Introducing the Crawley Potholes Club

Hello, and welcome to the CPC website.

This site is not about caving, but about the profusion of holes, raised and sunken metalwork and other examples of poor road maintenance in Crawley.

West Sussex County Council, through it's Highways Department, is responsible for the state of most residential roads and rural roads. Major roads, such as the Bypass, are looked after by the national Highways Agency.

From a variety of sources, it seems that concerns are growing about the state of Crawley's roads. Holes that were repaired a year ago are re-opening. Resurfacing appears to be a matter of laying some tar and dropping gravel into it, which doesn't last very long before needing to be replaced.

The Money

Between 2005/6 and 2006/7, WSCC cut it's Highways and Transport spending (before fees, charges and grants) from £63M to less than £58M. Henry Smith recently announced a 'boost' to road maintenance of £700,000, but this only makes up a small portion of the earlier cut

While WSCC has been putting up Council Tax bills by over 4% a year, they have been underfunding road maintenance - The proportion of the budget spent on Highways and Maintenance has fallen from 7% to 5% over the past five years.

But of course, we all know that poorly maintained roads add to the cost of owning a vehicle. Car suspensions and bike wheels damaged by holes cost us dearly, but this doesn't appear on the local council's balance sheets.

Of course, the worst cost from bad road surfaces is not financial, it's an issue of safety. Motorcyclists are especially vulnerable to potholes, and as road users swerve to try to avoid problems, the chances of an accident will increase.

The Standards

We believe that the standard of repairs has slipped recently. Often a pothole is simply filled with tarmac and barely tamped down. This would be fine as a temporary measure, but

What do the local Conservative Councillors say?

Instead of insisting that WSCC improve, some local councillors - Alan Quirk of Broadfield and Lucy Brockwell of Maidenbower - have suggested that the damage to local roads is being done by the buses (and that the bus companies should pay for the repairs). This would be an acceptable claim if it were only roads on bus routes that were afflicted. However, it seems that many residential roads and closes which never see a bus are also in a poor state.

What do the local Labour Councillors say?

Most of Crawley's councillors, whether they are on Crawley Borough Council or West Sussex County Council have been receiving complaints about the state of our roads, and they are backing action. However, as they are in the opposition in both councils, there is little that they can do without evidence and an expression of popular feeling.

The Crawley Pothole Club has been formed as a way to highlight the problem, and to allow local residents to have their say. We invite comments on the site and to our email address (see the link to the left).