Roads in Sussex are breaking up

8:27am Wednesday 30th December 2009 in News By Siobhan Ryan

DANGER: Cracks have started to appear across the county, including in King's Road, Lancing DANGER: Cracks have started to appear across the county, including in King's Road, Lancing

Drivers and cyclists who have experienced the chaos of heavy snow and icy conditions are now facing a new problem - pot holes.

The weather is continuing to cause misery for motorists and cyclists as the extreme conditions have led to numerous holes appearing on roads in Brighton and Hove and across the rest of Sussex.

The county may have weathered the recent problems but cracks are now starting to appear and could end up costing millions of pounds to repair.

And with more cold temperatures predicted for later this week, motorists are being warned to take extra care on the roads.

Council workers have been out in force to check the condition of the roads and have been carrying out emergency repairs to keep traffic flowing smoothly.

Among the roads where pot holes have been found are Tivoli Place, Carden Avenue and Coldean Lane in Brighton, London Road, Hassocks, Marine Parade and Christchurch Road in Worthing and Kings Road, Lancing.

Roads campaigner Steve Percy, from the People's Parking Protest, said councils needed to act now to prevent more damage in the future.

Becky Reynolds, campaigns officer for the Brighton and Hove cycling campaign Bricycles, said the condition of roads were causing concerns among members.

Extreme weather created hundreds of pot holes across Sussex in February, leading to a repair bill of more than £2 million for East and West Sussex county councils.

Brighton and Hove City council, which is responsible for fewer miles of highway than the county councils, spent about £50,000 on repairs.

Have you seen a pot hole emerge over the last few weeks? If so, email news@theargus.co.uk, call 01273 544543 or tell us about it below.

Comments(27)

sussexcoastjim says...
8:41am Wed 30 Dec 09

I discovered a pothole the other day... Driving in the dark and wet, the little critter was full of water, 5 inches deep and has damaged the near side front wheel and steering.. Now, I wonder if the council will accept responsibilty.. Not holding my breath!

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stan bailey says...
8:48am Wed 30 Dec 09

I hit one yesterday as well. No doubt the anti car brigade will be delighted

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tpebop... says...
8:58am Wed 30 Dec 09

sussexcoastjim wrote:
I discovered a pothole the other day... Driving in the dark and wet, the little critter was full of water, 5 inches deep and has damaged the near side front wheel and steering.. Now, I wonder if the council will accept responsibilty.. Not holding my breath!
Tell your insurance company as they want wont to pay out, and watch the outcome. I bet you BHCC will pay them

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Eddie Shoestring says...
10:12am Wed 30 Dec 09

Calm down Dear. Just ring the council and they will fix any potholes PDQ

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Redbeard says...
10:34am Wed 30 Dec 09

There is a nice big chunky one at the bottom of Holmes Ave by the junction with The Old Shoreham Road...just by the pub.

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scthetruth says...
10:59am Wed 30 Dec 09

..............then fix them!

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Asbo says...
11:01am Wed 30 Dec 09

But the potholes do not get fixed. A couple of shovels of tarmac thrown in and a few days later the hole appears again!

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Voice of Unreason says...
11:16am Wed 30 Dec 09

B&H has the worst repaired roads this side of the old iron curtain.
God knows what the French and Germans think when they come here and have to experience our 'tank traps'..... sorry, potholes - especially as we pay more tax as motorists than almost any other country in Europe.
It's a total disgrace, and maybe that's one reason why cyclists ride on the pavements.

