Where are the worst potholes in Brighton and Hove? A senior councillor has issued a plea and a pledge as a road-mending programme rolls on.
Councillor Trevor Muten said that progress was being made thanks to the combination of a Labour government and the Labour majority on Brighton and Hove City Council.
He cited the resurfacing of dozens of roads including Lewes Road and a stretch of the A29 coast road – and promised there was more to come.
Councillor Muten, the council’s cabinet member for transport and parking, said: “This is where we need your help. Let us know where the worst potholes are.”
He said that drivers, cyclists and pedestrians could all report potholes directly by using the council website – just click here.
Councillor Muten said: “Soon after Labour won an overwhelming majority on Brighton and Hove City Council at the 2023 local elections, I chaired the then Transport and Sustainability Committee.
“One of my first questions to council officers was: why are our city roads such a state?
“A decade of decline was the result of underfunding by the Conservative government, which paid scant regard to the state of our roads or those who use them.
“We soon got started with resurfacing roads in Bevendean, applying a lower carbon impact approach to Auckland Drive, Hornby Road, Taunton Road and Norwich Drive.
“Then I got to meet the amazing teams who work on our city roads, including the High Street in Kemp Town, and those working overnight including on Wharf Road – a daytime access to Shoreham Port – and I asked if they could do more.
“The clear answer was yes. There was real capacity for our highways teams to do more road resurfacing and filling in of potholes.
“We asked the then Conservative government for more money but they were not interested in properly funding public services such as making our roads and pavements better and safer.
“Fourteen years of Tory decline have left our roads in a disgraceful state.”
More money allocated by the current government has made a big difference, Councillor Muten said.
He added: “Brighton and Hove City Council is ready to resurface even more streets, maintain more roads and repair more potholes and much more.
“This is why it was a relief when the majority Labour government was elected in July. As cabinet member for transport, parking and public realm, I immediately wrote to Labour’s Secretary of State for Transport and asked for more money to fix our city roads and paths.
“I was not alone, with local authorities across the country asking the same. The public deserve better and called for change.
“Last week the government has announced it is allocating almost £4 million to Brighton and Hove to deal with potholes and make our city highways and paths safer and better this year.”
I have reported potholes repeatedly using the link in this article. I have not received any acknowledgment of my report other than a ticket number. The potholes are still there, months and years later and are getting worse. I don’t bother reporting them anymore.
And I have also reported many unemptied gullies (water drains in the road) and these have all been ignored on the same system.
I wonder if cllr Muten’s chums in Bricycles will be baking cakes for the roadmenders when they fill in the potholes?
Or are the cakes only for work installing dangerous, unneeded and expensive cycle lanes?
Shouldn’t the motorists be the ones baking the cakes? I guess it’s difficult when you are frothing at the mouth and shaking in incandescent rage at other road users.
To busy texting at the traffic lights to have time to bake cakes lol
The amazing one is when you see a cyclist peddling with out hands on the handle bars as they are texting… it makes you wonder what world some people inhabit. Or that deliveroo rider checking his next destination.
If they fall off and a car hits them they will blame the driver.
No matter which form of transport – there are always a few idiots in control
£10 says that Charlie drives one of the vans spewing black smoke all over town.
Muten is a massive failure I’m afraid
I have found it helpful when getting my local roads repairs to clearly define when a pothole fits within their emergency criteria. My foot next to the hole in comparison is my usual method.
I’ve had a quite a bit of success this way, although certainly the non-emergency ones get left for a long time.
It would be helpful if he could stop closing roads down for no reason and focussed on actual pot holes. A bit late to worry about winning any popularity contests now. The bigger the Transport division has become the more its performance has nosedived as being of any service or use to hard working tax payers.
I find it a bit rich that the worst inept misguided cll needs our help with potholes when they have constantly dismissed claims by motorists of claims against the city,of damage directly caused by potholes,whilst making the claim YOU HAVE TO IDENTIFY PLACE AND TIME,you need help mate,and it’s called responsibility.
He mentions the tories but isn’t it the greens we had, who decided to spend millions on a failed attraction and projects that didn’t need doing?
National government dictate how much money is given to local councils not the councils themselves. So he is correct in the assertion that they drained every department of funds for the past 14 years hence ours roads, hospitals, schools, police or pretty much anything else government funded is on its ar$e
Yes because the country has no money. Government(s) are too busy scrabbling about to repay loans (gilts)
We need more people to work and generate wealth. Governments do not generate wealth, never have. councils the same.
Or we could dramatically cut the size of the state ?
I recall this very paper reporting that the same council had underspent its pothole budget . I think the lack of cheap labour was the reason given. The same pothole budget allocated by the then government over and above the usual funding ?
oh yes here it is:
https://www.brightonandhovenews.org/2024/04/18/6m-pothole-budget-was-underspent-councillors-told/