When visiting Brighton during the Easter weekend, I was very surprised and disappointed to see a large number of pot holes on the main route through the city towards the seafront, and then on Madeira Drive all along the main seafront road.  These are major routes in the city and give a first and lasting impression to outside visitors like me of Brighton’s Labour-run council. 

Recent years have seen the combination of extreme rainfall and frosts in winter and spring, that has accelerated the deterioration of road surfaces, although I note that coastal Brighton will not have freezing temperatures as much as we have in Crawley.

Thankfully, this spring has been different, and it has been noticeable that less road defects have been breaking out locally than in the previous couple of years.  But it hasn’t just been getting a lucky break with the weather that has made a difference, it has also been the additional priority and investment that has been made by Conservative-run West Sussex County Council to get on top of this perennial problem during winter and spring.

As well as ensuring there was a greater resource to undertake emergency repairs during the winter period, the County Council has focussed on doing permanent repairs wherever possible in the first instance.  The best scenario is reducing the number of road defects that break out in the first place and the way to do that is ensure that road maintenance has a preventative focus.

This was done last year from April to September in West Sussex where we saw:

•  More than 95% of pothole repairs – around 18,000 were completed using the ‘sides sawn and sealed’ method
• 9,600 pothole repairs covering approximately 10,500 square meters using the velocity jet patchers
• 23,625 square meters worth of small and medium scale patching across 299 jobs
• 4.2 miles (6.9 km) of large-scale carriageway patching
• 116 miles (187 km) of surfacing treatments

I am very pleased to say that this coming year, that even more investment is planned for our roads in West Sussex and we will see more preventative road treatments across Crawley. 

Councillor Duncan Crow, Leader of Crawley Borough Council Conservative Group

23rd April 2025