Pothole repair satisfaction among country's lowest

Public satisfaction regarding the number of potholes seen in East Sussex is among the country's lowest, a survey shows.

The survey asked 71,000 people whether the number of potholes and damaged roads in their local area was better, worse or stable compared with a year earlier.

East Sussex came joint bottom of 96 councils with a 5% satisfaction score - along with Herefordshire and Nottinghamshire.

East Sussex County Council said despite the negative perception, it had 13,000 fewer reports of potholes in 2024 compared to last year.

The AA described the figures as "dismal" and called for an end to the "vicious cycle" of potholes being patched up only to reappear.

Speaking to BBC Radio Sussex in Seaford, people gave a mixed reaction to the state of the county's roads.

"They patch them up and as soon as you get a bit of frost, they open up again," said Tee Nolan.

"They are working on them in Seaford but again they're just patching them up when they need to strip the road back and start from scratch. It's throwing money away."

Alistair Venter, another resident, said: "I don't think it's bad, if I go to Newhaven or Eastbourne it's fine. It's not as bad as what most people make it out to be."

"We have friends and they've had a pothole done three times," said Mike Dumelow.

"They said it's so big they can put fish in it," he added.

An East Sussex County Council spokesperson said: "Like highways authorities up and down the country, we have seen an increase in potholes in recent years due to the more severe weather we have experienced.

"Between January and November 2023, we received 31,464 reports of potholes and repaired 27,958, while we received 17,741 reports and carried out 19,333 repairs in the same period in 2024.

"Since 2020-21 we have spent £105m on highway maintenance despite government funding of only £60m, have employed additional crews to deal with the increasing number of defects, and have invested an additional £22.5m in work on our road network over the past three years."

The council estimated that it would cost £300m to repair the worst roads in the county.

The survey was commissioned by the National Highways and Transport Network - a performance research organisation not related to government-owned National Highways - in the early part of the summer.

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