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twosugars says...
11:21am Wed 30 Dec 09

found a useful website advising on how to go about claiming for damage to vehicles.

http://www.potholes.
co.uk/claims/how_to_
claim

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CliveA says...
12:30pm Wed 30 Dec 09

Here's a good website where you can map and describe pot-holes. The information then gets passed automatically to the relevant authority:

http://www.fillthath
ole.org.uk

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A. Nell says...
1:24pm Wed 30 Dec 09

Council fix potholes ? Hmmm lets see, spend millions on fixing their voters roads or put the money into gold plated pensions for the Council top brass ......tough decision.

security word corr-upt

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Twistor says...
1:53pm Wed 30 Dec 09

Please let it be noted that the roads were in a shocking state before the bad weatehr. Poor patchy repairs will not solve the problem and infact cost far more in the long term both to the Council and to you and I the user. As BHCC seems reluctant to actually solve these problems I would suggest that anyone who has suffered damage to themselves or their vehicle should take a look at: http://www.potholes.
co.uk/. This is a great site that explains how one should take action against council/highways for renumeration of damage. Obviously this is not something that is going to be plain sailing but the more who make claims, the more likely damaged roads will be repaired.

May I add the access roads to the Uni/New Albion Stadium builing site as a place of attrocious pot holes and the road from Sussex Uni to Lewes Road B&Q.

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tombraider59 says...
2:36pm Wed 30 Dec 09

I agree - some of the roads in the Lancing and Sompting area have been very bad for most of 2009 and this bout of bad weather has just made them worse. We've had a few patchups with a bit of tarmac but that's now coming loose again so it was a complete waste of time and money (our money!).

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michaelr says...
3:47pm Wed 30 Dec 09

Try the A273 through Hassocks.

All the patches from the February freeze have lifted off and expanded as well as new holes appearing.

The problem is they just poured in some tar over loose stones and did not bind it into the road surface. It will be fixed again, equally quickly and badly and get worst after the next freeze.

Just fix it properly and not use the cheapest quote on material and time...

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yorkie44 says...
4:19pm Wed 30 Dec 09

Are these the ones from the last snow in February that have just got bigger?

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cozza says...
6:14pm Wed 30 Dec 09

my mate lives in paxmead cresent east worthing
and there are about 10 potholes the council came and filled in 2 but still leaves 10 more ? what is happing with all the councill tax we pay for the up keep of the roads ? ( doing the roads up were councillers live ) the road has been like it for 6 months

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jaque au lait says...
6:26pm Wed 30 Dec 09

there are loads of holes around the preston park area, the council are looking in to them.

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wis says...
7:38pm Wed 30 Dec 09

Very simple science..... water expands when frozen, and will cause any weakness in the road to fail, and a pot hole appears. Have a look at the roads in Finland and Sweden and you'll see they are far worse than here. When reported, councils will make a temporary repair until the road dries out and the weather warms up - we call it summer - then they can make a proper repair.

Obviously there has been cold weather, obviously many pot holes will appear at once, obviously nobody is prepared to have every road inspected on the hour every hour like the toilets in Wetherspoons, so therefore we have to accept that we need to drive our cars as the law dictates - at a speed which is suited to the road conditions and at which we can stop short in the distance we can see is clear. So if you hit a pot hole, it comes under the ancient law of "tough titty".

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Avangelist says...
9:16pm Wed 30 Dec 09

Surely it would be much quicker to waste my own money calling the council to tell them how to do their job by informing them of the roads which do not have pot-holes along them?

Honestly, this is a very clever ruse. What they are doing is surveying the public to find out which roads get commented on the most. These will be the ones which get repaired based on the number of 'votes' or as we all know them complaints.

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Don't believe the hype says...
9:29pm Wed 30 Dec 09

Wis - you may not be fully correct that any damage to your car comes under the ancient law of ''tough titty.'' If your car is damaged there are legal steps you can take. Section 58 of The Highways Act 1980 provides a local authority with a defence if they can show that the road has been inspected and maintained (tough titty?). However if the road hasn't been checked for years and / or the pot hole has been reported and not fixed within a reasonable time frame you may have the basis for a claim. It would be for a court to judge what is 'reasonable' but obviously it depends on a number of factors such as the size of the hole, the type of road etc. The information on the council records for road inspections and pot holes can be accessed via a Freedom of Information Act request. These usually cost about £10 to £20 pounds - a lot cheaper than a new steering column or shock absorber. And as it's 'civil' court you only need a 51% proof burden on your side to win!

