When a sinkhole opened in Mermaid Street some four weeks ago, it was promptly reported to the highways authority on their emergency number. Just a few yards from Jeake’s House, it had appeared in the road, a hole four feet long and about two feet deep. Two barriers appeared at some point but then nothing further was done, and a call to the town hall to expedite matters has so far achieved no result.
Richard Martin of Jeake's House is surprised that the East Sussex County Council Highways department has not been in touch, but thinks this could be because reinstatement may be the responsibility of the water board, as another resident has suggested.
Richard Martin continues: “the barriers have blown down in the recent storm and every passing lorry causes more damage. The dust cart actually had its wheels in it last Monday. Obviously this is a very dangerous hazard in an already steeply cobbled street with many cracked and broken paving slabs. We have had to call an ambulance regularly for visitors who have tripped. It is an accident waiting to happen, but by then it will be too late.”
