The district councillor said: "These are not potholes, they are major problems with the roads. We are dealing with the whole road system breaking up."

Mr Bates hit out as West Sussex County Council continued to battle to repair the roads after the winter snowfalls, freezing temperatures and heavy rain.

Middy reader Mark Butler from Cuckfield sent in a picture of his bike in a pothole in Backwoods Lane, Lindfield.

He said: "Only three months before 27,000 cyclists pass through on the London to Brighton BHF ride. West Sussex welcomes you – or should that be the Princess Royal!"

Mr Bates said: "If you took a bike over some of the potholes in our roads you would be killed. Many of them are not being marked and there are no warning signs."

Mr Bates said the county should not rely on the public to report potholes, which indicated a rate of about four per mile of the county's roads.

He said: "We need a major input of finance and dedicated maintenance and if they need more money to cope with the potholes they should go to the Government and ask for it."

County council leader Henry Smith has written to transport secretary Geoff Hoon pleading urgently for more money for highway maintenance.

Read the full story in the Mid Sussex Times

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