Councillors to discuss West Sussex's emergency road repair system
Motorists have made thousands of vehicle damage claims in recent years due to potholes
Last updated 12th Jul 2023
West Sussex County Council is to be asked to look again at its emergency road repair system.
A notice of motion from Liberal Democrat leader Kirsty Lord is due to be discussed at a meeting of the full council on Monday (July 17).
She said: “As councillors and local residents, we know that the state of West Sussex roads has angered residents especially when faced with bills to repair pothole-damaged vehicles.
“Years of Conservative government underfunding have been compounded by an emergency repair regime that could not cope with the difficult weather conditions last winter.
“Climate change means that we should expect more extreme weather events.
“We need a road repairs process that is fit for purpose.”
The council invested more than £16m in carriageway resurfacing and treatments in 2022/23, with revenue funding of £4.5m being allocated for 2023/24.
But motorists have made thousands of claims over the years for damage to their vehicles after falling foul of potholes.
Between 2018/19 and 2021/22, a total of 3,657 claims were made, 504 of which were settled with payments ranging from £13.39 to £19,278.
The payouts totalled £274,824.71 and were for vehicle damage and/or personal injury claims, with the latter including legal costs.
As well as asking the council to review how it responded to emergency repairs, Mrs Lord’s notice of motion asked for better communication with the county’s district, borough, town and parish councils about what was going on and where.
And it stressed the need for data to be shared with councillors and residents to ensure that there was no perception of geographical preference when it came to deciding which potholes were repaired first.
In a briefing note to the meeting, a council spokesman explained how the hot summer of 2022 coupled with higher-than-average rainfall from September to January and extremely cold periods in December and January contributed to an ‘unprecedented’ number of potholes and other problems on the roads.
They added: “The incidence of safety defects is increasing year on year.
“The average over the past three years has increased to 38,200 compared to 32,268 over the previous seven years.
“Numbers are exceptionally high this year and, if they continue at the same level, a total of between 45,000 and 50,000 is expected.
“A number of authorities across the region, including West Sussex, have written to the government to ask for more funding for highway maintenance to address the longer term investment required to prevent potholes.”
Recognising the efforts of the highways and repairs teams, Mrs Lord called for residents to be more understanding of the problems they faced.
She said: “There have been some incidents this year of highways staff and contractors being abused by residents.
“In one incident, threats were so bad that the team needed to leave the site before they were able to complete their repairs.
“This helps nobody.
“We know that residents are angry but directing this at contractors and highways staff is wrong, and we ask residents to not direct their anger to those fixing the problem.”