Repairs on ‘lethal’ Horsham road due to start

JPCT 150414 S14161702x Horsham, Blackbridge Lane. Investing in Better Roads scheme. -photo by Steve Cobb SUS-140415-103056001

Residents of Lambs Farm Road poured out onto the street in anger after the long overdue repair work was set back.

Potholes and ruts have plagued Lambs Farm Road for years.

West Sussex County Council (WSCC) said the works were delayed because of contaminated material.

At the time resident Simon Hill said there has been no proper repair work on the road in his 32 years living there.

He said: “It’s brought almost the entire road out onto the street. I’ve never known them to be so angry, we’re normally quite a placid bunch.

“It’s gone past potholes. There are ruts in the road and it is dangerous, which is why a lot of residents that live here were really delighted when they said they were going to do the job properly.

“It’s lethal. It’s just a really bad accident waiting to happen.”

The work is being funded by the council’s £30million Better Roads programme – an investment programme launched in February to improve and repair some of the county’s most damaged rural and residential roads.

Pieter Montyn, WSCC’s cabinet member for highways and transport, welcomed the work.

He said: “We launched our Better Roads programme in response to residents’ frustrations about the deterioration of some of the county’s smaller roads. We know Lambs Farm Road is in real need of some attention. It was disappointing that we had to postpone the work earlier this month when it was originally scheduled but now we have been able to upgrade the level of work we are undertaking to full resurfacing rather than the extensive patching we had first planned.”

West Sussex County Council’s Better Roads programme marks one of the biggest investments made to the country’s road network for years and is on top of the £8.5 million annual maintenance and improvements works the council carries out each year.

The resurfacing work to Lambs Farm Road will start on Wednesday, May 7 and last approximately 6 days. Work will involve resurfacing the road with new materials between Rusper Road to just east of Shepherds Way. Some minor patching works between Shepherds Way and Crawley Road will also be carried out with a with a view to carrying out surface dressing next year.

Residents can search online to see if their road has been included on the Better Roads Programme for 2014/2015.