Crawley pothole fury in Langley Green reaches boiling point

Two metre-wide potholes some ten inches deep are posing a major risk to drivers and pedestrians, according to fuming Alison Cornell.

Motorists in Langley Drive, Crawley, are forced to stop in their tracks to prevent damage to their vehicles as they try to negotiate a route between the Tushmore Gyratory and Langley Green.

More potholes in Langley Green (Image: Andrew Gardner / The Argus)

“We all know the state of our roads is dreadful and frankly, I didn’t think I could be shocked any more, but this bit of road looks more like it has been bombed,” said the Crawley borough councillor.

The Langley Drive potholes were reported to West Sussex County Council on Tuesday, March 14, with a repair scheduled by April 11 - but the hole has increased in size since then, causing even greater risk to drivers.

Cllr Cornell said: “Langley Drive is a busy road and major bus route and these holes, along with the rubble, constitute a significant danger to all road users and pedestrians particularly after dark. I reported it as an urgent matter to West Sussex [County Council].”

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Potholes in the road were repaired only recently after previous fixes failed.

Cllr Cornell, who represents Langley Green, said: “I will be following up to see what happens and in particular looking at the quality of any repair, because it was also hugely concerning to note that the adjacent repair was beginning to break down for a third time – and it was only done this year.

“I know money is tight and our highways staff do an incredible job with woefully inadequate resources, but this level of maintenance and the poor quality of repairs is really not acceptable and not good value for tax payers.”

Crawley Borough Council leader Michael Jones is now pleading with West Sussex County Council leader Paul Marshall to set aside more funds to repair the roads, particularly after a new policy on empty homes is set to introduce a £500,000 windfall to the budget.

Council leader Michael Jones

Cllr Jones said: “I believe that this additional money Tory-run West Sussex County Council will receive should be spent on the service area their residents currently consider the highest priority – and that is, quite overwhelmingly, to properly address the dreadful state of the roads in Crawley and across the county.

“With some other districts in West Sussex having much larger numbers of second homes, this should mean overall many millions of pounds extra available for the county council to spend on this within the next few years.  

“They should plan ahead, knowing they will be getting this money, so there is a better solution to the state of the local roads which we have all certainly suffered here in Crawley for far too long."

A West Sussex County Council spokesman said the potholes had significantly deteriorated since being reported so a contractor has been asked to complete a safety repair as soon as possible with "follow-up permanent works to patch a larger area".