Newhaven Ring Road ‘won’t survive the winter’

East Sussex County Council confirmed that resurfacing work on the A259 is expected to take place early next year once traffic signal improvements and other highway improvement work has been completed.

Newhaven’s Lib Dems point out the work was due to take place in August and also asked for updates on the £300,000 investment announced more than two years ago.

Newhaven county councillor Darren Grover said: “It’s very clear that the road won’t survive the winter. Parts of it have completely fallen apart especially around the junction with South Road. We all understand that Covid-19 has caused delays, but this is a heavily used road and it can’t be allowed to just crumble.

“It really needs sorting this year to make sure it can survive the winter. Residents are rightly furious that it has been allowed to get into this state in the first place. I am calling on the Conservative leadership of the county council to get it pushed up the list to stop it becoming even more of an embarrassment than it already is.”

James MacCleary, a district councillor for Newhaven South, added: “There is so much to positive about in Newhaven at the moment, but the ring road is just becoming a disgrace. So many residents have told me about damage to their cars on the road and it’s getting worse by the day.”

He also asked for an update on the £300,000 investment in the ring road announced back in April 2018.

An East Sussex Highways spokesman said: “With all highways schemes, we set provisional dates early on in the planning process and, as the project takes shape, this can often change. We only advertise the date the work will actually begin when it has been confirmed.

“Resurfacing work on the A259 is now expected to take place early next year once traffic signal improvements and other highway improvement work is complete.

“We appreciate that there are concerns about the condition of the road surface, and would reassure residents that this will be regularly monitored and necessary interim repairs will be carried out ahead of the resurfacing scheme starting.”

The county council confirmed the work on the traffic signals and other highway improvement work are part of the £300,000 project.

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