A DRIVER said he “thought Hell had opened up” when his car plunged into a hole in a York road.

Grant Parker was driving his Volvo C30 in Granville Terrace, off Hull Road, when part of the road surface collapsed - opening up a hole in the road big enough for him to climb into.

Mr Parker, who lives off Haxby Road, said he was visiting Nortons Heating off James Street when his car was damaged.

He said: “I was driving down the street and all of a sudden the car just sank down and went into a hole.

"It did some damage to the car, and I’m still waiting for the insurance to deal with it.

“There was just a little mark in the road, and as I went over it, the whole car dropped at one side.

"I got out and thought it was unbelievable. You could see a tunnel under the road. I thought Hell had opened up or something.”

While the car was able to be driven to a nearby garage, it required repairs which have so far cost Mr Parker more than £200.

He said the hole in the road had been repaired since the collapse on March 25, but he was still waiting to hear whether his costs would be covered.

Mr Parker said: “I actually got in the hole, it went right down and you could see right under the road.

“The hole has been filled in but only recently. It was cordoned off for a while because they couldn’t move any cars because the road was unsafe.”

A spokeswoman for City of York Council said the authority’s highways team thought the hole was a "void” or a “sewer collapse”, and was not the council’s responsibility.

She said: “This is caused by water escaping from somewhere and washing out the structure of the road, over time, until a void is created. The road surface will hold up for so long and then the void becomes too large and the tarmac fails.”

She confirmed the road had been repaired, but “the liability will not be with City of York Council”.

The spokeswoman said an insurance claim had been received by the council, followed by a highways report, and the authority’s insurance company “will be in the process of redirecting the claim to Yorkshire Water”.

A spokesman for Yorkshire Water said: “We carried out sewer repair work on Granville Terrace on April 5 and completed it on April 12.

“We are sorry to hear Mr Parker damaged his vehicle whilst the road surface was damaged and we repaired the road as quickly as possible once we were notified of the issue on April 3.

“In circumstances like this it is the insurance companies who resolve any claims.”

While the hole in the road was not classed as a pothole, The Press reported in March that City of York Council had been granted more than £2 million by the Government to improve its roads, with £142,000 ring fenced to tackle potholes in the city.

A full list of highway repairs was also issued by the council that month.