is not on our approved routes, I don’t think it likely that the odd errant HS2 vehicle is responsible for the road conditions.”