A PARISH councillor has justified calling 999 to ask the police to deal with a pothole after being involved in what he described as a "frightening incident".

Pensioner Graeme Hewitt, of The Vale, Oakley, called the emergency services on December 23 at 3.45pm, after his car tyres were blown out when he hit a pothole in Pack Lane, near Battle Down Bridge.

The 80-year-old, who is vice-chair of Oakley Parish Council, said he called police for fear the pothole could cause a fatal crash.

"It was a busy moment at the time we were there. Cars were coming in the opposite direction and I thought it made sense to let the police know. I found out that this pothole had been registered with the council. If there had been an accident it would have been a tragedy."

Mr Hewitt, a retired journalist who photographed film-stars and royalty, said the police accepted his concerns, and said they would get in touch with the council about it.

He added that the incident, which resulted in both nearside tyres bursting, leaving him stranded as darkness fell, left him feeling "terribly shaken".

He is also £330.90 out of pocket after paying a breakdown company to attend the call-out and repair the tyres.

Mr Hewitt said: "I called 999 as I deemed this pothole to be dangerous enough that a fatal accident could result. Had we noticed the pothole and swerved to miss it, the road being quite narrow at this point, and at the time we were involved, very busy, we could have been involved in a head-on collision."

Mr Hewitt is now attempting to make a claim from Hampshire County Council for the cost of the damage caused to his car.

He said the pothole has now been repaired with tarmac, but said the job is "poor", adding: "It has just been tarmacked over with no water ingress sealing, so not a long-term repair and likely, after the next downpour, to become a hazard again."

Hampshire Constabulary said it could not find details of Mr Hewitt’s call on its system.

However, a spokesman for the police urged people not to call them for ‘non-emergency’ matters.

He added: “Our contact management staff do a hugely important and demanding job. They speak to people who are often in extremely difficult, upsetting or dangerous situations and when their time is wasted on calls which simply aren’t policing matters, it is very frustrating.

“Ultimately, they come to work to help the people of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight and to make a difference, sadly, these types of calls prevent them from doing just that.

“We would like to remind people just how important it is not to flood our 999 lines with inappropriate calls. You could be stopping someone who has a real emergency from getting through to our contact handlers, and ultimately getting the help they need.”

The police force has useful information on its website about what should and shouldn’t be reported.