If you’re a vehicle owner unlucky enough to have had your car tyres damaged by the potholes which have blighted the UK’s roads after the harsh winter, this story should  be of interest to you.

Just under £20,000 worth of compensation was paid out to motorists in Dungannon, Ireland, after their cars and car tyres were damaged by potholes, newly released figures show.

Apparently, the Roads Service coughed up a staggering £19,098 to cover damage inflicted on vehicles in the borough during the past five years.

Motorists were compensated for damage to tyres, suspension and even their car’s body work wich was caused by the treacherous state of the local roads, according to the Tyrone Times newspaper.

The figures were disclosed by Regional Development Minister Conor Murphy in a written answer to an Assembly question from Tom Elliott.

It comes in the wake of two months of outrage by British motorists over the state of the roads in the wake of the harsh winter conditions suffered earlier this year.

Many vehicle owners have already instigated claims against local councils for damage to their cars caused by huge potholes and craters in the roads.

Denna Bowman, Head Office

By Alex Kapadia

Bridgestone has warned Formula One drivers to nurse the softer of the two slick tyres selected for the second Grand Prix of the season this Sunday. 

Tyre wear is predicted to play a major role in the Malaysian Grand Prix after last weekend’s season-opener in Melbourne graphically demonstrated how the car tyres can influence the outcome of the race.  

The softer tyres offered more initial grip, but began to fade dramatically after as little as half a dozen laps.  The Ferrari drivers, who started the race on the softer compound, were particularly affected, losing five seconds per lap to the leaders and having to bring forward their first pit stops.

Bridgestone has selected slightly harder tyres from its range of four compounds for Malaysia – hard and soft rather than the medium and super-soft that were used in Australia.  However, it is the first time they have tried soft tyres at Sepang.

But Bridgestone warns that the soft tyres will need careful management on the Sepang track, because it is more demanding than Australia’s Albert Park, with its long fast corners and direction changes under lateral load.

Hirohide Hamashima, Bridgestone’s director of motorsport tyre development, said: ‘Sepang is quite severe on tyres as it has many different corner types and two heavy braking zones after long straights.  This means the energy going through the tyres over a lap is considerable.

‘Drivers will have to be careful not to lock their brakes, especially with the new generation cars which seem less stable due to the lower levels of downforce.’

If you want to survive the recession in ‘green style’ there are plenty of things you can do that won’t cost a penny - starting with your car tyres.

First make sure your tyres are properly inflated.  It’s cheap, quick and easy and it could save a small fortune on fuel bills, reduce your CO2 emissions and give your tyres a longer lifespan.

Another way to reduce fuel consumption is to remove heavy items from your car, what’s the point in lugging round heavy roof racks if you don’t need them, all they do is help your car burn more energy.

Don’t let your car idle in traffic jams, switch off the ignition to save fuel and stop polluting the planet.

However, in the worse scenario, never put off replacing your tyres if they are below the legal tread limit of 1.6mm – this is a massive false economy.

Bald tyres reduce fuel economy, cause accidents, can make insurance policies invalid and could even lead to hefty fines.

But tyres don’t have to be expensive.  Etyres is the UK’s leading online tyre retailer and it offers premium brand tyres at cheap prices, up to 40% lower than leading high street tyre depots.

Etyres offers a convenient mobile fitting service which means it doesn’t have expensive tyre depots to run, so its overheads are low and the savings are passed on to customers in the form of cheap prices for the top name brands like Michelin and Pirelli.

Katherine Clarkson, National Accounts

By Denna Bowman

They call it ‘The Beast’ and it’s the vehicle that President Barack Obama will use to cruise through London’s streets when he touches down in the UK tonight.

The £250,000 ‘rolling tank with windows’ is equipped with Kevlar-reinforced puncture and shred resistant tyres.

It can drive at 60mph – even if the tyres have been shot at.

The limousine is also equipped with rocket-propelled grenades, a night-vision camera and pump-action shotguns to destroy would-be attackers.

The Beast’s titanium superstructure is capable of shielding the president from a chemical weapons attack and its five-inch rock proof glass is so thick that he needs fluorescent light to read in the darkness.

The sealed interior even forms an impregnable “panic room” if the vehicle is attacked.

The car contains a tear-gas cannon, oxygen tanks and bottles of the president’s AB blood.

The security operation surrounding the President Obama’s visit is immense. 

President Obama lands with an entourage of 500 - including 200 secret service staff and a medical team carrying pints of his own blood type.

The entourage also includes a plane, a helicopter and The Beast – which will be followed by a fleet of ambulances and decoy vehicles.

Manholes in city roads have been bolted down, bins removed and British security snipers placed in tall buildings across the city.

The president is due to touch down at Stansted Airport at 8pm on board the presidential aircraft Air Force One.

By Katherine Clarkson

Online US consumers say the recession is causing them to shop online to avoid impulse buys and shopping for deals that have hidden costs.

The same principle applies to tyres-buying motorists who don’t want to be sold extra items, like shock absorbers, or get stung with hidden costs, such as fitting the tyres, according to etyres, the UK’s leading online tyre retailer.

The US survey claims that more than half (53%) of online Americans say the recession is causing them to spend more time on the internet, where they are increasingly researching purchases to suppress impulse buying and shopping for deals that do not include shipping or sales tax.

According to the latest Consumer Behaviour Report from PriceGrabber.com, in terms of the allocation of increased time spent online, the largest percentage (40%) of consumers say they are spending more time comparing prices.

The research also noted that the majority of consumers are less concerned about cutting back and more focused on spending smarter.

Etyres offers a convenient mobile tyre fitting service and because it does not have expensive tyre depots to maintain it keeps its overheads low.  The savings are therefore passed on to customers in the form of cheaper prices for premium brand tyres – often up to 40 per cent lower than the leading high street tyre depots.

