Eastbourne MP criticises council's 'wasteful' pothole practices

A pothole pictured in Silverdale Road in 2024. Photo: staffA pothole pictured in Silverdale Road in 2024. Photo: staff
A pothole pictured in Silverdale Road in 2024. Photo: staff
Eastbourne’s MP has criticised 'wasteful' pothole practices in the town.

Speaking in the House of Commons, Josh Babarinde shared his concern about ‘wasteful’ and ‘ridiculous’ practices being used by East Sussex County Council (ESCC) to fix potholes.

In the speech, he highlighted a series of roads across the town which he said local residents have pointed out as pothole hotspots.

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He said: “Whether it’s Silverdale Road, Rodmill Drive, Quebec Close or Ceylon Place, potholes litter our roads in Eastbourne after years of neglect by the conservative East Sussex County Council.

“We also have a ridiculous situation where potholes that are right next to each other are not both sorted at the same time.

"It’s a wasteful practice.”

He appealed to The Secretary of State, Heidi Alexander, to ‘urge ESCC’ to ‘stop this wasteful practice’ and ensure Eastbourne ‘benefits from its fair share’ of funds allocated to repair roads in the south east.

In response, Ms Alexander said the situation Mr Babarinde described ‘does concern me’.

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“I am very clear that local transport authorities should be using this money in a way that provides excellent value for money for the tax payer,” she said.

"I’m very, very keen to see local authorities, such as his, just getting on, cracking on with the job and making sure that motorists, and all road users for that matter, have safe, smooth roads that they can travel on.”

An East Sussex County Council spokesperson said: “Like highways authorities up and down the country, we have seen an increase in potholes in recent years due to the more severe weather we have experienced, and since 2020/21 we have spent £105 million on highways maintenance, despite Government funding of only £60 million.

“Repairing all potholes and defects regardless of whether they are an immediate safety issue or not would require considerably more resource than is available to us, so we prioritise repairs to ensure that the potholes presenting the greatest risk are repaired as quickly as possible.

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“To repair every pothole on our network of 2,000 miles of roads, regardless of whether it meets our intervention levels, would cost about four times our current spend and place an even greater burden on council taxpayers.”

In December, the government announced that seven million more potholes would be filled in 2025 amid a £1.6 billion funding boost.

Of this funding, £21 million is set to be allocated to East Sussex County Council, according to the Department for Transport.

The government department also said it was introducing ‘a new incentive element’ to ensure ‘best practice in sustainable highways asset management is followed’. This involves 25 per cent of the funding to be held back until local authorities ‘can prove that they are meeting certain criteria’.

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