Potholes are a daily annoyance to us, however until a pothole is at least 4cm deep or 10 cm wide it is not considered of sufficient priority for a repair to take place – you can report them here.  The reason we have so many potholes and why the situation is getting worse is the lack of ongoing road maintenance, government funding to councils in England for road maintenance in 2021/22 was cut by £390 million on the previous year.  

As West Sussex County Council’s Director of Highways acknowledged in 2020, there had been ‘a significant reduction’ in the Conservative Council’s highways budget over the last ten years.  The £17 million earmarked for road investment by West Sussex County Council in 21/22 is a fraction of the funding required when the average frequency of road resurfacing is every 83 years, which means the situation will only get worse with irregular repairs increasing the likelihood of potholes developing. 

The real culprit is Conservative cuts nationally to local government funding, Liberal Democrats say stop spending on grandiose new road schemes and instead spend the money on road maintenance.  Even the Conservative candidate in the current Dunstall Ward by-election is appealing for more funding, the question is will our local MP Mims Davies and her government listen?