Councillor calls for urgent action on the condition of Polegate roads

The two roads meet outside Polegate Primary School and are at the beginning of the popular Cuckoo Trail. The road has been reported repeatedly by residents and councillors but the council's response has been inadequate. They recently filled three small potholes while leaving the rest of the road surface untouched.

Oakleaf Drive was also recently closed by East Sussex Highways for work for several days but only a small section of the road was patched.

Liberal Democrat councillor and parliamentary candidate, James MacCleary, said: "To leave this road in such atrocious condition is a disgrace. It is not the only road in Polegate in bad condition but it is the only one with a large primary school and the beginning of the Cuckoo Trail on it.

"For East Sussex Highways to come along and look at this road surface and consider it to be in generally good condition is astounding. It's even worse as they recently shut the road for repairs but only patched a small section.

"They need to resurface the road urgently as it is becoming a hazard. Drivers are having to swerve to avoid the trenches in the road which is even more dangerous when you consider that there are small children trying to get into school every day. Add to that the cyclists and walkers accessing the Cuckoo Trail and it is beyond belief that they would do nothing about it.

"I have written to East Sussex Highways asking them to take urgent action to do their job and fix this road!"

Liberal Democrat town councillor, Andy O'Kane, added: "We all know that Polegate gets a bad deal and is so often overlooked by the Conservatives running the County Council. Just around the corner from Oakleaf Drive there is our library that they shut down for instance.

"It is time that we were treated fairly and the town got the attention it deserves. We will keep up the pressure to get the crumbling roads, pavements, and kerbs across our town repaired properly."

An East Sussex Highways spokesperson: “A total of seven potholes have been repaired in School Lane this year so far. As well as the patching work carried out on Oakleaf Drive, two pothole repairs have been carried out in the past month, with repairs planned for an additional two potholes. Since the start of the highways contract in May 2023, we have carried out more than 900 carriageway repairs in Polegate.

“With more than 2,000 miles of highways to monitor and maintain, we prioritise repairs to ensure that the potholes presenting the greatest risk are repaired as quickly as possible, with those not reaching our published intervention levels continuing to be monitored. To repair every pothole on the network regardless of whether it meets our intervention levels would cost about four times the amount currently spent.

“The majority of our investment in the county’s road network focusses on preventative maintenance such as patching and resurfacing to stop potholes appearing in the first place and we do this by looking at road condition and priorities against the available budget.

“Our highways stewards carry out regular checks on road across the county but we would urge the public to report any defects directly to us at www.eastsussexhighways.com.”