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
Deliveroo and Just Eat L-Plate unqualified drivers are some of the most dangerous people on the road, I genuinely fear for their safety with some of the decisions they make, and carelessness on the road.
£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.
Which road has been closed down for no reason?
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.
I’ve been asked by the council to take photos of busy dual carriageways, get hold of tape measure etc, as naming the road/junction isn’t enough for them, with no regard for my safety whatsoever. I’ve had claims rejected, even with garage bills saying damage caused by pot holes. There are countless CCTV cameras, council vans, traffic wardens who see the pot holes all the time but do they report them?
Bins are not collected repeatedly, no police to protect the public; but if I don’t pay the full council tax, I get taken to court, whereas the council appear untouchable when they don’t deliver services that we pay for. Have some respect for your constituents who pay your wages and do your job and be fair. We don’t want our taxes spent on all this equality and climate change rubbish, we just want basic services. The more this escalates without firm leadership, creates a climate for civilian unrest.
There’s certainly some silly requests that come from council workers that shouldn’t be asked of residents.
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 ?
It’s been a Labour council for the majority of the last 10 years.
Think you’ll find on the i360 decisions were made over multiple decisions over about 20 years – so the fact it was ever built at all is down to cross party decisions over quite a long timeframe.
Completely incorrect Bill, the council only got a Labour majority in May.
May 2023
Whether Green or Labour, both are radical left-wing parties with no common-sense, they waste money making roads narrow (actually causing traffic congestion) and tinkering with road junctions, instead of ensuring the streets are clean, repaired and well maintained. Let’s not even raise the subject of the neglected grass verges which have grown to 5ft high in places. These utterly useless woke councils waste money on diversity instead of focusing on their core duties. Let’s hope they are removed at the next election.
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/
As a resident of Surrenden Road I was not consulted about the changes currently being made at the junction of Preston Drove. I wonder where all these pedestrians are that require such wide and vast areas of pavement? Instead of doing these unnecessary works why don’t they address the huge potholes along Preston Road the main road in and out of Brighton? The stretch from the bottom of Harrington Road along to Preston Park has huge dangerous holes causing drivers to weave in and out of lanes attempting to avoid them
Is it too much to ask for the council to repair some of the main roads into Brighton, in particular, the main A23 Preston Road near the park? How much worse does this stretch of road need to get before the council actually do something about it?? #BrightonandHoveCityCouncil #BHCC. Imagine what visitors think when coming into the city. They probably think, another neglected city run by a radical left-wing woke council wasting money by making roads narrow and tinkering with junctions and instead of carrying out repairs and maintenance. Clearly they have all their priorities wrong.