Town councillors express concern over condition of Hailsham's roads

The motion, proposed by town councillors Chris Bryant and Stephen Potts at the latest meeting of Full Council held on Wednesday [12th July], says:

"Following the recent motion passed by Wealden District Council calling on East Sussex County Council to address problems with potholes across the district and the pledge made by Wealden District Council to lobby East Sussex County Council, Hailsham Town Council should pass a similar motion to ensure East Sussex County Council gives full consideration to the parlous state of Hailsham's roads.

The Chair and Town Clerk should write to East Sussex County Council to express our complete dissatisfaction with the level of management exercised by their Highways Department regarding road maintenance in and around Hailsham. This has resulted in far too many roads that can only be navigated by traffic weaving around potholes and this is becoming dangerous for motorists and other road users. It is noticeable that visitors to Hailsham comment on the exceptionally appalling condition of our roads and the appalling state of those repairs that have been carried out to date.

Far too frequently repairs have only been performed on partial areas of damage requiring repeat future visits to finish the job. These partial repairs often deteriorate rapidly increasing the future workload and the attendant cost.

East Sussex County Council should be invited to send Highways Department representatives to the next Town Council meeting to explain their plan of action and to give assurances that repairs will be carried out before more damage will be suffered by our roads during the next winter season.

To assist Highways in prioritising their work schedule around Hailsham, we should provide a list of locations that require immediate attention and this list should be compiled following a review by councillors of the roads in their wards. This information should be provided to the Town Clerk within the next week."

East Sussex Council has responsibility for the majority of the county's roads and utilises its own contractor(s) to deal with issues such as potholes and general road repairs.

The motion passed by Full Council at the meeting called on the Town Mayor/Chairman and the Town Clerk to ask the county council to provide information on the degree of road maintenance and pothole repair work to be carried out in Hailsham in the near future, and ask representatives from East Sussex Highways to attend the next meeting of the Town Council to confirm a schedule, offer a plan of action and assure members and the public that any current pothole repairs will be carried out before this winter.

Individual ward councillors in Hailsham will be preparing an itinerary of locations that require urgent repairs, which will be passed on to East Sussex County Council's Highways team as soon as possible.

The Town Mayor and Chairman, Cllr Paul Holbrook, said he was pleased to support the motion and hoped the county council would respond quickly and with a positive announcement: "Potholes can be a costly menace for drivers and cyclists, and many of the roads in Halsham are now in a disgraceful state of disrepair."

"We have had to submit this motion because the state of many of our highways, some riddled with potholes, is reaching crisis point and the Town Council is calling for East Sussex Highways to address residents' concerns and draw up an action plan to tackle the problem."

"The motion passed by fellow members states that many of the town's roads require urgent attention to make them suitable and roadworthy for road users and hopefully, this action marks the start of imminent improvement."