East Sussex drivers suffering from 'astonishing number' of unfixed potholes

New research from the Liberal Democrats has shown that the county had more than 13,000 potholes reported in the financial year, with one pothole taking 463 days to fix.

James MacCleary, Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate for Lewes, said: "Over 13,000 potholes for a relatively small county like East Sussex is an astonishing number.

"You would think the Conservatives would be apologising, but of course they are only interested in deflecting blame as usual. They will say it's because they've not got enough funding, but whose fault is that?”

Lewes in East Sussex has the fourth highest council tax rate in the country, leaving many residents confused as to what the council is spending their money on.

According to the Liberal Democrats, many residents have raised potholes as a top issue ahead of the local elections on May 4, with a petition calling for the repair of potholes across Sussex and the rest of the UK racking up more than 20,000 signatures.

Mr MacCleary said: "Many residents in East Sussex have already started receiving their ballot papers by post for this year's local elections and I hope that they will use them to send a message to the Conservatives that enough is enough by supporting their local Liberal Democrat candidate."

East Sussex County Council told SussexWorld it did not take them 463 days to repair one pothole. The council said the defect in question was repaired in eight days, but a larger scale patch repair for the same stretch of road was added to our planned maintenance programme and was completed in the following financial year.

An East Sussex County Council spokesperson said: “During 2021/22 we repaired more than 24,000 potholes – 18,000 on roads and 6,000 on pavements, with an average repair time of 10.5 days.

“As a highways authority, we are responsible for the maintenance of more than 2,000 miles of road and 1,542 miles of pavements and cycleways across East Sussex. We have to make sure that we prioritise repairs based on a number factors including the depth, size and location of the pothole.

"To repair all potholes and defects regardless of whether they are an immediate safety issue or not would require considerably more resources. All potholes that meet the council’s repair criteria are repaired within two hours, five days or 28 days depending on the size of pothole, location and type of road.

"Smaller potholes and other defects that don’t meet our intervention criteria are added to our wider patching programme, and are therefore not dealt with in the same timeframe.”

Despite putting in an extra £200m to tackle potholes in last month’s budget, the government has been criticised for cutting local authorities’ highways maintenance budgets by £500m since 2020.

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In that budget, East Sussex was awarded £2.4 million additional funding for road repairs, something which Lewes MP Maria Caulfield hopes will make a difference.

Ms Caulfield said: “I recognise that pothole repairs are a big issue for constituents. That is why I am pleased the the Government recently awarded East Sussex £2.4 million additional funding for road repairs in the budget, which I hope will make a difference.”