POTHOLES

You may moan that I am always writing about roads but the bulk of the issues raised with me do relate to roads although the County Council spends much more on social care for adults and children.

There is a move in developing the future programme for road maintenance to concentrate more on patching and surfacing dressing to cover larger stretches of road and do it properly rather than lots of individual potholes being repaired. This could be expensive. However, potholes will still occur and it is important to understand when and how they are dealt with. The key factor is what the highways professionals call intervention levels.

These are-

Our contractor Balfour Beatty is paid to fix all potholes which meet these standards for repair or intervention within this time frame. They are not paid per pothole.

It is important to understand this. Balfour Beatty are not paid extra for extra pothole visits. It is not in their interest to leave potholes unrepaired. However, if they do additional potholes other than those at intervention level they can charge more. Yet it doesn’t make sense to leave one pothole after completing 3 adjacent ones. Officers are looking at ways to apply common sense without it costing taxpayers a fortune.

There are concerns too about the quality of repairs. Usually, the pothole is cut out a few inches from the edge. They will then seal the edges and bottom then fill the hole with hot tarmac, tamping it down with a vibrating whacker!

On other occasions cold products are used. The holes are cleared out, water is added, and a bag of proprietary material is poured in and shaped by hand. The benefit is that this method is faster and can be used in any weather.

Hopefully this explains the process and why some repairs last longer than others.

FUTURE RAIL SERVICES.

East Sussex County Council are beginning a consultation on future rail and freight strategies from 2025 to 2050.

This involves huge investment on a whole range of improved services from more station lifts to better timetabling to closer coordination with buses to increased speeds on main routes. There are some big changes envisaged too –

High Speed 1 from Ashford to Hastings, Bexhill and Eastbourne.

Electrification from Uckfield to Hurst Green.

Reopening the Uckfield to Lewes line.

Direct Rail Services between Seaford/Newhaven and London.

It is likely with Local Government Reorganisation will mean these responsibilities will move to the Sussex Mayor.

Whether there will ever be the money to do all of this and more is a moot point. Certainly not much will be finished in my lifetime.

If you want to know more go to Freight & Rail Strategies /East Sussex County Council.

Roy Galley

May 7^th 2025.

Roy Galley.cllr.roy.galley@eastsussex.gov.uk

01825 713018