Hot on the heels of his outstanding victory at Melbourne on Sunday, Jenson Button has talked about the role the new slick tyres played in his victory.

David Garrido, Radio 1 Newsbeat reporter, asked the Brawn driver: ‘Tyres were obviously critical in this race. How’s it dealing with not only that but all the other toys you’ve got to play with now as a driver?’

Button replied: ‘It was interesting because the second stint I obviously flat spotted the front left which made it a bit of a nightmare really and then the light was getting bad, the tyres were cooling off because of the temperatures and these tyres don’t work when they’re cold.

‘It was very difficult, and the last stint obviously on the soft tyres but I knew my pace and I knew where I was on the circuit and that wasn’t an issue, I could keep everyone at bay, so I was pretty comfortable from then on.’

The post mortems into what went right and what went wrong for the Formula One teams during the Australian Grand Prix have begun.

And it’s clear the new slick tyres will play an important role in the new season for all the teams.

Alex Kapadia, Operations Executive

By Denna Bowman

When Barack Obama raised the issue of proper tyres inflation to reduce fuel consumption in the US he was mocked by the opposition in the Presidential race.

Yet the idea is gaining traction in California where air regulators are seeking a mandate to ensure tyres are properly inflated.

The state Air Resources Board has just adopted a resolution requiring ‘auto repair shops’ to check tyres pressure every time drivers bring in their vehicle for maintenance, oil changes or smog tests.

The next step is to develop detailed rules to implement the mandate, which will take effect from July 2011.

Regulators believe that widespread awareness of running tyres with the correct air pressure could lead to California saving 75 million gallons of fuel a year and using 700,000 fewer tyres.

Yet last summer, Republicans mocked then-candidate Obama for suggesting proper tyre inflation could save oil and should be part of an energy-conservation plan.

At the time the Republican National Committee and John McCain’s presidential campaign handed out pressure gauges labeled “Obama Energy Plan.”

The debate eventually died after several days when McCain acknowledged that he also thought tyre maintenance was a good idea.

The U.S. Department of Energy estimated at the time that proper tire inflation can boost gas mileage by about 3.3 percent. It recommends the step along with regular tuneups, replacing dirty air filters and removing unneeded items from the trunk.

California regulators are hoping the idea spreads to other states.

The official tyres sponsors for Formula One have had a lot to celebrate during the past few days.

Bridgestone are delighted the return to slick tyres for the 2009 season was such a huge success with drivers and fans during the Australian Grand Prix yesterday.

The decision to drop grooved tyres after 11 years was part of one of the biggest overhauls of the Formula One rules for decades.

The aim was to spice up the action and encourage more overtaking to make the sport more exciting to watch – and judging by yesterdays spectacle at Melbourne the plan it worked.

But they have also just scooped awards for their tyres from two leading German motoring publications.

AutoBild and ADAC Motorwelt awarded Bridgestone’s Turanza ER300 the top rating of ‘very recommendable’ and a similar favourable result was doled out by Auto Motor und Sport.

Other Bridgestone products scoring the highest ‘very recommendable’ rating by two of the of Europe’s largest motoring publications include Potenza RE050A and the Firestone TZ300a.

Oliver Hall, Operations Executive

The lights went our around the world last night as Earth Hour 2009 took place to highlight the threat of climate change.

People were urged that everything from dimming lights to driving on properly inflated tyres can help to save the planet.

But long term measures like running cars on properly inflated tyres, turning off taps to conserve water and switching appliances off stand-by are needed to carry the campaign forward.

However, last night’s event showed a concerted commitment by countries around the world to get to grips with battling climate change.

Time zone by time zone, some 4,000 cities and towns in 88 countries and regions joined the global event organised by the World Wildlife Fund to dim nonessential lights from 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.

In London, the lights went off at the Houses of Parliament and the electronic billboard at Piccadilly Circus.

In Paris, hundreds of monuments and buildings, from the Louvre and Notre Dame Cathedral to the Arc de Triomphe, all went dark. The lights on the Eiffel Tower were switched off for five minutes for safety reasons.

In Sydney, famous harbor landmarks of Sydney Opera House and the arch-like Harbor Bridge were plunged into darkness on Saturday night, with tens of thousands of residents and businesses also turning their lights off for the global event.

In Beijing, the iconic “Bird’s Nest” National Stadium and “Water Cube,” the most prominent 2008 Olympic venues usually illuminated by floodlights, went dark at 8:30 p.m., while dozens of hotels, office buildings, shopping malls and restaurants in the capital also switched some lights off.

Even in Antarctica, New Zealand’s 26-member winter team at Scott Base, where temperatures are close to minus 30 degrees Celsius, shut down to minimum safety lighting and switched off all unnecessary appliances and computers.

Katherine Clarkson, National Accounts

By Katherine Clarkson

The majority of British drivers are four times more likely to reduce the running life of their tyres because they are oblivious to the Highway Code’s advice on tyres pressure checking, according to a new survey.

Bridgestone tyres claims that 50 per cent of Brit’s believed they should check their tyres every four week, with a further 21 per cent stating tyres should be checked fortnightly.

However, the Highway Code recommends vehicle owners carry out weekly check-ups.

Failure to run without the correct air pressure can shorten the life of a tyre, while also increasing fuel consumption and CO2 emissions.

Bridgestone asked more than 1,500 drivers across the UK how often they should check their tyre pressure in order to stay safe, extend the life of their tyre and reduce fuel consumption and carbon emissions.

Fifty-nine per cent of men got the answer right, although only a quarter actually check their pressure weekly.  However, only 37 per cent of women gave the correct response, with a just a fifth acting on the advice.