A RETIRED music industry executive is seeking help from his lawyer and MP Tim Farron to get his car back on the road after it struck a pothole.

Peter Whitehead, of Cowgill, near Dent, says he cannot afford to put his hand in his pocket and pay the £1,000 repair bill for his BMW 6 Series’ shattered wheel because it amounts to two months’ pension.

The 72-year-old is demanding Cumbria County Council pay the bill immediately in order for DT Close Garage of Sedbergh to release his repaired car and get him back on the road.

Mr Whitehead, who worked with bands Muse and Radiohead in his music career, has told the council: “I am now in discussion with my solicitor, the Citizen’s Advice Bureau and my MP Tim Farron because I have a bill from DT Close Garage which I cannot afford to pay because it is nearly twice my monthly old-age pension and I am a totally innocent party.”

The grandfather said he lived in a rural area with no bus service and there was a “broader question” of why an “innocent senior citizen” should be “deprived of their car due to no fault of their own”.

He said the accident on Thursday, February 27 - a dark, rainy evening - was “unavoidable” and “totally due” to the poor state of the westbound carriageway at Busk Lane, Sedbergh.

Cumbria County Council did interim repairs to the pothole on Monday, March 2 and said a permanent patch would follow in due course.

Tim Farron’s office said the Westmorland and Lonsdale MP had written to CCC’s highways department twice on Mr Whitehead’s behalf. The council had said it would need “60 days to investigate” which he felt was “very excessive and is a long time for Mr Whitehead, or indeed anybody, to be off the road for”.

A spokesman for Cumbria County Council told the Gazette: “The county council is unable to comment on individual claims.

“However, it is standard legal practice for claimants to pay for their vehicle repairs and then seek compensation from the council’s insurers, who will consider the circumstances of the claim and advise if the claimant is entitled to any compensation for the damage to their vehicle.”