East Sussex roads to benefit from a major increase in investment to tackle pot hole menace and increase the number of full resurfacing projects

Following the recent approval of it's annual budget, East Sussex County Council has recently approved additional* expenditure totalling £57.25m for improvements to the county’s highways. This is made up of the following amounts:

 

·        £15m per annum of capital expenditure for resurfacing over the three years 2015/16 to 2017/18

·        £5m per annum expenditure targeted at the improvement of our unclassified roads over the two years 2014/15 & 2015/16

·        £750k per annum additional revenue budget for pothole repairs over the three years 2014/15 to 2016/17

 

* These sums are in addition to the £15m per annum that the County Council is investing in the current financial year and in 2014/15.

 

County Councillors and Town and Parish Councils were last week sent a draft list of over 400 roads that ESCC are proposing to resurface over the next two years. This totals over £40m including the additional investment for unclassified roads. 

 

As well as additional investment for resurfacing, the County Council approved an additional £2.25m of revenue budget (£750k in each of the next three years) to help improve response times for pothole repairs. This additional revenue budget will enable pothole repairs to be carried out quicker, and from April ESCC will endeavour to repair all potholes within 28 days.

 

In response to concerns raised by myself and others about the quality of pothole repairs, the expectation is that from April, the vast majority of repairs will be properly cut out and permanent repairs carried out. There will be occasions when temporary repairs are appropriate; where safety dictates a road closure or a repair at night, or where ESCC have plans for more substantial repairs or resurfacing in the near future. 

 

On the subject of temporary pothole repairs, the Council's contractor has been instructed that from now all ‘temporary’ pothole repairs should be spray-marked with the letter “T” so those temporary repairs going forward should be obvious to all and will be logged in our Control Hub as temporary with plans identified for a permanent solution. 

In the case of local roads, I will be updating readers of this blog with planned resurfacing works as and when I hear about them. On the subject of Hammonds Drive and Birch Road which I reported last weekend, these have have received temporary repairs but have now been scheduled to be resurfaced so I hope that this will draw a line under the historic problems in this area.

Residents and motorists can report highway concerns via the ESCC Website at http://www.eastsussex.gov.uk/contactus/reportaproblem/default.htm or you can also report it viaTwitter which not only increases awareness of probem areas to other motorists, thereby hopefully reducing the risk of potential unnecessary damage to their cars but you also receive real time confirmation of what they intend to do about it, you can report issues via a Twitter at @esccroads