Reader letter: Pothole west of Fittleworth is now a ‘crater of dramatic proportions’

I feel I must bring a matter to West Sussex County Council’s attention.

There used to be a pothole on the A283, just west of Fittleworth. This has now expanded to a crater of dramatic and dangerous proportions, which is putting some road users in grave peril.

I was returning to a visit to my daughter in Lancing on Thursday afternoon (April 21), at approximately 4pm, heading west towards Petworth.

Just after I entered the 40mph limit, there was a colossal ‘bang’ from the underneath of the front of the driver’s side of my vehicle.

I stopped as soon as it was safe to do so and inspected what I could see of the outside of the vehicle. All seemed well, from what I was able to observe. The car in question has large alloy wheels and low-profile tyres.

Upon returning home my wife and myself agreed that we could not exactly remember where the obstruction was. We put this down to mild concussion caused by the severity of the impact, from which we both seemed to be suffering, as neither of us could remember the journey home from Lancing.

Our collective memory came back to some degree over the weekend, but not to the extent that either of us could remember the exact location.

I went back to inspect the caldera, that I had encountered. It is hard to understand how it has been allowed to get into such a dangerous state.

Someone in authority clearly knows about it as it has been sprayed around its boundary with white paint. However, this was done so long ago, the paint has cracked and faded.

The caldera is 87cm in length, 55cm in width and 6cms in depth. The what3words location of the issue is spoiler/escapades/rocks.

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