Crawley pothole repair failing days after roadworks

The two-metre wide, ten-inch deep potholes were reported to the council last week amid fears they could cause a serious crash or injury to drivers and pedestrians.

Engineers shortly turned up to do a quick fix on the holes in Langley Drive, Crawley, and made plans to return in the future for a proper repair.

But just days after the temporary fix, Crawley borough councillor Allison Cornell said the works are already breaking down and "are so clearly inadequate" - calling on the council to "stop wasting money and do a proper job" the first time around.

"Residents are increasingly frustrated and angry to see their council tax wasted in this way."

Dents in the road where the repairs were and gravel detaching from the road were captured by the councillor who said she hopes more money will be allocated to repairing potholes.

A West Sussex County Council spokesman said they are aware of the situation and have plans for a "larger-scale, permanent" repair as soon as possible - but said more temporary repairs may take place in the mean time so the road is safe.

The potholes in Langley Drive (Image: Cllr Alison Cornell)

They added: "We have been using the ‘sawn and sealed’ approach to pothole repairs this financial year and have seen a significant increase in the quality of our repairs.

"Both our contractors and officers from the county council will audit the repairs, with the council having audited more than 20,000 in the last financial year.”

Crawley Borough Council leader Michael Jones is calling on West Sussex County Council to use the windfall money they will get from Crawley's decision to charge second homeowners more council tax towards repairing roads.

Cllr Cornell posing for a picture with the potholes (Image: Submitted)

He said: "The changes we have made on council tax will add £70,000 to the borough council’s coffers – and around £500,000 for the county council, because they receive the lion’s share.

“I am writing to the county council leader, Paul Marshall, urging him to use this additional money for a ring-fenced pothole fund, to increase the capacity for and quality of repairs.

"This additional money is an opportunity for them to stop wasting money on short-term fixes like the ones I have seen on Langley Drive, and improve our roads right across the county.”

Read more: Pothole fury reaches boiling point as road 'looks like it has been bombed'

The potholes in Langley Green before they were filled in (Image: Andrew Gardner / The Argus)

West Sussex County Council accepted that conditions for motorists are getting worse, due to extreme weather events, flooding and wind - and has approved an extra £4 million to support highway maintenance.

A spokesman added: "We are also investing an additional £7million of capital funding in the next financial year, increasing our resurfacing and treatments programme to more than £20million.

"A further £10 million will be committed for 2025/26 to continue the work needed to provide a resilient highways network for the county. 

" We have approximately 25 highway officers identifying safety defects, both through routine inspections and by responding to customer reports.

"We have up to 19 repair teams dealing with safety defects and are looking to bring in more contractor teams to bolster these numbers.

"In more rural areas, we are also using three Velocity road patchers to help tackle the volume of safety defects on the network.”