Comment: Our dangerous, pothole-ridden roads must be repaired NOW

The dangers cannot be underestimated. As motorists focus on the road surface and swerve to avoid the holes, their attention is distracted. The risks are even more significant for cyclists.

Sussex World and its weekly newspapers have never received as many complaints about the failure of national and local government to resolve the problem as we have this year. Just about everyone now knows of a motorist who has had their tyres and wheels wrecked – often multiple times.

Today we invite you to drive home the message to our county councils and politicians. Their public silence on this subject beggars belief. We urge you to send in photographs and video of pot holes near you with your experiences of seeking redress. You can do so via our Your World portal.

Despite residents’ anger – culminating in huge potholes in Tangmere near Chichester being marked in white lines in the shapes of penises – response is slow.

Many of these roads are the responsibility of our county councils with some support funding from the national government. Those forming the Strategic Road Network (SRN) like the A27, are managed by National Highways.

The problem is not simply confined to Sussex. It is a national one. It was put into stark context this week (March 19) with the publication of the Annual Local Authority Road Maintenance (ALARM) survey report, produced by the Asphalt Industry Alliance (AIA). Now in its 29th year, it is widely respected throughout industry and local and national government as the most authoritative and comprehensive study into local road maintenance funding and condition.

Its findings only relate to those roads maintained by local councils. It asserted that more than half of the local road network in England and Wales could fail in the next 15 years as the amount needed to fix the backlog of repairs reaches a record high of £16.3billion.

AA President Edmund King is reported as saying: “Our breakdown data shows that 2023 was the worst year for potholes for five years. The latest ALARM report shows just how much is needed to simply get our roads up to standard.

“Arguably the road network is a local council’s biggest asset, but not enough planned investment and repairs are being made to make streets safer and smoother for drivers and those on two wheels. Resurfacing occurs on average once every 80 years – making it a once-in-a-lifetime event.”

“Local authorities have a bit more money to spend this year but the impact of rising costs due to inflation means they have actually been able to do less with it,” said Rick Green, Chair of the Asphalt Industry Alliance, which commissions the ALARM survey.

“Couple this with the effects of the extreme weather we are increasingly facing, and the result is that the rate at which local roads are suffering is accelerating towards breaking point.”

We now have more than 107,000 miles of local roads that could need to practically be rebuilt within the next 15 years while surface conditions have also declined, despite spending nearly £140 million filling in two million potholes over the last 12 months.

Rick Green added: “There’s still a mountain to climb when it comes to fixing our local roads and while it’s great that English local authorities should be getting more money from the Government through its Network North funding, it’s clearly not going to be enough to halt the decline.

“The Transport Secretary was quoted as saying that the additional £8.3billion over 11 years is enough to resurface 5,000 miles of local roads. This sounds like a lot, but not when you consider that there are already more than 34,000 miles identified as structurally poor, with less than 5 years’ life remaining.

“We need to get to the point where local authority highway engineers can plan and proactively carry out repairs and preventative works in the most timely and efficient way to the greatest benefit of all road users – rather than just having enough money to address immediate and urgent needs.”