Potholes
I have been approached by a number of constituents across Mid Sussex who have highlighted the increase and ongoing dangerous potholes both on urban and rural roads in our area. My team are able to report/follow up on these with West Sussex County Council. Added to this I have worked with Councillors, such as Cllr Mustak Miah, and those across the area who have been flagging these too. This is a really concerning issue to our wider road surfaces which have been impacted by the cycle we have seen recently of periods of heavy rains followed by freezing temperatures and has also not been helped by rainwater in the potholes making it very dangerous, especially in the dark.
I raised concerns with WSCC Leadership recently asking whether this is a matter of more funding and more resources stressing we need a concerted effort on repairs plus wider road network intervention. I am hopeful for more news on this shortly and have pushed for update on further funds for roads.
Meanwhile, I have been assured that 25,500 potholes have been filled across West Sussex in the last nine months however the severe cycle of weather we have been experiencing leads to a new influx of pothole reports. In fact I’ve been advised that in the first 11 days of January 2023, WSCC highways teams received 2,500 pothole/carriageway-related enquiries from the public. For context, they say the total for the whole of January 2022 was 1,400 enquiries!!
The cold weather on-top of the recent substantial rain plus the pre-Christmas snow and now ice has caused a number of gigantic and multiple potholes to emerge on a number of our local roads. I will continue to work with WSCC for Mid Sussex constituents on this but would encourage road users to report potholes directly into WSCC using their online form here: https://www.westsussex.gov.uk/…/make-an-enquiry-or-report-…/
If your vehicle has been impacted by a pothole, guidance on actions, eligibility and how to make a claim can be found here: https://www.westsussex.gov.uk/roads-and-travel/maintaining-roads-verges-and-pavements/road-maintenance/highway-claims-for-injury-or-damage-to-property/
I also raised potholes with the Roads Minister - see below for details.
Road Minister visit to Mid Sussex
The Department for Transport Roads Minister, Richard Holden MP, has recently visited Mid Sussex to see a number of local initiatives including the Place and Connectivity Scheme for walking and cycle scheme (Burgess Hill Place and Connectivity Scheme Phase One | Your Voice West Sussex). Please note this scheme is funded from a central Government pot focussed on increased accessibility and not from WSCC local budgets/funds as the local Highway’s Authority.
I used the example in Burgess Hill, of how welcome investment cannot be at the expense of residents and traders. I have been approached by a number of constituents and constituency businesses about the changes in the town centre and the ongoing upset and deep concern has been clear. I joined ITV News last week to talk about it too.
I have also raised the issues of signage and quality with the WSCC scheme manager and was assured all of this is in hand. I’ve been assured that the site is not yet complete and he confirmed the roadworks near Waitrose and traffic lights will be gone soon so flow in the whole area will be improved. I will continue to monitor this and encourage constituents to continue to share their experiences with me via email to mims.davies.mp@parliament.uk .
During the Minister’s visit we also visited some sites of the new WSCC lane rental scheme which will be transformational too. This new scheme has been implemented to stop incessant road works where people are not working on ‘emergency’ schemes that consistently spring up, such as the A272 into Haywards Heath.
It is the impact on the programming of the plethora of regular utility maintenance and broadband installation works which creates issues when there is no active work or they over-run and which must also be sequenced with WSCC’s own regular highway maintenance, or it will be total gridlock forever.
I have previously raised concerns about the working practices of some fibre installation companies with DCMS Minister, Julia Lopez MP. My letter is available here: https://www.mimsdavies.org.uk/news/mims-davies-mp-raises-concerns-about… and her response here: https://www.mimsdavies.org.uk/news/dcms-response-my-approach-regarding-…
WSCC is only the third County to get this signed off by DFT (the previous councils have been within London) and means £2,500 per day if no work is being done. This excellent innovation is being led by Cllr Joy Dennis, WSCC Highways Cabinet Member. More details of the scheme can be found here: https://www.mimsdavies.org.uk/news/roadworks-update-approval-wscc-lane-rental-scheme
Added to the WSCC Lane Rental Scheme timing benefits, it will also mean they can check in and push on reinstatements of the road being of suitable quality - as it’s often this that degrades the roads and creates more potholes.
During the Minister’s visit I also took the opportunity to raise whether this fines process could allow the parish or town councils to work with WSCC to buy potholes machines so communities could directly benefit from the fines given out where there is inconvenience. This will be looked at.
As such, it's absolutely crucial that constituents and local road users, as highlighted above, do take the time to report any potholes to WSCC, who are responsible for fixing them as well as the general road improvements around emergency and utility roadworks.
The sooner a pothole is reported, the sooner the Council's highways team can deal with them - preventing them from getting worse.
Residents who historically reported via Love West Sussex are being redirected to the current online form for the issue they want to report. People who have bookmarked or saved the Love West Sussex web online URL and/or App to their device are asked to please delete and save:
Report a problem with a road or pavement: https://www.westsussex.gov.uk/…/make-an-enquiry-or-report-…/
Constituents are also able to view existing/open reports, pin-pointed on the map, and subscribe to updates by simply entering their email address, saving time on duplicate reports being submitted.
If you are travelling outside of the county, you will need to report any potholes to the responsible highway’s authority.
East Sussex: https://www.eastsussexhighways.com/report-a-problem/roads/pothole-in-road
Hampshire: https://www.hants.gov.uk/transport/roadmaintenance/roadproblems/potholes
Kent: https://www.kent.gov.uk/roads-and-travel/report-a-problem
Surrey: https://www.surreycc.gov.uk/do-it-online/report-it-online