More Funds for Potholes
East Sussex County Council (ESCC) has announced additional Investment, potentially in excess of £15 million, to improve the condition of the county’s roads and protect them for years ahead. The decision follows months of detailed modelling of how extra funds might be most effectively spent.
Council cabinet members unanimously approved additional spending of £5.6 million from reserves to pay for extra patching and drainage work, and to increase the capital programme by £5.1 million, funded through borrowing. They also agreed to recommend further £5 million expenditure to “to help with early improvements to make the road network more resilient”, subject to approval at a full Council meeting later this month.
Presenting a report on 27 June, Cllr Claire Dowling, ESCC’s lead member for transport and environment, said: “Over recent winters, … the weather has taken its toll on roads in East Sussex and across the country. I very much welcome this investment and believe residents will as well.” She claimed that the increase in funding would “help move 40 more miles of roads into good condition” and significantly reduce the proportion in East Sussex needing repair.
A subsequent press release issued by ESCC last week also referred to the extra investment that is needed “as more extreme weather is causing roads across England to deteriorate faster”.
Road users of Hastings and St Leonards may wonder, however, whether their borough suffers disproportionately from climate change, or whether there are other factors at work.
“You notice the moment you get to the town border,” observes a resident, “nowhere else is as bad.”
Roads across the town present specific challenges, many being steep and relatively narrow. When heavy vehicles – such as buses – brake on descents, they cause damage. Anyone who has reported potholes will know the key determinant of a speedy repair is the depth of the hole; taking no account of ruts, undulations and loose tarmac covering a wide area, some examples remaining unfixed for at least five years.
Potholes are customarily filled on an individual basis, with others just a few metres away ignored by repair crews. When a section of road is resurfaced, often only a minimal area is treated. On Pevensey Road, a busy bus route, only 50 metres of a 100-metre section, in demonstrably poor condition and dangerous to cyclists, was recently repaired. Given the cost of removing parked cars and transporting men, machines and materials to the site, this seems a false economy – as is the practice of ‘cold filling’, tamping asphalt into holes, rather than ‘hot filling’, using heated tar to provide a longer-lasting repair.
HIP asked ESCC for a meeting with a highway engineer to raise these issues, and also submitted written questions. They have not responded.
Have you had a problem, fallen over, suffered a damaged tyre or suspension, or had an accident because of local roads and/or pavements in poor repair? If so, please email HIP with a heading of ‘Roads’ at [email protected]
East Sussex Highways have announced that the link road connecting Hastings with Bexhill across the Combe Valley will be wholly closed for four days from today (Friday) for repair works to carriageways in both directions.
The road, which was built as a brand new route at a cost of around £120 million and opened less than eight years ago, is suffering from subsidence.
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