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Gazza says...
1:18am Thu 31 Dec 09

I was driving the other day along the road between Brighton and Horsham and I suddenly drove into a pothole, which caused such a trauma between my steering wheel and steering rack I nearly lost control of my good old faithful Robin Reliant.

I was so traumatizes by the event I had to pull over about 400 metres up the road because I was speeding at the time.
.
I then had to walk all the way back and have a good old look at this pothole, which nearly caused me to drop my mobile phone into my cup of tea, which I was drinking at the time and I smudge my finger nails with the last top coat

On looking into the pothole I could clearly see something on the other side, which looked like the lost city of Atlantis.

On breaking away some loose stones and tarmac with my nail file I manage to make the pothole into a manhole not a women hole but a good old fashion manhole.

I then manage to squeeze my over weight body which is a size 8 into the manhole and popped into the lost city on the other side.

On exploring the underground-lost city for an hour or so I found it quite boring to my taste because one skeletons and ancient monument looks like another and there were no shoe shops to be found so I proceeded to the entrance, which I had entered.

To my amassment the entrance, which I had just entered, had just been sealed up with hot tarmac and type one-road chippings and could still hear the roller above flattening the tarmac to a level surface.

I then had to make a new entrance to the world above causing another pothole in the road surface.

This was 5 days ago and still that pothole which I created has not been filled up and levelled.

So Sussex highways come on lets see some more pothole filling. Maybe we can have pothole parties or something to that effect.

Yours faithfully
Miss E Loh Top

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Old Dog says...
12:00pm Thu 31 Dec 09

Our local roads are ATROCIOUS! The result of years of patching and bodging instead of doing the job properly. Last years potholes are now evident again as the shovelfulls of tarmac thrown in them have now frozen out, plus of course all the new holes. When will the councils realise that the only way to do the job is properly? Roads used to be regularly resurfaced. The cheapskate approach only builds up troubles for the future! Spent Christmas in Hampshire. The roads there are looked after properly and potholes are rare. West Sussex are as bad as East Sussex. Drove through Ashdown Forest from Copthorne to Wych Cross late last night. Had to use the middle of the road as the edges are like a ploughed field!

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Old Dog says...
12:01pm Thu 31 Dec 09

And don't bother informing the council. They just pay lip service to complaints and do nothing!

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ArthurD says...
6:00pm Thu 31 Dec 09

When they are full of water and therefore hidden they are doubly dangerous.

A colleague just burst a tyre on a road in Surrey so it's not just round here the roads are of dubious quality.

Meanwhile lots of jobs for Play Rangers and other ways to spend the council tax!

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jools99 says...
6:08pm Thu 31 Dec 09

The pavements are also not maintained properly. The Council are obviously going through the process of inspecting the pavements as, recently, chalked "x's" have been marked on cracked paving stones in my part of Brighton. However, not every cracked paving stone has been identified (even if they are right next to those marked), so, I suppose that only those marked will be repaired, whilst the others will remain in a dangerous condition. Talk about the ineffectiveness of the Council!

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heavenscentrose says...
6:31pm Thu 31 Dec 09

jools99 wrote:
The pavements are also not maintained properly. The Council are obviously going through the process of inspecting the pavements as, recently, chalked "x's" have been marked on cracked paving stones in my part of Brighton. However, not every cracked paving stone has been identified (even if they are right next to those marked), so, I suppose that only those marked will be repaired, whilst the others will remain in a dangerous condition. Talk about the ineffectiveness of the Council!
I've noticed that too - I suspect that you're right - they will only repair the marked paving stones.

As for the roads, we can only hope that the terrible potholes will be repaired quickly so that accidents and possible loss of life/serious injury are avoided

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roast says...
12:44pm Mon 4 Jan 10

I live in Hassocks, the roads around there are a disgrace.
My car was damaged at Hassocks station due to a massive pot-hole. When I claimed to the council they said it was down to Southern, Southern blamed Network Rail, long story short, after 3 months of trying to pass the blame, payment was made. It took a long time but persistence is the key.

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