Reports of potholes in East Sussex more than doubled last year.
In figures released in response to a Freedom of Information (FOI) request, East Sussex County Council said it received 26,309 reports of potholes and other carriageway defects in 2022/23.
This was more than double the previous financial year (2021/22), which saw 12,637 reports, and close to double the 13,224 reported in 2020/21.
It is important to note how these figures are for the numbers reported by residents, rather than the total number of potholes and other defects. This is because the same problems may have been reported more than one time by different people.
The council has attributed the rise in reports to wet weather the previous winter — conditions it says were also seen in the past few months.
An East Sussex Highways spokesperson said: “The winter of 2022/23 was one of the wettest on record and unsurprisingly took a toll on roads across East Sussex, as it did across the country.
“This 2023/24 winter has also seen significant rainfall levels. To deal with the increasing number of potholes over the winter period in 2023, we had nearly three times the usual number of crews available to carry out repairs.
“We are responsible for more than 2,000 miles of road so prioritise our work, according to locally approved policies, to ensure potholes that present the greatest danger to road users are repaired as quickly as possible.”
These policies broadly split potholes into three categories, with the council’s speed of response tied to how severe the defect is. The council aims to ‘make safe’ those of the greatest severity — measuring more than 100mm deep — within two hours. These are recorded as category one potholes.
Category two potholes are those which measure between 60mm and 99mm deep. The council aims to repair these within five days of report. Category three potholes are between 40mm and 59mm and the council aims to repair these within 28 days.
All other potholes are deemed to be at non-intervention levels and are not usually repaired until their condition worsens.
According to the FOI figures, almost half of potholes or other carriageway defects reported between 2020/21 and 2022/23 did not meet the criteria for intervention.
In all 24,127 out of 52,170 reports did not meet the criteria. This breaks down to 7,033 out of 13,224 potholes reported in 2020/21, 6,556 out of 12,637 in 2021/22 and 10,538 out of 26,309 in 2022/23.
Of those that did meet the criteria, the council was able to repair most within the its target time frames, although some repairs saw delays.
In 2020/21, 7,533 out of 8,627 (87 per cent) of the reported potholes and other defects were repaired on time. This figure improved in 2021/22, with 8,858 out of 9,443 (94 per cent) repaired on time. But there was a dip in 2022/23, which saw 11,044 out of 13,931 (79 per cent) meet the time frame.
A highways spokesperson said: “The majority of our investment in the county’s road network focuses on preventative maintenance through an ongoing programme of Highway schemes, including resurfacing, to stop defects appearing in the first place.
“In addition, we recently invested an extra £15.7 million, on top of the annual highways budget, to help improve the condition of East Sussex roads. This included an additional £2.5million to fund the patching of surrounding potholes that do not meet our intervention levels.”
Rosie Mitchell, from Eastbourne, is among those whose vehicles have been damaged as a result of potholes on roads in East Sussex.
Speaking to the LDRS, she said: “A couple of days ago I arranged to meet a friend, to go to the garden centre and have a nice cup of tea. Driving along the road to the garden centre a very large lorry came directly on the other side of the road, actually went over the white lines and I had to take evasive action and I went straight into a pothole.
“The tyre at the front was flat … I had to get a removal truck to take me back to have it mended. That was quite the performance, because the rim of the wheel was buckled … altogether it was £244, which is quite a lot of money seeing as we actually had to have another tyre done last year as well.
“They certainly are [getting worse]. When I was sitting in the garage while my car was being sorted out several people actually came through and I heard them mention potholes in Eastbourne. One lady was there having her front and rear tyre done at the same time.”
