County council responds to impact of storm on West Sussex highways

West Sussex County Council’s highways team demonstrated their emergency response service when two named storms hit the county over the weekend. 

Between the evening of Thursday 22 and the morning of Monday 26 October, the team responded to 201 emergency incidents, a 14% increase on the average number of emergency incidents handled by the service each month.

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 significant, with out of hours safety crews and tree surgeons attending incidents including:

• 195 fallen trees

• 2 carriageway floods

• 2 highway voids

• 2 traffic signal faults

Councillor 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.”