Stop measuring and start repairing holes

Not that we need it, we all suffer it every day.

One has to have some understanding, even sympathy, for the situation West Sussex County Council's highways department finds itself in.

The problem has multiplied, say, 10-fold, following recent weather.

It has been trumpeted that about 200,000 extra has been allocated to the pothole budget.

This is of course totally inadequate, given that there is already a shortfall in the budget of several million pounds, and many years of arrears.

However, it is to be hoped that the situation will force the highways department to now amend its attitude and techniques to deal with it.

Up to now, there seems to have been a greater emphasis on bureaucracy, measuring and keeping a record of the holes, their size and location, as opposed to actually filling them in.

Highways has what it calls the "intervention point", i.e., a hole has to be at least 4in deep to justify repair.

There was, and still is to a large extent, a similar set of holes to those shown in Mr Buckland's photo of Clun Road, pictured left, in Fitzalan Road.

For a recent visit, the contractor was authorised to fill only about four holes, while many others were left because they were "only" 3.5in deep.

Those holes are now 6in deep!

It has to be that it will be much cheaper in the longer term to have fixed them all at once.

It is said we live in a litigious age.

But, as Dr Kimber has pointed out in your pages more than once, it seems that suing the council for damage to one's vehicle is the only way to get real action in this matter.

The bureaucracy of that costs the council, or pertinently we the taxpayers, more than the repair.

John Morris,

Maltravers Drive,

Littlehampton

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