A BIKER who suffered severe injuries in a crash near Tweedsmuir has failed in his bid to claim £250,000 damages from Scottish Borders Council.

Peter Dewar blamed a section of crumbling carriageway for causing the crash which left him unconscious in hospital for three days.

But the Court of Session this week ruled on the side of the local authority.

Last year the council was forced to hand over £100,000 to cyclist David Robertson after he sustained fractures to his elbow and wrist when crashing near Broughton.

And several other cyclists and motorists are actively pursuing the local authority for similar claims over the condition of roads.

During Mr Dewar's recent hearing the Court of Session was told how the 50-year-old RAF warrant officer was heading towards Fife on the afternoon of August 12, 2011 when he was involved in a crash on the A701.

He was airlifted to hospital after coming off his Honda 1300 at a series of bends around a mile from the village.

Mr Dewar, who was travelling from RAF Spadeadam in Cumbria to stay with his brother in Fife, believes his crash was caused by the defective road surface.

And he claimed that negligence by Scottish Borders Council’s roads inspector, Kenneth McCudden, was to blame for a strip of broken-up road surface not being repaired.

But this week Lord Pentland, following evidence from both the pursuer, the defendant and expert witnesses, didn’t find that liability fell with the inspector or the local authority.

He stated: “I have great sympathy for the pursuer, who sustained serious injuries with lasting effects.

“In order to obtain damages from the defenders he must, however, prove that Mr McCudden acted negligently.

“On the basis of the evidence led before me, I am not satisfied that the pursuer has done so.”

The hearing was told that a five-mile section of the A701, from Tweedsmuir to the Dumfries and Galloway border, had been inspected by Mr McCudden the previous month.

With 10 years’ experience behind him, Mr McCudden recorded any defects, hazards or obstructions before completing a safety inspection sheet.

During the July 19 inspection he noted several potholes but didn’t identify the need for immediate repairs to be carried out.

Mr Dewar lost control of his touring motorcycle on an eroded strip of carriageway at the apex of one of the bends.

He was thrown from his bike as it collided with a large rock in the grass verge.

Although photographs were produced of the eroded surface and police witnesses agreed that the surface caused the crash, Lord Pentland believes the inspection was carried out properly.

He added: “There is no challenge to the method of inspection described by Mr McCudden in his evidence.

“The pursuer’s case is accordingly a narrow one; it is wholly based on the proposition that Mr McCudden’s inspection carried out on July 19, 2011 was negligent because he failed to identify the strip of eroded surface running along the side of the road on the northbound.

“In the absence of any acceptable evidence that there was a reportable defect in the road and that it amounted to one that any competent roads inspector would have identified, there is no basis on which I could hold that Mr McCudden was negligent in the way that he carried out his inspection.”