A “frustrated” driver has spent three months trying to find out who is responsible for a pothole that caused £700 of damage to her car.

Joanna Mattick, from Maidstone, was travelling on the A249 Sheppey-bound, near Stockbury Roundabout in Sittingbourne, when she hit the crater.

On Wednesday, December 13, she was driving in the rain with her partner to drop him off in Sittingbourne after an evening at Bedgebury.

At around 8.45pm, just 500 yards before the roundabout, her Nissan Qashqai hit a hole in the road.

“We immediately knew we'd got a blowout due to the impact,” she explained. “It was bone-shaking and you felt the jolt right in your belly.

“We were only travelling 50mph, as that was the speed limit through the roadworks.

“I saw a look of anguish on his face when we knew we hit it.”

Joanna says the pothole has caused significant damage to her six-year-old vehicle.

Her front tyre and alloy had to be replaced, and the passenger-side bumper had popped out.

Unable to use her repair kit on the deflated tyre, Joanna, who works in the public sector, waited two and a half hours for a recovery vehicle.

During this time, she reported the hole to National Highways and noticed several other cars had pulled over nearby.

The 40-year-old added: “One guy stopped in front of me and got out to look at his car.

“He said the jolt of hitting the hole caused his head to hit the roof and some of the paint to peel off his alloys.

“There were around four cars that had their hazards on along the same slip road as us.”

Since the incident, Joanna was quoted £700 for repairs.

She added: “I can't guarantee that subsequent problems with my car – which have cost me an additional £500 – aren't attributed to the intense jolt that we went through.

“Because I didn't have any issues before then. Now I'm in and out of the garage like a jack-in-the-box!”

Over the last three months, Joanna has been trying to find out who is responsible for the stretch of road.

On December 15, she logged a claim to National Highways.

After more than two weeks, she called the complaints department and was told it was not their responsibility.

She was instead sent contact details for Sheppey Route Limited – a DBFO company based in Edinburgh.

In the 1990s, the Highways Agency created a system called Design-Build-Finance-Operate (DBFO), where a private firm would be assigned to a specific route and was required to operate and maintain it.

On February 8, Joanna was emailed by a representative from FM Conway, a civil engineering contractor.

They acknowledged her claim and also said it was not their responsibility, but would pass it on to GRAHAM - the construction company currently working on the A249 Stockbury flyover - which is set to improve the sliproads and junction approaches onto the M2.

Joanna says she has not heard a response since then and tried to chase FM Conway for an update twice.

“I'm still playing the waiting game,” she said. “I’m frustrated.

“I'm not baying for blood, but it's just like banging my head against a brick wall.

“Day in, day out, I'm thinking ‘I wonder if I'm going to get an email today’ or ‘do I need to make another phone call?’

“I'm getting to the stage now where no answer is not good enough. Someone has to accept responsibility.”

National Highways, FM Conway and GRAHAM were all contacted for a comment.

FM Conway has advised Joanna to get in touch with their customer care team. They were asked who was responsible for the road but did not reply.

‘In this instance we have failed to deliver the high customer service standards that we set ourselves.’

Dan Rollinson, National Highways project manager for the M2 junction 5 said: “We apologise for the time taken to deal with the claim and the subsequent confusion around who will be handling it.

“In this instance we have failed to deliver the high customer service standards that we set ourselves.

“The claim is currently going through an internal process and apologise that this has not been adequately communicated in this case.

“I can reassure the claimant that we will be in touch regarding her claim in due course.”