I remember watching an episode on 5th gear about how you deal with this. Advice was to take photos including details of the pot hole size, size does make a difference in this case , list any witnesses and the damage and write to the council. They should pay out, and if not cause a fuss. It's disgusting the state of some of the roads near me, number of times I've had to dodge gaping holes is crazy. Good luck sorting this out.