Fallen tree prompts emergency road closure in Southwater

Southwater Parish Council shared an alert advising that Two Mile Ash Road would be closed for at least 24 hours.

A West Sussex County Council notice says the closure began on Monday, October 26, with emergency works expected to be completed on Tuesday, October 27.

The restriction applies around the clock while work takes place, with an alternative route signposted.

Access will be maintained for emergency services, residents and pedestrians within the closed area.

The notice allows for a closure of up to 21 days if necessary, although the works were expected to take considerably less time.

This comes after the council’s highways team ‘demonstrated their emergency response service’ when two named storms hit the county over the weekend.

“Between the evening of Thursday, October 22 and the morning of Monday, October 26, the team responded to 201 emergency incidents, a 14 per cent increase on the average number of emergency incidents handled by the service each month,” a council statement read.

"In anticipation of the forecast severe weather, we increased our standard weekend emergency response resource to ensure the network remained safe and resilient.”

The scale of the response was described as ‘significant’, with out of hours safety crews and tree surgeons attending incidents including: 195 fallen trees; two carriageway floods; two highway voids and two traffic signal faults

Erika Woodhurst-Trueman, cabinet member for highways and transport, said: “We try to prepare for adverse weather as best we can to ensure the road network is kept clear, and our residents can get where they need to be.

“This most recent episode of stormy weather resulted in the highest number of highway emergencies faced since February 2026, with the scale of the response clearly demonstrating the amount of effort that our teams put into both responding to and dealing with clearing up the damage caused.

“It also shows how much planning happens behind the scenes to be aware of adverse weather and the effect it could have on the county.

“We know from listening to our residents, that being prepared and taking action to ensure we can do as much as possible to keep the network operating is important to them and we are working hard to ensure that this winter we will minimise disruption and maintain network resilience.”