A huge pothole in Shipley which wrecked the tyre and wheel of a Range Rover could have caused the death of cyclist, the car’s angry owner has said.

Road-surfacing expert Will Patchell was driving along Avondale Road, Shipley, when his £70,000 Range Rover hit a ten-inch deep hole which burst his off-side front tyre “like a child’s balloon.”

And later inspection showed the impact had taken a chunk from the damaged £1,000 alloy wheel.

Mr Patchell, 45, who owns AWP Surfacing in Shipley, said: “It was about 6pm, dark and hammering it down when suddenly there was a terrific bang under my wheel.

“The steering went, so I knew something was badly wrong. The tyre had been burst by hitting a huge hole.

“And when I took it for repair It turns out the wheel rim has been damaged too.”

Mr Patchell said he was tempted to send a team of men himself to mend the hole and prevent a more serious accident.

“If it did that to a Range Rover, imagine if a motorbike or cyclist rode into it?

“They would have been thrown off and possibly killed.”

He believes Bradford Council’s road repair teams are now overstretched due to cutbacks and are therefore not doing any preventative work on the roads.

“It’s not their fault, it’s just that now it’s all reactive, not pro-active. They can only tackle problems after there’s been complaints from the public.”

Mr Patchell has now filled in the Council’s on-line pothole complaint form and hopes it will meet his repair costs.

Retired teacher Rob Cistko lives in Grosvenor Road, opposite Avondale Roads.

He said: “When I saw that hole I thought – ‘oh my God, that’s a deep one’.

“They came and filled it in this weekend, but very crudely in my opinion.”