Worthing potholes: Residents identify worst roads in the town as cones put down to 'warn drivers'

The potholes in Grand Avenue have 'reached a critical level'.

That’s according to local residents, who have decided to put down cones to warn drivers.

A letter to this newspaper read: "I ride a motorcycle and if a motorcycle or a pushbike went down this hole the consequences don’t bear thinking about. It’s been like this for months."

West Sussex County Council advised the public ‘not to take risks’ in placing traffic cones on the live carriageway – ‘both for their own safety and that of other road users’.

Photos were also sent to Sussex World of ‘three-week old’ potholes in Wiston Avenue – with them clearly marked by chalk to warn motorists.

Finally, a video was sent in by a resident of Upton Gardens, which ‘has to be a candidate for the worst road in Worthing’.

The resident wrote: "More potholes than there is decent road in places and the debris from previous short term and poor quality repairs is strewn across the road.

"The state of the carriageway represents a trip hazard to pedestrians and creates a risk of damage to vehicles.

“How bad does a road have to get to be prioritised for a proper re-surfacing/repair? What’s happened to the funds allocated by central government to target repairs?”

West Sussex County Council has issued a statement in response to the concerns raised.

A spokesperson said: “We are aware of the potholes in Grand Avenue and Wiston Avenue and these have been prioritised for repair at the earliest opportunity. The deeper/safety-level potholes in Upton Gardens will be repaired imminently.

"Wiston Avenue is scheduled to be fully resurfaced in August.

“We totally understand people’s frustrations with the pothole situation and are dedicating extra resources to tackle it.

"However, we would advise the public not to take risks in placing traffic cones on the live carriageway, both for their own safety and that of other road users.

“In the last few years, West Sussex and many other parts of the country have experienced more extreme weather events, resulting in heat-damaged roads, wide-scale flooding, wind damage and an increase in the number of potholes being reported. The county council has approved an additional £4million to support highway maintenance activities.

“We are also investing an additional £7million of capital funding this financial year, increasing our resurfacing and treatments programme to more than £20million. A further £10million 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.”

Potholes have been a talking point for the whole of West Sussex, in recent years and the roads appear to be getting worse.

Many drivers have suffered damage to their cars and action needs to be taken. A new report from The Asphalt Industry Alliance (AIA) said councils were expected to fix two million potholes in the current financial year – that is 43 per cent higher than the previous year and confirms repairs are at an eight-year high.

With our new campaign ‘Gone to Pot’, Sussex World is calling for immediate action from those responsible for our roads.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was asked about our campaign during his visit to Horsham this week. He said: “Most people use their car to get around everyday and we can never lose sight of that. I'm very keen that we support motorists.

"That's why I made the decision to change track on HS2 and take a chunk of the money we would have spent and invest that around the country into road maintenance, including here in Sussex. We just need well maintained roads and potholes filled.

“That's what people are focused on and what people raise with me when it comes to transport. There is now nationally, something like eight billion pounds more invested in roads maintenance in Sussex.

"More generally, we want to back motorists. A plan on our website. Making sure that 20mph speed limits are not imposed on local communities, topped down, against their will. We want to support people who rely on their cars.

"That's why we've frozen fuel duty and put out guidance on 20mph limits. Most importantly, we have taken HS2 money and invested it into local roads to fill potholes and help people get around."