Reports of potholes coming down in West Sussex

Potholes recorded on West Sussex roads have halved compared to this time last year.

County Council figures for June 2015 showed there were 1,178 potholes to fix in West Sussex. In June 2014 there were 2,360.

The local authority’s Better Roads Programme has played a key role in this drop in pothole numbers – a trend that has been evident for months.

The £30 million programme, launched in 2014 and being delivered over two years, is targeting rural and residential roads most in need of repair.

Resurfacing works and other repairs on these smaller streets were accelerated throughout last year.

This, combined with the mild winter that followed, has helped the 2015 summer programme make a dent in the number of defects recorded.

County council cabinet member for highways and transport, John O’Brien, said: “We know how frustrating it is to be confronted by potholes on your street whenever you leave for work or return home.

“So it is reassuring the data is telling us that our road network is improving.

“When we first started this project, almost a quarter of our rural and residential roads were in need of major repair. That statistic is coming down all the time.

“We are on course to restore the state of the roads to the level it was before successive severe winters damaged them so harshly.”