I was carrying a bit too much speed and I ended up running wide and hitting a section of barrier. The barrier duly did its job and stopped me going off the edge of the road into a ditch. To be fair, my GS simply took the punch on the chin and didn’t look any worse for wear.

As for me, apart from a very bruised ego, I managed to walk away with just a cut nose from where my glasses caught me. By pure chance, the police then turned up. However, I think they felt sorry for me and listed it as ‘no further action’. I started up Big Bertha and rode home and have carried on riding since thinking no more about it.

However, around 18 months later, I have just received a letter from the local authority with a bill for £2,867 to fix the barrier. Are they taking the mick? Surely, they cannot be chasing me 18 months later? I am so angry. The police took no further action, and if there had been better signage and a light, I wouldn’t have crashed.

Plus, I pay my income tax and my council tax, so I do not see why I have to, effectively, pay twice. Do you think a judge will agree with me? If the council sues me, I intend to countersue them for the emotional damage of dragging me through a court case and for Big Bertha getting scratched for their failure to put up signage and a streetlight for visibility.

Answer

If we apply your logic, so long as a rider pays their council tax, etc., he or she can ride around crashing into and damaging all manner of things and there would be no ramifications for the wrongdoer.

Whilst I appreciate your optimism, the law does not work like that. Therefore, to be absolutely clear, no, a judge will not agree with you.

From everything you have said, the blame for this lies squarely at your feet for getting the corner wrong. Unless I am missing a trick, you were going too fast in the dark and rain, you could not see properly, and ultimately ran wide and hit and damaged a barrier. Whilst the police did not take any action against you (you were very lucky, by the way, as it looks like a classic case of careless driving to me), it doesn’t mean you don’t have to pay for the damage you caused.

Under the law in England and Wales, the local authority has six years from the date of the accident to settle their claim or to issue court proceedings against the negligent party, i.e. you. So, they are well within time. My advice is to accept that we’ve all made mistakes and try to deal with yours.

Whatever you do, do not ignore this and let the local authority issue court proceedings against you as you will lose. Further, do not countersue against them if they do issue court proceedings, because once again, you will lose. All in all, my advice has to be: don’t be a silly sausage, pass the claim on to your insurer and let them deal with it. After all, that’s what you pay insurance for.

Andrew Prendergast

Adventure Bike Rider – September | October 2026