A survey has revealed that Brighton & Hove has a £42million backlog of pothole repairs.

Meanwhile, the survey also reveals that roads across East Sussex could cost nearly £180million to repair after the recent bad winters, with a backlog of £13billion nationally.

And the state of the roads is set to get even worse as road repairs in East Sussex face a 7% reduction in funding. Councils, such as Brighton & Hove, are cutting road maintenance budgets as a result of the funding squeeze imposed by the Tory-led government.

Local Labour & Co-operative Councillors have been actively lobbying government on road maintenance issues for some months now, for example urging Tory Transport Minister Philip Hammond to resist significantly cutting road repair funding (see copy attached).

Brighton & Hove Labour & Co-operative Leader Councillor Gill Mitchell, said:

“This is a very big backlog in pothole repairs and it’s clear to see that we can’t afford to keep cutting back on road repair budgets.

The previous Tory council administration has created this backlog and now the Tory-led government has cut national pothole repair funding by £65million, so it’s clear that the Tories have offered nothing but a sticky-tape solution to what is essentially a longer-term problem of our infrastructure, which requires considerable ongoing investment.”

John Woodcock, Labour’s Shadow Transport Minister said:

“Potholes frustrate road users more than anything and it’s clear that the Tory-led government has no serious strategic plan to get our roads back into shape.

“These new figures reveal the worsening state of roads in Brighton & Hove as a result of the government’s cuts.”