Hi House. Sorry to hear of your trouble.
Yes at one time under the Malicious Injury code you could claim against the local authority for malicious damage to property. You would have been able to recover for damage to your tyres less the first hundred pounds.
"Malice" in this context means intentional as opposed to accidental damage.
The legislation goes back to at least 1848. It provided a mechanism where the owners of the damaged property could get a decree for the damage payment of the decree being levied on the ratepayers. Depending on the police evidence the court could levy on a particular DED or DEDs rather than the county at large. It was a way of enabling landlords recover damage to their property and to encourage teh neighbours to assist in locating the culprits.
There was a lot of interesting case-law, and interesting evidence. E.g if a haystack was burned over night it could have been anything from spontaneous combustion of the hay ( often happens ) to a courting couple having the cigarette after, apart from actual malicious burning.
The insurance companies used to insist on claims being made in any burning case unless there was an obvious accidental explanation for the fire..
These claims were often in Circuit Court lists up to the late 70's, and could also be run in the District COurt. Costs awarded were low. the Circuit Court had unlimited jurisdiction. The main change came in 1984 when they were restricted to cases of damage by subservises or unlawful or riotous assembley ( have to prove 3 or more persons involved )
Malicious Injuries are still technically there, but very seldom taken now.