Reports of potholes in Rye and the rest of East Sussex more than doubled last year according to figures released in a freedom of information (FOI) request. East Sussex County Council (ESCC) said it received 26,309 details of potholes and other carriageway defects in 2022/23 compared with 12,637 in 2021/22 and 13,224 in 2020/21.
These figures are for the numbers reported by residents rather than the total number of potholes and other defects. At the Rye town meeting in March the leader of ESCC Keith Glazier urged residents to report potholes, explaining the council's teams would only begin repairs if they had been officially notified.
The council has attributed the rise in reports to wet weather the previous winter — conditions it says were also seen in the past few months. In this video, Gabriel Morris has getting more reaction to the increase.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=proRyuliVeg[/embed]
The FOI figures also show that almost half the potholes reported do not reach the 40mm criteria for repair, and are only made good if their conditions worsen. ESCC works to policies that split larger potholes into three categories:
Category 1: More than 100mm deep which the council aims to "make safe" within two hours.
Category 2: 60mm-99mm which have a response time of within 5 days
Category3: 40mm-59mm which the council aims to repair within 28 days.
According to the FOI figures, almost half of potholes or other carriageway defects reported between 2020/21 and 2022/23 did not meet the criteria for intervention. In all 24,127 out of 52,170 reports did not meet the criteria.
Of those that did meet the criteria, the council was able to repair most within its target time frames, although some repairs saw delays. In 2020/21, 7,533 out of 8,627 (87 per cent) of the reported potholes and other defects were repaired on time. This figure improved in 2021/22, with 8,858 out of 9,443 (94 per cent) repaired on time. But there was a dip in 2022/23, which saw 11,044 out of 13,931 (79 per cent) meet the time frame.
An East Sussex Highways spokesperson said. “The winter of 2022/23 was one of the wettest on record and unsurprisingly took a toll on roads across East Sussex, as it did across the country. This 2023/24 winter has also seen significant rainfall levels. To deal with the increasing number of potholes over the winter period in 2023, we had nearly three times the usual number of crews available to carry out repairs. We are responsible for more than 2,000 miles of road so prioritise our work, according to locally approved policies, to ensure potholes that present the greatest danger to road users are repaired as quickly as possible.”
