A SINGLE mum has been left with a £1,000 bill after a pothole on the Coal Road smashed her wheel axle.

Mum-of-two Laura Niven, 29, was driving from Crossford with a friend when she hit the pothole full of water as she was turning into the Coal Road.

Laura managed to drive away after the incident but by the time she got to the A823 just after Nethertown Broad Street, her car shuddered to a stop.

A roadside recovery mechanic said the wheel axle had snapped and couldn't believe that Laura hadn't lost control of the car.

"Thankfully, my kids weren't with me," Laura, of Pentland Terrace, told the Press.

"The pothole was full of water so you just could not see it and you cannot miss it if you're turning and there is traffic sitting at the lights.

"It's a really deep hole and I reckon it must be about two feet wide.

"When the car hit it, the noise was so loud.

"If I was going at any speed I do not want to know what could have happened.

"I'm worried that someone else is going to hit it and it will be worse.

"The mechanic told me he did not know how I didn't lose control of the car – it's a scary thought."

Laura has been quoted £1,100 to replace the axle on her Kia Ceed, which is unaffordable for her as a single mum.

She added: "I went to see Fife Council on Monday and they just gave me a form to fill in.

"I was also told I would need to find out the width and depth of the hole but the police already told me not to bother because it's too dangerous!

"I do have a photo of my foot in the hole though, just to show how big it is!

"Kindly, my stepdad is going to get my car fixed as I'm not sure if the council will pay out. It seems unlikely, from what I hear.

"If it was just a tyre that needed replacing I wouldn't be bothered but that's not the case, there is so much more damage than that."

Avril Cunningham, audit and risk management service manager for the council, said: "We would not expect a member of the public to endanger themselves by measuring a pothole.

"We only require details of its exact location, so that we can identify the pothole in question.

"However, as we use a generic third party claim form for people to report incidents, injuries and defects, there is a field to record defect measurements if relevant.

"This hasn’t been raised as a query before but we’ll review the form to make sure it’s clear to people that pothole measurements aren’t essential when making a claim."