A DISPUTE between council and water bosses has led to roadworks dragging on for 100 days resulting in traffic chaos.

Residents in Whitehawk Road, Brighton, have complained there has been little work over the summer since barriers were put up in June.

The rupture in the road surface appeared on June 22 with water gushing from the ground.

Yesterday, after 104 days, Southern Water and Brighton and Hove City Council were still seemingly at odds over the repairs at the junction of Manor Way.

Tony Sewell, a resident in Robert Lodge, a block of flats overlooking the works, told The Argus: "The buses and cars have one hell of a job to get through. It's absolutely unbearable. It's chaos.

"Everybody's complaining, saying it's going to take too long. Frankly, it gets on your nerves.

"It was a little hole and now it's a big hole. It seems to have been going on for a very long time."

He added that there has been little activity on the site for long periods with a digger appearing in just the last few days.

Another resident on Twitter, named Bello Jiafra, said the works were causing traffic problems and bus diversions.

Steve Allen, who lives nearby, even asked the council for all its written communication as a freedom of information request.

Council leader Warren Morgan responded to say the local authority's transport department had stepped in where Southern Water "have failed to act".

Emails from late July between the council and Southern Water show how a Brighton and Hove highway manager told the water board that a section of the road had broken away with water flowing out of the road under slight pressure.

He added that Southern Water engineers reported how the surface water system was blocked. He said: "We would very much appreciate your assistance in resolving this."

Council workers have now forged on with the road repairs in a bid to clear the blockage. A digger moved in last week.

A senior council source said: "The situation is that Southern Water is denying responsibility for the work, so the council is now doing it."

He added that it "may get legal" if the disagreement is not resolved soon.

The council's roadworks website now lists the "emergency works to carriageway" as being its own responsibility.

The cause of the hole is still not entirely clear, though officials appear to have ruled out lightning as a cause after it opened up during a thunder storm.

A Southern Water spokeswoman said the work was "by the council's highways team" but, when shown the email exchange, said she would look into it. The Argus did not receive answers at the time of going to press.